[Milsurplus] AN/ARC-8 questions

[Ray Fantini]

Its great having a couple days off to get caught up on some reading. One
book I just finished is Jenkins “Magnesium Overcast” the story of the
Convair B-36 and a couple questions came up. First with the B-36B being
delivered in the late forties and subsequent series thru to the B-36F /H
produced in the early to mid fifties they were all equipped with
AN/ARC-8 liaison radio systems (BC-348/ART-13). The government provided
the radios to Convair for integration during final assembly but where
did they come from? Cannot imagine old radio equipment pulled from
obsolete aircraft would be reused in a new aircraft or where their large
stocks of new old stock radios that the government used for post war
aircraft? Or were their any BC-348Q or ART-13 transmitters built after
1946? There are several pictures of the radio operator’s station and all
the BC-348 receivers are clearly J, N or Q series but still have the US
Army Signal Corps data plates. Where did they all come from? Second
question the last of the series delivered in 53/54 (B-36J) replaced the
AN/ARC-8 with a AN/ARC-21 HF Command radio, think they were also used on
B-47 and some early B-52 aircraft, I have tried to find any information
on the AN/ARC-21 but nothing turns up. I have a huge investment in
AN/ARC-38 and 38A technology with several radios in various stages but
have no knowledge of the AN/ARC-21 sound like its large, complex and
heavy. Can anyone point me in a direction to finding documentation,
pictures or the radio itself? Just about every mil radio collector and
their brother have an AN/ARC-8 set up but someone has to save the “cold
war “stuff.
Ray Fantini KA3EKH