[Milsurplus] ARC-2 Owners?

[Jack Antonio]

My RT-91/ARC-2 came from one of our list members out in
Arizona.  It had baked in the sun, and has a totally bare
front panel.  Also the exposed area of the dial has
been permanently darkened.

But it worked.  At the time I did not have a suitable 28V
supply, so made up an AC supply for the two B+ voltages. Used
brass tubing to slip over the chassis pins, and ran the cable
out one of the vent holes in rear of the chassis. Also used
brass tubing to make connections to the rear panel. Other
than the AC aupply, the radio was and is stock.  I later
obtained a husky 28V supply, and replaced the dynamotor.

It did work, but it had a problem.  The set heard OK, but
the gain control had to be at maximum.  The problem turned
out to be in the bandswitch mechanism.  The details are a little
hazy now, but the shaft of each switch section is a part of the
circuit, and makes contact with a small cup at the end of the shaft.
One of the cups had lost its tension, and was not making contact.
However, I'm going to have to dig into the radio to refresh my
memory on what I did to repair it.  As I recall, it took some
dis assembly , but it wasn't too bad.

It has been mentioned that the radio has a variable IF. It
should be noted that the IF frequency tracks and is equal to
the VFO frequency, and that in CW, the VFO also acts as the BFO.
As you can imagine, the filtering and shielding to make this work
is pretty elaborate.

Also, one other tip, if you get a radio before the manual, and
want to open it up, is that you have to remove the vent screens
on the rear panel in order to get the radio out of the case.

Jack Antonio WA7DIA/4