[Milsurplus] ARB

[Hue Miller]

IIRC, the ARB was repaneled and sold as the "GL Mariner". The BC-375 was 
changed into a marine band transmitter,
altho incredible as it seems, I seem to remember that it was rebuilt into a 
whole trans-receiver, as unlikely as that may
seem. I'm pretty sure they didn't retain the 211 tubes, tho!
These sets clearly are not "perversions" of any sort. More like a new life 
form evolving from another to fill an environmental
niche.
I have 3 sets from "PAR", which was "Pan American Radio" from Seattle, 
around 1951-1953, which heavily use surplus
command set and BC-375 parts. They even used the Command Sets modulator for 
the dynamotor base, in the case of
one set. I rather like these radios. -Hue

From: MillerKE6F at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 6:23 PM
To: kargo_cult at msn.com ; milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] ARB


>From a purely nostalgic viewpoint I recall crawling around in the bilges of 
small fishing boats in my home town, Eureka CA in the early 60s  to clean 
the rotary inverters used to power the WWII loran sets.  Remarkable 
machinery for its day  (the APN unit not the inverter).  And this was one of 
the examples of a war surplus thing being used in a post WWII commercial 
operation.  Even today the smell of a slightly aged fish brings back those 
memories.

What was more impressive with this gear was the old sea faring geezers using 
it.  Quite a sight to watch them crank the knobs and peer down the screen 
shroud and shuffling the carts around to get a fix.  Not shabby at all.  And 
of course there were the TSC sets set up on marine frequencies which were 
quite an improvement over some of the archaic stuff that preceded the TCS. 
Some of the gear on these old boats were hay wired on plywood boards such as 
the Auto Pilots.

    I never saw a BC 375 pressed into marine service, but those too were 
probably pressed into this service.  I did see a number of the old 
Hallicrafters boxes on boats though and I believe they were used for quite 
some time prior to enforced type-acceptance ruled the waves.  The 375, 
despite its archaic design and rumored terrible performance was a feast for 
the eyes of any radio aficionado

    A relative who did a lot of marine radio service in South America noted 
that he'd seen an ARC-2 unit still in use by some Banana Republic airline as 
late as the 1980s.  Now that longevity.  BTW I think the ARC-2 is perhaps 
the best looking rig to grace the surplus market bar none.  I still keep 
mine operational and use it from time to time to keep the dynamotor happy. 
The receiver is a broad as the proverbial barn door, but the design was 
certainly clever.  And love that autotune!!  Can anyone tell me when this 
unit was first fielded?


bob, KE6F