From: military-radio-guy Full-Name: Dennis R Starks To: military radio collectors#2 Fcc: Sent Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 03:36:57 Subject: MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, Aug.24/99 Message-ID: <19990824.033604.7127.6.military-radio-guy@juno.com> X-Status: Sent X-Mailer: Juno 1.49 MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, Aug.24/99 Index: ANNOUNCEMENTS; COMMAND SETS, SCR-? ARC-?; By Dave Stinson SPECIAL EVENT REPORT; Huntsville Alabama Salina Ks. St. Charles Mo. MEMBERS WRITE; Watkins-Johnson Sells Out, Hue's Comments, TI & POW Radio, HUMOR; *********************************************** ANNOUNCEMENTS; Still have some headphones left, if you want any let me know. Everybody who has already requested some, should have them on their way now, and have received a message that I had mailed them. Note, I sent some that had been packaged differently than the rest before realizing that their extension cables were packaged separately. These may not have the extension cable with them. If you did not get an extension cable, let me know. Email address changes: Jim Karlow has had speradic email for a couple weeks now. His new eamil address is Jim Wood also has a new address, it's *********************************************** COMMAND SETS, SCR-? ARC-?; By Dave Stinson (Copied to the list for general information. Updated with the latest info as of Aug. `1999. Additions/corrections/arguments welcomed. D.S. ) One of the "good guys" wrote: Dave - You said that the Navy Transmitters were completely different beasts. I assume that means that the power connector on the back of this transmitter isn't the same as the ARC-5's. (tracing of connector pin out snipped). Your transmitter is definitely AN/ARC-5. The Command Sets come in several "flavors," all of which people sometimes incorrectly lump under "ARC-5." The ATA/ARA units and SCR-274N units are nearly electrically identical and will fit and work in each other's racks. The later AN/ARC-5 units are different in several ways, including a different power plug with different pin-outs. I'll give a listing of the main units after the power connections. ---------------- Transmitter Power Pin-out: For AN/ARC-5- There are seven pins. The pin in the center is pin #7. Locate the pin that is grounded to the chassis. This is pin #4. Count the others *clockwise* around accordingly. 1. No Connection 2. +200VDC for the Osc. (needs to be right for stability). 3. Keying Relay (ground to key). 4. Ground. 5. A+ 24-28 VDC. 6. PA Screen Voltage (use 20K 5W dropping res. from B+). 7. PA Plate B+ Voltage +550VDC (not critical) For ATA/ARA and SCR-274N: There are seven pins. The pin in the center is pin #7. Locate the pin that is grounded to the chassis. This is pin #1. Count the others *clockwise* around accordingly. 1. Ground 2. Test point for PA grid current. 3. +200VDC for the Osc. (needs to be right for stability). 4. PA Screen Voltage (use 20K 5W dropping res. from B+). 5. Keying Relay (ground to key). 6. A+ 24-28 VDC. 7. PA Plate B+ Voltage +550VDC (not critical). ---------------------------- Here are the main "ARC-5" Command Set units from earliest (1940) to latest (1945): Aircraft Radio Corp. Navy ARA (rcvrs) and ATA (xmtrs), 1st generation. Black paint, blue label on top. Accessories uncommon. 7-9 MC TX rare. Later subcontracts by Stromberg Carlson. I haven't yet researched the contract numbers for ATA/ARA. Aircraft Radio Corp. U.S. Army Signal Corps, First production run early SCR-274-N. Black paint, black-and-silver plate on top. Initial production run for the Army Signal Corps. The contract (1470-NY-41) was for 4000 sets delivered in November 1941. Rare unit note: While all the A.R.C. Signal Corps SCR-274-N sets are rare, one deserves special notice. The BC-696-A 3-4 MC transmitter for this version was added to the contract later at Signal Corps request. It is unknown if any were actually built by A.R.C. Next run of 25,000 under this contract, scheduled for delivery in May of 1942, was sub-contracted to Western Electric and included a BC-696-A. Western Electric early Army SCR-274N. First contract of 25,000 sets (1509-NY-41) was for delivery in May, 1942. Later contracts New York 1941 and Philadelphia 1942. Black paint, black-and-silver plate on top. Rare unit note: The BC-696-A 3-4 MC transmitter for this version, which may have been the first BC-696 actually built, has a small nomenclature plate fixed to the top cover with two screws. There is no contract number on this plate, nor is one stamped on the back skirt. The original rivet holes for the large plate on top are present. Western Electric Army middle-run SCR-274N. No contract number on the nomen plates, although it's sometimes stamped on the back in yellow ink. Black paint, black-and-silver plate screwed to the side. More common then the early sets, but less common then the unpainted ones. Western Electric SCR-274N VHF set, contract 7461-WF-43. Looks the same as the very common T-23/R-28 ARC-5 sets. This set fit the SCR-274N racks. Approx. 