[Milsurplus] AN/ARC-8 questions

[John Vendely]

Hi Ray,

The ARC-21 was a frequency synthesized, plate modulated AM set manufactured 
by RCA for the Air Force, with the RT housed in a large, pressurized, 
cylindrical drum.  It was highly sophisticated for its time.  The ARC-21 was 
later modified for SSB under the nomenclature AN/ARC-65, and was a 
contemporary of the ARC-58, developed by Collins.  There's an interesting 
article in the December, 1956 IRE journal, describing the conversion from 
ARC-21 to ARC-65.  I haven't seen either of these sets on the surplus market 
in years, and it would be great if someone was in a position to restore one 
and get it on the air...

73,

John K9WT


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ray Fantini" <rafantini at salisbury.edu>
To: <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>; <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 12:47 PM
Subject: [Milsurplus] AN/ARC-8 questions


> 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
>
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