[Milsurplus] "Oldtimer bitching"? ARC5 list

[Ray Fantini]

It's all true! not having been on the list I know nothing about what's going on over there. Pure speculation on my part.  Maybe it has something to do with my interest being in the more modern radios that came after or perhaps it's just the quirk in my nature that makes me want to "Poke the Bear" but I do like to get a discussion going.

Ray F/KA3EKH



-----Original Message-----
From: Milsurplus [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mike Morrow
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 2:54 PM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] "Oldtimer bitching"? ARC5 list

Ray wrote:
 
> I am not now nor have I ever been on the ARC-5 list thinking the 
> people over there obsess over just one small family of radios...

It is unwise for to describe something about which he knows little.  In this case...that would be the ARC5 list.

The ARC5 list would more accurately be described as the MILITARY AIRCRAFT RADIO list.  Anything associated with command and liaison aircraft radio has been the principal topic pf discussion there since the list's creation a couple of decades ago.  Discussion of A.R.C. Type K derived sets occurs in a minority of discussion threads.  Unfortunately, there seems to be more interest in and discussion about getting some piece of ham-hacked junk on the air, than there is interest in the historical development, military use, and technical detail of the various military aircraft sets.  But every once in a while, some good historical and technical info comes out of a discussion...more often than that happens on the MILSURPLUS list.

> ...and indeed maybe for them the end is near!

Something of a non sequitur, I think.

> That family of radios went obsolete like seventy years ago and was 
> only in production for ten years at best?

And just how long was the AN/GRC-19 and AN/GRC-106* and AN/GRC-165 and similar in production...all a mere half-century ago?  How do the numbers of sets made compare?  Post-WWII ground, vehicular, and mobile radio sets all put together would not compare favorably in numbers to WWII production of "command sets".  These more-recent sets are now only slightly less obsolete than the earlier!

> Not disrespecting that family of radios...

But, perhaps, those interested in them?

> ...but beyond a point there is only so much there is to see and know 
> about it.

The only way there can be any truth to that is if one limits interest to hardware only and who discounts the value of historical and technical knowledge.

The most elusive and and most important info is not, say, how a transmitter PA is matched to 50 ohm feed line or how a receiver's selectivity or AGC can be improved.  Anyone 500 years from now will be able to figure that stuff out.  What gets lost permanently and irretrievably and very quickly as time escapes is the history behind the technical development and military use of these sets.  That is the area in which hams, even many on military radio lists, have **generally** been both ignorant and very uninterested...when compared to interest in, say, what can substitute for a 991.  Let me assure you that there is much much much more to research, and publish...to know...about the history and use of military aircraft radio sets.  Only the surface has been scratched.

> But that’s just my opinion and everybody knows what opinions are like!

Opinions are like noses...everyone has one and they all smell.  :-)

Mike / KK5F

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