[Milsurplus] ATB + ARB = ?

[Mike Hanz]

On 10/29/2010 8:29 PM, Hue Miller wrote:
> Mike Hanz's photos show the ARB-ATB in the "classic" command set configuration,
> in fact replacing THE "Command Sets". Other photos of PBY boats show the operator
> desk as having both and ARB and an RU, and the ARB has the local tuning adaptor.
> I don't know how these were used, but i suspect basically the same way, with the
> RU being "well-enough" suited to CW reception to be used solely by the RadioOp
> with the GO for position reports.

That's certainly true for many of the patrol aircraft types, Hue.  My 
sense is that the PBY4-2 photos (dated July 1944) were suggestive of the 
latest stuff available at the time, for a brand new patrol 
aircraft...you'll notice there are a lot of cables that are a bit 
tentative in their fabrication.  With that particular airframe the Navy 
didn't seem to have been encumbered with past installation tradition, so 
there isn't any RU/GF/GO/GP equipment that weighted down much of the 
older patrol aircraft inventory.

> Re Mr. Hanz's photo- here is something i wonder: what if you flew to an island
> with a different HF tower voice frequency. What was the procedure for having
> the ARB+ATB retuned to that frequency? I do NOT think this was an impossible
> situation, judging from the Pacific area facilities books i have looked at.

Mr. Hanz being my father, I'll answer for him (may he rest in peace) but 
I think (continuing the honorific) Mr. Morrow answered that question 
superbly.  I often tease Mr. Stinson about the role of VHF in the 
various theaters in WWII, but nothing is binary in nature, nor in world 
conflict, and he has reflected that reality many times.  Truth is, the 
role of VHF is smeared across the entire six years of the war, counting 
the preamble from September 1939.  They say that all politics is local, 
and when it comes to the role of VHF, that is true in spades, to use a 
WWII term.

Back to preparing stuff for "Trunk of Treat"- an alternative at our 
local church for the Halloween door to door tradition....

73,
  - Mike  KC4TOS