[Milsurplus] ARC-5 Receiver and other tube questions

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <mstangelo at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] ARC-5 Receiver and other tube questions


> Wasn't the ARC-5/BC-45x series of HF Command Sets made obsolete by the
> British/TR-1143 design SCR-522 crystal controlled channelized VHF Command
> Sets?

I'm sorry if I sound strident; I don't mean to, but no.
This is a common myth that * just * won't * die. *
VHF and HF were concurrent-use systems
throughout the war and long afterwards.
You'd have been unable to use the majority
of airfields all over the world if you skipped HF.
Many of our Allies in the Third World, who contributed
as they were able just like the big boys, were still working under
the late 1920s naval agreements and had aircraft and ships
on LF and HF.  We had to coordinate with them in
anti-sub and convoy operations, and even Uncle
couldn't outfit the whole world with John Bull's
gee-whizzy VHF sets (well, maybe after about June of 1945,
they'd have come close ;-).
VHF was certainly a revolution in Command communication
and the SCR-522 was arguably the most important
Command radio innovation of the war,
but it did not universally "replace" HF in that role
until long after the war was over.

The only places that were majority VHF
during 4/5ths of WWII were the north-eastern seaboard of the U.S.,
most of the U.K and whatever part of Europe
happened to be behind ETO Allied lines at any given time.
If you were flying anywhere outside that small area, you
better not get lost, because you would not get any help
over a VHF radio.  Even during the first months of the
occupation of Germany, if you wanted to fly into
Gatow, you needed HF to talk to the tower.
And if you had to ditch in the Atlantic, you'd better have HF,
because the rescue ships were on 4 MC.
There was a whole big world besides the ETO
that was also at war (my father-in-law was fighting
insurgents in the Carribean, a forgotten chapter),
and most of that traffic was on HF.
General Patton's personal observation aircraft, an L-5,
was outfitted with light RCA HF radios.
We have original flight radio logs.
We have after-action reports.
We have the sectionals showing the freqs in use.
We have training manuals.  We have photos.
Millions of dollars worth of new contracts
for HF Command radios were let right up
to the last year of the war.
The evidence against "VHF Only" is absolutely conclusive.

I've documented all this before,
with multiple quoted source documents, yet this pernicious
"VHF Replaced HF" myth continues to rise, zombie-like,
no matter how many stakes we put in its black little heart.

73 Dave S.