1000 sets were produced, but the Army was in love with all things British and the SCR-522 remained dominant. Rare. Aircraft Radio Corp. Navy, ARA (rcvrs) and ATA (xmtrs) 2nd generation. Black paint, blue plate on top and red tuning plate on the bottom left of the front panel. Uncommon. Aircraft Radio Corp. Navy AN/ARC-5. First deliveries 1943, but became commonly installed early 1945. Black paint, Blue plate on top. Blue tuning plate on bottom left of front panel. Subcontracts by Stromberg Carlson. Units from very common (R-23) to very rare (T-15, T-90). Western Electric Army SCR-274N. Delivered late 1943 to war end. No paint. Black and silver plates on the side. Most common type. BC-453s of this type most common of all "ARC-5" Command Sets, 400,000 having been made. Subcontracts by Colonial Electric. Rare unit note: I have one Colonial BC-946 (BCB receiver) that is painted black wrinkle. Check of the circuit confirms it is a 946 and not a "tricked-up" BC-453. Anyone else ever seen a painted one they could confirm? Aircraft Radio Corp. Navy, ARA (rcvrs) and ATA (xmtrs) 3rd generation. Black paint, blue plate on top and red tuning plate on the bottom left of the front panel. Unlike the 2nd gen. units, these were built in the later "AN/ARC-5" cabinet style with the screwed-on tuning coil window. Built as replacement units for ATA/ARA installations. Rare. There are many other "special cases" and small production runs, including some built for the commercial airline trade after the war (extremely rare). ---------------------- Hope this helps. 73 OM DE Dave Stinson AB5S arc5@ix.netcom.com *********************************************** SPECIAL EVENT REPORT; Huntsville, Alabama Hamfest, August 21-22nd Ralph Hogan WB4TUR The annual Huntsville hamfest was held this weekend down town at the civic center. I was lucky enough to share a small part of a table with a friend from out of town. I did not have any transportation problems since I had the home field advantage. But in keeping with most of our reports of Hamfest travel problems, my friend's van sprouted a serious leak out the water pump seal. He ended up spending the night at my home qth while we searched for parts Saturday night. Sunday he spent most of the day doing a parking lot pump transplant while I manned the table. It only took one return trip to the auto store Sunday to get more parts...typical! The hamfest is one of the nicer ones in the South East. Lots of swap and vendor tables. A new part of the civic center with a covered parking garage. Selling was brisk on Saturday. Totally dead on Sunday. I'd say attendance was pretty good. I spotted a couple of pairs of prr-9/prt-4's on one table. At $80 a set, I dont think they moved very far. A nice R-392 and R-109 were spotted together on one table. The R-392 didn't sell. That was about the sum total of anything green. I was disappointed. There were more beanie babies and jewelry than old radio gear! There seemed to be a heavy bias on high power RF amps this year. Every other table had an HF amp on it. Both the 30S-1 and 30-L1's were in attendance along with the garden variety SB200/220's. One lonely piece of Johnson gear, a Viking One sat through the whole show. I picked up a couple of H-251 headsets and M-80 mike for a reasonable deal. Nothing green and heavy. Maybe next year... I did manage to sell enough trinkets to make a last minute of the show deal on a honker rack mount Hewlett Packard 0-40V, 30A PS. I reminded the seller he would have to lug it home in a few minutes. Reason won out and he sold it to me. I'm sure it will be set at 13.6 and 28 VDC regularly on the test bench. That is it for this year... Until next time, Ralph Hogan WB4TUR ed) The St. Charles hamfest of Sunday was little better, in fact, much worse. There were no green radios other than 1ea PRC-6 for $80. The same has been at several area hamfests of late with no takers. The only thing else to show was an LS-7 that I missed, it went for $2.00, plus a few items brought by Bob Simpson(The St Louis wing of the Confederate Air Force now has a nice ART-13 to exhibit). Much to Bob's dismay, he had to lug the massive R-270 & pwr sup back home. Bob arrived late as usual. I had a number of radios standing by on 51mc to talk him in with. Around 08:00 finally I heard a call come of my Power Wagon mounted PRC-25, and surely enough he was lost. As I wanted to play with my newly acquired SEM-35(Ralph may tell you about this later), I changed radios. The SEM-35 was set up in the parking lot atop a milk crate, with it's long whip antenna(a "Military Radio Equipment, Wanted!" sign waving from it.) Comms were great with it especially as Bob had adopted the tactic of turning off the squelch on his PRC-25 when he gets within range because he never knows what I might be using for a radio(the SEM-35 has no 150cps tone, I