[Milsurplus] ARB

[MillerKE6F at aol.com]

Once again, the point of my commentary is lost on the folks who see  
adapting or converting or making something easier to use or more useful to one's  
needs as a "perversion." 
 
>From my view of the ARB, having owned a few over the past 50+years of  
hamming,  were and remain  a hodgepodge design with little to  recommend them 
either to the military or to the ham.  That the ham who  transplanted to parts 
into a usable package says much about the tenacity of the  person who took 
on the task.  And in the decade following the war the  essence of ham radio 
on a budget was to make the best of a decades old design  that had and still 
has little appeal to the end user unless that person is  restoring an old 
war bird and wanted original equipment.
 
    The ARB is not a very usable package from a ham  standpoint. The tiny 
and almost unreadable dial and lack of band  spread alone was a distinct 
disadvantage form a ham radio viewpoint.  The  radio's stability was less than 
enchanting as was its selectivity.  The  motor drive was cute, but non 
essential from a ham radio standpoint.  And  like most radio junk that came out of 
WWII, the form factor was another problem  for a lot of folks who preferred 
more desk top functionality.  
 
    As I've said a few times before, the real history  of much of this junk 
is how hams and experimenters made use of  war  materiel and if not for the 
hams and experiments rat packing this stuff into  attics and garages, there 
would be little if any of this stuff around to argue  about.  
 
    Bob, KE6F