[Milsurplus] Re: HF/VHF Again

[Mike Hanz]

>>But, to muddy the water even more, when did the ARC-12 make its
>>appearance and where?
>>
>That early JAN "RT-58" nomenclature would almost
>seem to indicate that the AN/ARC-12 was on the design drawing boards by
>the end of WWII! 
>

Bell Labs claims to have developed the AN/ARC-12 in their *A History of 
Engineering and Science in the Bell System*.  No date is attached, but 
it's in the section on WWII set development, including the AN/ARC-18 VHF 
relay system using two AN/ARC-1's - and a slightly wider frequency range 
UHF set in a pressurized container labeled the AN-ARC-19 (that looks 
suspiciously like the predecessor to the famed AN/ARC-27...whose 
nomenclature was also issued prior to the end of WWII.)  They say that 
1,100 AN/ARC-12s were produced by Western Electric, but the text doesn't 
specify by what date.

My AN 16-30ARC12-3 is marked "Approved 1 Sept 1947" with no revisions, 
but that doesn't preclude a preliminary manual commonly used to get 
something out the door and into the fleet.  It shows the WECo contract 
numbers for the set as NOa(S)-8930 and NOa(S)-8934, which could probably 
be tracked to another document I can't find at the moment.  Anyone have 
a Navy Contract list?  Just interpolating the dates with NOa(S) numbers 
suggests the end of the war arrived coincident with contract numbers in 
the lower 7,000 range.

73,
Mike