[Milsurplus] This has to be a first - TCZ

[Mike Hanz]

On 5/29/2012 8:44 PM, Todd, KA1KAQ wrote:
> Walked in to the room where a number of manuals reside since being unboxed
> to have a look. Saw the green 3-ring binder marked ART-13, figured that was
> a good place to start.
> Incredible. Not sure if this means I'm actually getting more organized or
> should go buy a lottery ticket!

Definitely a lottery ticket premonition! :-)

> A better look at the same photo shown on Nicks page along with finding the
> name Lord Manufacturing, Erie PA in the parts suppliers list seems to solve
> the shock mount question. It would appear that the power unit/base sits on
> four large 'chairs' (Mike Hanz can explain this term better) likely hooked
> to Lord mounts underneath.

That would make a lot of sense, but I'm left with a feeling of deja vu 
all over again, as Yogi Berra beautifully put it.  The "chairs" look 
exactly like the ones on the GE RAX-1 receivers, only larger.  The 
difference is that the chair fitted into a shock unit on the RAX rack.  
If you look at the chairs in profile, they resemble a "top hat" shape.  
They were never meant to interface with a shock unit directly, and in 
the aircraft case, it was a function of the aircraft designer to provide 
drawings for the avionics installation for a specific aircraft type.  
The photographs I've seen of early ATC installations show the ATC rails 
mounted on aluminum U-shaped rails at right angles to the transmitter 
longitudinal axis, and never mind any shock mounts.  These days we talk 
a lot about risk management in terms of balancing what-ifs versus cost, 
and I suspect there was a little bit of that involved in the decisions 
of the time.  Obviously some bean counters were following maintenance 
rates for the ATC, or the later shock mount would never have been designed.

73,
Mike