[Milsurplus] ARC-5 Conversion

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 2:34 PM, Mike Hanz <AAF-Radio-1 at aafradio.org> wrote:
> I have a couple of NIB ARC-5 racks you can have, Breck - a triple
>  receiver and a double transmitter rack.  If you hacksaw them apart you
>  can bolt one section from each together and have a nice basis for an SSB
>  transceiver - there's a good article on that in QST somewhere, IIRC.
>  Basically you use the transmitter for a receiver and the receiver for a
>  transmitter but of course there is a lot of fun modification you have to
>  do to get them working like that...  I think that approach would be
>  neater than just a Q-5er.

Mike makes some very good points here, and reminds me of the dilemma I
had several years back concerning transmitter racks. I wanted to set
up two separate stations but only had one of those funny racks made
for four transmitters I guess? A bit of hacksawing, a half sheet of
printer's tin, and half can of black wrinkle paint later, I had two
racks! Sure, it took a little creativity when it came to the
connectors and relays, but I was able to scavenge most of what I
needed put of some single racks not in use.

The matching shock mount required a bit more thought since it needed
to have additional braces fabricated. Plywood is your friend. :D

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