[Milsurplus] Fwd: Re: What is it?

[Bruce Gentry]

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [Milsurplus] What is it?
Date: 	Sun, 26 Jun 2016 19:31:59 -0400
From: 	Bruce Gentry <ka2ivy at verizon.net>
To: 	Mike Morrow <kk5f at arrl.net>



I am  relating what I was told by aircraft radio techies at Keesler
AFB.  The automatic ID was supposedly used for only a short time, to
identify airplanes being flown improperly or using bad radio procedures.
It was likely on trainers only. I don't have any idea what the number
was on the keyer unit, the one in the repeater had a number plate but it
was in a  hard to see place and I don't recall what it was. The keying
disk was hand made, so it might  have been one of the SOS keyers you
mentioned.

       Bruce Gentry, KA2IVY

On 6/26/16 6:21 PM, Mike Morrow wrote:
> Bruce Gentry wrote:
>
>> The US Air Force once used morse code identifiers on aircraft radios
>> that transmitted the aircraft's number in code every time the
>> transmitter was keyed. The ID was MCW at a level that did not
>> interfere much with the voice transmission.
> Do you know the JAN nomenclature for that unit? I have the manuals for all the commonly used USAF gear through the mid-1960s...AN/ARC-8, AN/ARC-21, AN/ARC-58, AN/ARC-59, AN/ARC-65, AN/ARC-94, AN/ARC-102, 618S-1, etc., plus some of the USAF "Dash-1" aircraft pilot manuals.  I have not read mention of the system you describe.
>
> The closest device that I can think of is the AN/ARA-26 (KY-65/ARA-26, C-790/ARA-26) emergency keyer that could be turned on to send in Morse SOS (which the KY-65 improperly sends as ... --- ... instead of the correct ...---...) along with an aircraft ID that was pre-set by breaking fingers on a plastic code disk.  The AN/ARA-26 was used with the AN/ARC-21, -58, -65, and likely other USAF HF sets.
>
> I would think that it to be very very imprudent from a tactical or strategic standpoint to make transmissions that could be easily identified by an adversary as coming from a specific aircraft with every transmission made.  The USN would never do such a thing! :-)
>
> Mike / KK5F
>



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