[Milsurplus] Collins Book

[John Vendely]

There are probably a few ARC-27s still flying in warbirds.  I repaired 
one (and an ARN-21C TACAN) a few years back for a guy who wanted to run 
them in his T-28.  Back in the mid 1980s, I was heavily involved with 
the Indiana Museum of Military History in the recovery of a Lockheed 
P2V-7 (BuNo 148358, civil registration N14835) from AMARC at 
Davis-Monthan AFB in December 1984.  I took care of all the electrical 
systems and avionics on it.  We restored the aircraft to original 
condition with all ASW and other avionics, and flew it regularly on the 
airshow circuit for a number of years.  Among the avionics I overhauled 
for the project were the ARC-27, ARN-21, ARR-41,ARC-38A, ARC-94, ARC-84, 
two ARN-6s (with the electronic tuning servos),  APN-22 radar altimeter, 
ARN-14 VOR, APX-72 transponder, and AIC-15 interphone system.   We even 
had a functioning APN-70 LORAN, and though it could not navigate with 
the 100 kHz  LORAN-C signal, it could receive it, the scope could 
display it, and we sometimes had it going while conducting tours through 
the aircraft at shows.  This vintage gear was readily available in large 
quantities at the time, and I managed to assemble a complete lab 
equipped with much of the specialized test sets for maintaining this 
gear.  We used no commercial avionics whatsoever on the plane, a rarity 
even in thoze daze.

Many aircraft of this era were being sold out of AMARC at that time for 
scrapping by the local operators, and there were huge piles of all the 
aforementioned gear sitting around the scrapyards.  The Navy allowed us 
to pillage anything we wanted from the 80 or so P2Vs remaining at AMARC, 
and in addition to spare engines, hydraulics, instruments, control 
surfaces, and numerous other sundry parts, we shipped home a huge haul 
of avionics and ASW gear to support the program.  The stuff was 
literally all over the place.  On one Tucson trip, we found an ARC-38A 
and an ARC-27 lying in the dirt along side the road!  We retrieved them, 
checked them in with the luggage on the airline trip home, and I used 
them both for some time as parts pigs.

Believe it or not, the only functioning radio we had for the ferry 
flight from Tucson to Indianapolis was an ARC-27, and we talked our way 
clear across the U.S. on that thing, navigating with only the wet 
compass.  At the time, 319.8 Mc was used as the civil tower frequency, 
and FAA flight service was on 257.8, if I recall correctly.  No one 
questioned our use of UHF.  We flew in many U.S. Navy airshows during 
the 1987 "75th Anniversary of Naval Aviation" celebrations, and had a 
facilities license for the purpose, which allowed us to operate on UHF.  
We used the ARC-27 exclusively for communicating with the Naval air 
stations we flew into, and I had three overhauled units on the shelf 
available for use at the time.  The ARC-27 required periodic 
maintenance, but it was a great radio, and a magnificent design 
accomplishment in its day--a complete break with the technological past.

  While at an airshow at Navy New Orleans , I was amazed to discover an 
ARC-27, ARN-21, and ARN-6 installed in an older C-130 there.  So I can 
testify to the fact that the Navy was indeed still flying some of the 
old gear at least as late as 1987.  I would certainly agree that the 
ARC-27 was the most important command set of all time, in that it 
represented the beginning of a new era in aircraft radio communications, 
was a landmark design, and was produced in enormous quantity, and used 
continuously for well over 35 years.  Probably no other single military 
aircraft radio set was as significant.

BTW, I had great fun operating the ARC-38A, occasionally running phone 
patches through stations of the maritime mobile net  on 20 meters while 
in en route to air shows...

73,

John K9WT

On 11/27/2011 1:21 AM, Mike Morrow wrote:
>> 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
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>