gotta fix that!). All I brought back from the fest that I didn't take with me was a couple 6v 100amp hour gell cell batteries. All Bob got was an old Atwater Kent. We did get to re-acquaint ourselves with an old friend that many of you may already know, Ted Bracco(he now has email, we hope to hear from him more often!). Not much hardware to show for a 250mi/5 hour drive(200 miles for Bob) but we had a fine time. Oh, Ike, he went to Salina Kansas and his report is much worse! As Salina is about the last real hamfest left in Kansas, and this year hosted the State ARRL convention, this is not a good sign for things to come! Dennis *********************************************** MEMBERS WRITE; Watkins-Johnson Sells Out, WJ sells Telecom group to Marconi Watkins-Johnson, a provider of wireless communications components and subassemblies, signed a definitive agreement to sell its Telecommunications group business to Marconi North America, a subsidiary of The General Electric Company p.l.c. of the United Kingdom. The value of the transaction is roughly $57.9 million, Watkins-Johnson said. The Telecommunications Group designs, manufactures and services processes and related equipment with applications in government intelligence, signal surveillance and military communications. >From Tom Norris Via Bob W9RAN ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hue's Comments, TI & POW Radio, Re: Technical Intelligence As the article states, little in the way of advanced ideas was to be gained from examining Axis equipment. However, there were some design points, which even if not directly inspired from enemy equipment, at the least, first appeared there: fold-out spinner post on tuning knobs, as seen in Nippon aircraft radios and in German field radios such as Torn FuB and monitor receivers of FuHE series, as later seen also in US equipment such as APX-6 and ARC-2 optical projection dial system of the German E52 receiver ( perhaps the best SW receiver of the war years ) which was later seen in the USNavy's postwar SRR/FRR series fold-out miniature telegraph key in the German spy radio SE-100 series, later also seen in the RS-6 USAF set, also the general size / shape is similar and of course, the US "Gibson Girl" BC-778 and CRT-3 aircrew liferaft survival radio, which was directly inspired from the German 'Notsender' transmitter captured during the Battle of Britain. ( "Not" = "emergency", pronounced as "note", similar to usage in Notgeld, the colorful German "emergency money" (Geld = money ) printed by hundreds of towns in the 1930s inflationary period. ) Re: Sandakan Camp Very interesting account. Are there POW graves there, that is, marked graves, still? Or were the dead relocated, or were the graves simly forgotten and lost? Lt. Wells writing in his diary of a secret radio certainly was a tragic mistake - in a *strictly legal* consideration, i would even say, criminally negligent and subject to courts-martial. Frontline troops have always been forbidden to carry diaries on their person, and this could be expected to apply also to prison camp inmates, altho we do know that there exist a few examples. In any case, there was a serious breach of security at these levels. Perhaps too many people knew about it, perhaps absolute secrecy was not emphasized enough. It was no secret that having a radio set was, in a Japanese camp, equivalent to a death sentence. So much more for having a pistol - this certainly needed to be hidden better. Some of these camp accounts provide for the use of nuclear weapons against Japan a supporting argument that isn't often mentioned. Consider this scenario: The Emporer is finally persuaded by the steady destruction of his cities that "the war has gone not necessarily to the advantage of Japan" and decides to throw in the towel. He makes a broadcast to his subjects citing the aforementioned reason and the desire for world peace and all. He does not mention the "new and merciless weapon the enemy has used", which if continued "would lead to the destruction of the entire world". He does not use that description because, those 2 single bombs that destroyed one city each, in seconds, were not used. Remember also, even at this time, the average Japanese was said to believe that Japan was still winning the war. Now, in the far flung extant reaches of the Empire, military units receive the surrender order, but consider the Emporer to be misguided or controlled and the war to be still prosecutable by the same conventional weaponry. They ignore his broadcast and decide to go on fighting. Further, they consider the imminent arrival in Japan of occupation forces, even in limited numbers, to be equivalent to an invasion of the homeland. This and the continual erosion of territory under their control leads them to do what they had threatened, and what all POWs under-stood as their sentence: all the Allied POWs are massacred. As it was, however, a mighty new weapon was