[Milsurplus] 1950's Navy airborne HF question

[Michael Bittner]

Mike, thanks for your added information, especially those tower frequencies. 
At the time,Whiting field was for basic training only (from learning to fly 
through basic aerobatics) so there was no need for radio navigation or 
communication with other towers or other aircraft.  We dumb s--t cadets were 
not supposed to mess with the radios.  Later at Saufley Field we had 
6-channel VHF radios with push-button channel selection.  Tunable beacon 
band reception and tracking of A/N radio ranges came even later during 
instrument training at Corry Field.  73, Mike, W6MAB


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Morrow" <kk5f at earthlink.net>
To: <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 3:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] 1950's Navy airborne HF question


> Michael wrote:
>
>>When I went through flight training at Whiting Field (part of the 
>>Pensacola
>>based Naval Air Training Command) in 1955, our SNJs were equipped with
>>ARC-5s.  You transmitted to the tower on the MHF transmitter and received
>>them on the LF receiver.
>
> I've got a picture of a similar AN/ARC-5 installation in USN training 
> aircraft
> some years after WWII.  It consisted of the
>
> R-23/ARC-5 (.19 to .55 MC)
> R-26/ARC-5 (3.0 to 6.0 MC)
> T-19/ARC-5 (3.0 to 4.0 MC),
>
> plus the racks, MD-7/ARC-5, etc.
>
>>Tuning was set by the techs and there were no tuning controls in the 
>>cockpit.
>
> The installation I describe allowed remote tuning of the R-23 and R-26, 
> each
> with a C-125/ARC-5 control panel.  It would seem odd to not allow pilot 
> remote
> tuning of the R-23 LF/MF beacon band receiver.  In that era, the single 
> most
> important radio on board was the tunable beacon band receiver for 
> reception of
> tower transmissions, and for reception in flight of the directional Adcock 
> A-N
> LF/MF beacons that were the backbone of air navigation in the pre-VOR era.
>
>>The only control was the transmit/intercom switch.
>
> Plus the PTT switch, of course.  The same was true of the installation I 
> cite,
> for the transmitter.  In a single-transmitter AN/ARC-5 installation, the
> transmitter control box (like a C-30A/ARC-5) would be superfluous.
>
>>Can't remember the exact frequencies, but I beleive they were common to 
>>all
>>towers at that time.
>
> That would be 278 KC on the R-23, and 3105 KC on the T-19.  (A few towers 
> were
> on frequencies other than 278 KC for ground-to-air, but 3105 KC was pretty
> universal for air-to-ground until traffic was shifted to 3023.5 KC in the
> mid-1950s.)  The R-26 HF receiver would have been tuned to 3105 (or 
> 3023.5) KC
> for air-to-air communication.
>
> Mike / KK5F
> ______________________________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html