[Milsurplus] PBY Radios

[Mike Morrow]

John wrote:

>In regard to my term "upgrades" in discussing the subject installations,
>we have for example, in our PB2Y-5R Coronado two ATC transmitters and
>two BC-348 receivers which directly replaced a GO-9 and two GF/RU sets.

I'm getting a little confused.  Are you saying that your museum has *both*
a two-engine PBY Catalina (hence the subject line) that has one "ATC with
BC-348" installation, *AND* a much larger four-engine PB2Y that has two
"ATC with BC-348" installations?  That would be very interesting.

I would normally believe BC-348 use in USN aircraft to have occurred when the
USAAF placed a USN aircraft into service (such as when the USAAF took over
some PBY-5 and -6 aircraft as OA-10s) and replaced the USN radio gear, or
when the USN took over a USAAF aircraft (such as B-24Ds that became some
of the early PB4Ys) and did not replace the USAAF gear.  To my knowledge, the
USAAF never adopted any version of the PB2Y.  I would be surprised to see a
USAAF AN/ARC-8 (BC-348 and T-47A/ART-13) installation in one.

This would suggest that sometimes the USN purposefully used the USAAF BC-348
in USN-designed aircraft, even though USN receivers existed which would normally
have been expected to accompany the ATC.  In this case that BC-348 would not be
a legacy of earlier USAAF ownership, but a component selected by the USN for
some USN aircraft.  Interesting...I've not heard of such installations before.
It would seem to complicate logistics and personnel training.

>An ARB was retained for use with a ZB-3.  

An AN/ARR-2 would have been much smaller, lighter, and higher performance.

>Two BC-433-G radio compass receivers were also installed probably at the same
>time.  Note that these receivers were US Army Signal Corps supplied.

An excellent choice...the USAAF SCR-269 ADF in USN service was common and well
documented.

>...at the pilot's station there was an SCR-522 control box but no other
>equipment for this installation was on board.

There is good documentation of USN use of the USAAF SCR-522-A, as well as the
excellent broad-band USAAF A-104 VHF mast antenna (better than the USN AT-8/AR
rod antenna for bandwidth).

What command set was on board?  Was there an ILS on board?

>Here are some strange items on this aircraft:  One T47/ART-13 is a modified ATC
>while the other transmitter was built as a T47/ART-13.

Nothing too strange there.  I know of no technical differences between most ATC or
ATC-1 and the T-47/ART-13 (but not T-47A) components except nomenclature, sometimes
just painted over the old ATC tags.  That pretty much applies to all the other ATC
and AN/ART-13 components used on USN aircraft, unless the obsolete MT-161/ART-13
rail mounts were still present on the transmitters (usually replaced by the improved
MT-283 and MT-284/ART-13 mount).

Mike / KK5F