The entire production set and peripherals
The Transmitters
The Receivers
VHF Prototype
The predecessor - the Type K set
The first "real" contract - the RAT
Boxing Day
Receiver Local Control Adapters
Metrics
First of the production Aircraft Radio Corporation 'Command Sets' - the 1939 Navy RAT (13.5 - 27MHz)
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The Classics B-29 Corner (and then some) B-17 Corner Navy Day The Navigators Navigation Receivers from the Era Sweetheart Deal - Bendix and the Navy TAs and RAs The British Connection VHF Corner The move to higher frequencies The Triplets The RAX-1 Peripherals Miscellaneous add-ons |
This section takes you to the ARC-5 bay in the flight deck, along with rare command sets elsewhere on the deck.
The Classics
WWII surplus shaped the amateur community in many ways. For those who could not afford the new postwar equipment, radios and transmitters from the larger bombers were a ready substitute. Some of the transmitters weren't so great with the home power supplies of the era, prompting undeserved reputations for instability. Others, like the Navy GO and GP transmitters, took a lot of work to get running unless you found one of the original inverters for 800~ power.
The Navigators
I never intended to get into this area of the surplus scene, but impending moves for experimental and potential ham band offerings in the MF area made this stub bay seem like a good idea, despite displacing some elbow room coming into the flight deck octagon. Included are several of the common navigation receivers reaching down to 100kHz.
The Sweetheart Deal
Bendix had a longstanding special relationship with the US military, especially the Navy - to the extent that a number of the mainstay WWII communications products were never even nomenclatured with a government ID of any sort. Examples like the TA-2J and TA-12B are shown in this section.
VHF Corner
Spurred by British successes in using VHF, as well as commercial practice in the late 1930s, the Navy and later the AAF launched into a series of sets in the 2 meter range. The Navy's discovery of VHF "ducting" over ocean water prompted a series of developments in the 200-350MHz range to counter this interception threat. Shown in this section is the first production example of this move toward higher and higher frequencies.
The Triplets
Over on the stray dogs and cats bay is a remarkable set of three receivers designed by General Electric in the late 1930s for communications and ELINT work. This section covers that set in more detail.
Trinkets - the peripherals that provide a finishing touch for an aircraft set
Radios, shock mounts, and cables are fine, but what about the other pieces that were normally installed in the vicinity of an aircraft radio? This section focuses on a few of the miscellaneous pieces that can finish off creation of the ambiance of a WWII aircraft.