[Milsurplus] Collins Book

[Mike Morrow]

Hue wrote:

> The book says that at Pearl Harbor date, USN planes equipped with 4-channel
> radios which it suggests, were difficult to change freqs on. That would have 
> to >be the ATD. However I don't think the ATD was actually issued to any degree.

That story, for what little I know, appears to be a fabrication.  The only
four-channel radio that the USN *might* have been using somewhere in December 1941
is the VHF-AM WE 233 (later aka AN/ARC-4).  But I assume the book is addressing
liaison transmitters like their ATC.  The ATC and the ATD have identical original
contract dates.  The ATC did not replace the ATD...it was Bendix's unfortunate
contemporary competitor to the ATC, not its antecedent.  Aside from that, I doubt
there was an ATD in existence in 1941, much less any in deployed USN service. 

> Also interesting stats on ARC-27 ... Of the ~40,000 ARC-27 produced,
> I wonder if a single one is still operative?

I've got two AN/ARC-27 and two AN/ARC-55 (un-pressurized version) sets that
work.  The AN/ARC-55 is more fun because the top and bottom covers can be
removed easily to watch the auto-tune and see the filaments glow.

I'd bet that almost all AN/ARC-27/55 sets were retired worldwide by the late
1970s, but there were many of them still in military service in the early 1970s.

The AN/ARC-27/55 gets my vote for the most significant, most important, and
most technologically innovative command set of all time, even in comparison
to the A.R.C. MF/HF command sets that we all love.  It's absolutely amazing
technology for a design that's more than 60 years old, and that enjoyed a
25-year service life.

Mike / KK5F