revealed, one that Japan had absolutely no defense against, and one that theoretically could extinguish the Japanese nation forever. This weapon brought the war, at last, to an end, and in a hurry. And, after this surrender, mistreatment of POWs came to a halt, with "only" less than 30 murdered after the surrender. -Hue Miller *********************************************** HUMOR; A young ventriloquist is touring the clubs and stops to entertain at a bar in a small town. He's going through his usual run of stupid blond jokes, when a big blond woman in the fourth row stands on her chair and says: "I've heard just about enough of your denigrating blond jokes, Asshole. What makes you think you can stereotype women that way? What does a person's physical attributes have to do with their worth as a human being? It's guys like you who keep women like me from being respected at work and in my community, of reaching my full potential as a person ... because you and your kind continue to perpetuate discrimination against not only blondes but women at large .. all in the name of humor". Flustered, the ventriloquist begins to apologize, when the blond pipes up, "You stay out of this Mister; I'm talking to that little bastard on your knee!" ----------------------------------------------------------------- A lady is giving a party for her granddaughter and has gone all out caterer, band and a hired clown. Just before the party starts, two bums show up looking for a handout. Feeling sorry for the bums, the woman tells them that they can get a meal if they will chop some wood out back. Gratefully, they head to the rear of the house. Guests arrive, and all is going well, with the children having a wonderful time. But, the clown has not shown up and finally, the clown calls to report that he is stuck in traffic and will probably not make the party at all. The woman is very disappointed and unsuccessfully tries to entertain the children herself. She happens to look out the window and sees one of the bums doing cart wheels across the lawn. She watches in awe as he swings from tree branches, does midair flips and leaps high in the air. She speaks to the other bum and says: "What your friend is doing is absolutely marvelous. I have never seen such a thing. Do you think your friend would consider repeating this performance for the children at the party? I would pay him $50!" The other bum says: "Well, I don't know. Let me ask him." He then turned to Willie and shouted: "Hey Willie! For $50, would you chop off another toe?" ----------------------------------------------------------------- A man takes his wife to the stock show. They start heading down the alley that had the bulls. They come up to the first bull and his sign stated: "This bull mated 50 times last year." The wife turns to her husband and says, "He mated 50 times in a year, you could learn from him." They proceed to the next bull and his sign stated: "This bull mated 65 times last year." The wife turns to her husband and says, "This one mated 65 times last year. That is over 5 times a month. You can learn from this one, also." They proceeded to the last bull and his sign said: "This bull mated 365 times last year." The wife's mouth drops open and says, "WOW! He mated 365 times last year. That is ONCE A DAY!!! You could really learn from this one." The man turns to his wife and says, "Go up and inquire if it was 365 times with the same cow." ----------------------------------------------------------------- The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!" One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!" To which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail. About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took them to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way. As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. "You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. "And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this." "No," his friend replied, "This is good!" "What do you mean, 'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?" "If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you." ----------------------------------------------------------------- How many blondes does it take to make chocolate chip cookies ? 10, 1 to make the dough, 9 to peel the M & M's *********************************************** The preceding was a product of the"Military Collector Group Post", an international email magazine dedicated to the preservation of history and the equipment that made it. Unlimited circulation of this material is authorized so long as the proper credits to the original authors, and publisher or this group are included. For more information concerning this group or membership contact Dennis Starks at, . A list of selected articles of interest to members can be seen at: http://www.softcom.net/users/buzz/backmail.html ***********************************************