[Milsurplus] This has to be a first - TCZ

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

OK.  However, it's not exactly correct or maybe it's better to say it would 
be misleading to say that AN/ART-13 replaced BC-375   That might lead new 
people just getting started to think that AN/ART-13's were installed in 
significant numbers in existing aircraft, replacing BC-375's previously 
installed.  The 8th AF flew BC-375's through the end of the War.  ATC's and then 
AN/ART-13's were installed in newer Navy aircraft instead of GP's and GO's.  But 
even there, it doesn't appear that any significant number of older aircraft 
had them retrofitted.  In the AAF, the new transmitters were mostly used in 
the new B-29 in the Pacific.  And the actual model used would have at least 
mostly been AN/ART-13A.  There were certainly exceptions  to these blanket 
statements, just as always (never say never).  But my reading over the 
decades says that's how the "big picture" looked.

There are several (Navy) examples other than ATC and TCZ where a component 
of one set differed from the equivalent component of another set only in the 
nameplate.  ARA, RAT, RAT-1, RAV, AN/ARR-2 and AN/ARC-5 have numerous 
examples.  

In a message dated 05/30/2012 10:25:01 AM Central Daylight Time, 
ka1kaq at gmail.com writes: 
> On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 11:39 PM, <WA5CAB at cs.com> wrote:
> >> Todd,
>> 
>> Short answer is "yes".  By about a year.  As I said earlier, AN/ART-13 
>> was created by simply changing the nameplates on the various ATC conponents. 
>>  Cxx-52296-A became T-47/ART-13, etc.  I thought that everyone knew that.
>  
> I misread, thought you meant that TCZ was re-tagged as ATC or vice versa. 
> Looks like it was Mike M who mentioned this.
> 
> Having been exposed initially to only the ART-13 versions (probably 
> through its larger numbers) and their replacing the BC-375 later in the war, I'd 
> always thought the radio proper was a later arrival. Hence the surprise 
> that it was already being used in the first few months of the war. I've know 
> for sometime that the Navy also employed this transmitter, and also that 
> they often tended to be the first to try new items due to available funding. 
> Seeing this preliminary manual certainly added more texture to the overall 
> feel. 
> 
> That's how the fun remains even after you procure the toys. The history 
> tends to follow afterward, at least in my case. No doubt related to my later 
> arrival on the scene which missed the initial surplus wave, but positioned 
> me to find literally tons of 'boatanchors' when everyone else seemed to 
> want the latest/greatest imported radio. My first ART-13 was free for carrying 
> it off back in the late 80s.
> 
> 
> 
> Seems there's always something new to learn, regardless of how much we 
> already know.
> 
> ~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4

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