[Milsurplus] BC-348 coaxial input?

[Mike Morrow]

Michael wrote of the coax-fed BC-348:

>This certainly beats one thought that wandered through my head, that being
>that it was occasionally used with the AN/ARC-38 (just plain, not the -A
>version) in place of the R-648/ARR-41 when the latter wasn't available for
>whatever reason.

I suspect that some of those AN/MRC-?? mobile installations that had an AN/ARC-8
as part, along with other dyno-powered sets, sometimes utilized coax cable
to reduce local noise pick-up.  IIRC, the R-589/MRC-20 receiver (modified BC-348)
has coax feed.  It's likely that the USN used a few of these USAF set-ups
somewhere sometime.

But IMHO, one of the myths that needs to be discredited is that which claims use
of the AN/ARR-41 in place of the AN/ARR-11 (BC-348), or vice versa.  If any
substitution was ever necessary (and I'm doubtful of that) in a USN installation,
the USN AN/ARR-15 would be far more likely than a USAF BC-348.

There are websites (and an article in ER) that have claimed that the AN/ARR-41
was the replacement for the BC-348.  I guess all that was required as proof is
that they are similar in shape.  But otherwise total nonsense!  I believe that
postulating the use of the BC-348 in place of the AN/ARR-41 is also similar.

The AN/ARR-41 is the aux receiver for the AN/ARC-38, with identical MF/HF
coverage and modes as the RT-311/ARC-38.  Unlike the RT-311 and its code
wheels and drum pins and frequency code book required to set frequency at
0.5 or 1.0 kHz intervals, the AN/ARR-41 is continuous-tuned with direct
frequency readout, and also provides beacon-band coverage.  The AN/ARR-41
is so closely associated with the AN/ARC-38 that anyone re-creating one
should include the other.  The AN/ARR-41 remained in service with the USB
AN/ARC-38A, even though it received no USB upgrade.  The other key quality
is that it is essentially a US Navy set only.  The USAF had equivalents:

                              U.S. Navy                   U.S. Air Force
MF/HF Transceiver          RT-311/ARC-38  Collins       RT-128A/ARC-21 RCA  
MF/HF Aux Receiver         R-648/ARR-41   Collins       R-224/ARR-36   RCA
USB-Upgrade Transceiver    RT-594/ARC-38A Collins/RCA   RT-400/ARC-65  RCA

The AN/ARR-36 suffered from being large (65 lb) and tunable only in discrete
channels whose frequency was set beforehand on a memory drum.  That's because
it is remote-tuned only, using a control box identical to that used by the
AN/ARC-21.

It seems to me inconceivable that a R-648 was ever substituted in an AN/ARC-8,
or a BC-348 substituted in a AN/ARC-38, in military service.  The evidence is
that the only USAF aircraft that had an AN/ARR-41 were those that had been
USN aircraft, and the only USN aircraft that had a BC-348 were those that
had been USAAF aircraft (well, maybe a few exceptions to the last).

Mike / KK5F