[Milsurplus] 1950's Navy airborne HF question

[Mike Hanz]

I suppose that's not that surprising, in retrospect.  The Navy training 
aircraft had early 1930's Signal Corps equipment throughout WWII, so 
despite all the grousing by control tower personnel after the war, land 
based training aircraft with "updated" surplus ARC-5 equipment was 
probably a natural result.  In the case of carrier aircraft, there was 
more horsepower behind the switch to VHF.  All it takes is a four star's 
signature. :-)

Mike Morrow wrote:
> 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
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