[Milsurplus] Ranger light aircraft radio

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hue Miller" <kargo_cult at msn.com>
Subject: [Milsurplus] Ranger light aircraft radio note


> Dave, I may well be wrong, but the receiver small knobs look a bit too 
> modern.
> Not the main tune knob. I just saw in a '42 Aviation magazine ad for 
> Ranger,
> a receiver, not your model, with same tune knob but....chicken-head knobs
> for 2 other functions.

Thanks for writing, Hue.
That was probably the model 108 receiver, paired with the model 206 
transmitter.
I have that set built by someone into a small luggage case
and will get it on the bench sometime soon.

I had two of these Ranger model 120 receivers.
Both had the "ART-13-style" Volume On/Off and Function knobs.
While the 209 transmitter is paired with the model 116 receiver
during WWII,  the earliest I can document the Model 120 receiver
used with this transmitter is in an ad in FLYING Magazine,
Feb. 1947, page 13.
Indeed, the 120 uses miniatures like 12BE6,
which first appeared IIRC in 1946. The 120 seems to have been
an "upgrade" from the 1944 model 116 receiver.
The 120 receiver cables to the 209 transmitter pin-for-pin
 and function-for-fuction.
In the ad, the 120 receiver Function and Volume On/Off  knobs
are the same "mushroom" type as the main tuning knob.
But then, there are the two examples I've had.
There were a great many of the "ART-13-style" knobs around
post-war.  It could be that E.S. Co bought a big lot of them
to use in their assemblies.  They certainly look better than the
originals.  But these two could just as well have been coincidence.

Thank you again for your kind offer of knobs, but I'm going
to grasp the thin straw of there being two 120 receivers with
the "ART-13" knobs as grounds to keep them, just because
I like them better.   Hey- at least I admit it ;-)
The pair is doing good service on 3890 KC AM.
Finishing touches, than on to the next project.

73 DE Dave AB5S