[Milsurplus] What was TRC-1 used for?

[C.Whitaker]

de WB2CPN
Al, it all depended on what you could get at the time.
TRC-1's were all there was in Europe in WWII.
We had a school on them at Kaufburen in 1947, so
they were the thing then.  Later, Siemans began to build
a replacement for TRC-1's in Europe.
By Korea time, we never had a whole TRC-1 like in the
book.  We had a few of this, a few of that, and put all
them together.  I never saw TRC-8's until 1951.  One was
at Andrews near Wash, D.C.
We knew the TRC-1 transmitters melted the power
transformer, so we made sure we had some extra
transmitters within reach.  That's one reason AACS had
their own airplane, a C-47.   Good beast for scrounging.
Here is an example of what we used TRC-1's for in Korea.
The Air Traffic Control Center was at Taegu, which is down
in a valley.  To get contact with F-84's and F-86's and whatnot
that was flying up and down between Japan and Targets,
we put the ATC VHF equipment, (BC-640 and BC-639) on
a mountain top some 8 miles away.   TRC-1's and CF-1's
and CF-2's and EE-8's were used to remote control the radios.
All in this Army tent.  I have pictures.  Everyone was expected
to do their own engineering.   The only new thing I saw back
then in Korea was the AN/URD-2 Direction Finder which we
got from the Navy.  Pretty soon every USAF Control Tower
had one.
EOT  (End Of Trivia)
73  Clete
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On 3/26/2012 2:40 PM, Al Klase wrote:
> Clete,
>
> That had to do with the fact that a TRC-1 had 1 TX and 1 RX, i.e. no
> spares.  Some of the other configurations, TRC-3 (?), included redundant
> stuff.  I'm sure we ran TRC-1's 24/7, but if you had a failure you had
> to be prepared for an extended outage.
>
> Al
>
> On 3/26/2012 1:31 PM, C.Whitaker wrote:
>> Interesting, the link says TRC-1 wasn't designed for 24/7 operation.
>> That's news.  What do you think a carrier system does?
>> Tnx Fer Info.
>> 73  Clete
>> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>
>> On 3/25/2012 11:27 AM, Robert Nickels wrote:
>>> On 3/24/2012 6:43 AM, C.Whitaker wrote:
>>>>      used AN/TRC-1 at various places in AACS (USAF) from 1947 to 1964.
>>> Thanks all for the info on the TRC-1. Interesting to learn a bit more
>>> about the official and "unofficial" uses! My theory about why the
>>> antenna has two connections was confirmed at least, I'd never noticed
>>> that until the other day and then it struck me as really unusual.
>>> Evidently it was a pretty tricky setup to get going and was soon
>>> replaced in the field. I looked a bit more diligently and did find this
>>> entry and pic also:
>>>
>>> http://www.nj7p.org/cgi-bin/millist2?mode=normal&name=AN/TRC-1
>>>
>>> Having 8 duplex channels was probably a pretty big deal back in the
>>> Korean war era. Interesting that the first production run was made by
>>> Vulcan Steel Products - not a name that normally comes to mind.
>>> Hallicrafters got the 2nd contract in 1952, but all Dachis' book shows
>>> is the receiver. Looks like this guy has one of the T-14 "receivers" for
>>> sale for $225 for any intrepid FM broadcasters out there (note this
>>> "receiver" is "missing its "PA tunning knob", lol).
>>>
>>> I'm sure a lot of historians will write about how the computer and
>>> microprocessor enabled the enormous technological change we've seen in
>>> our lifetimes, but I think the "Expansion of Bandwidth" may prove to be
>>> the bigger factor in the end. It's pretty amazing to consider what it
>>> would take to duplicate the function provided by the TRC-1 today. As an
>>> example, I ran across mention of the "GEnie" network the other day - the
>>> initial price for connection, at both 300 bits per second and the
>>> then-high-speed 1200 bits per second, was $5–$6 per hour during
>>> "non-prime-time" hours (evenings and weekends) and $36 an hour (to
>>> discourage daytime use). Of course we didn't feel the need to post every
>>> turn of our daily lives via FB and Twitter back then!
>>>
>>> 73, Bob W9RAN
>>>
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>> 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
>>>
>>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> 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
>> -----
>> No virus found in this message.
>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>> Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4895 - Release Date: 03/26/12
>>