K3MSB

ARC-5 Radios

The ARC-5 Command Sets are WW II era radios that were used aboard such aircraft as the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-29 Superfortress.

My BC-454-B is a US Army Signal Corp unit, and the T-19 is a US Navy unit. The BC-454-B is powered by the onboard dynamotor.

Connection to my RG-213 feedline is via a 200pF series capacitor then through a 4:1 UNUN.

Here's a shot of the radios after I had gotten them on the air for the first time in Dec 2012.

My 1st QSO was with my good friend Ken N3CU at 0057Z on 31 Dec 2012.

During Straight Key Night 2012 I worked Bill KA8VIT onboard the WW II Submarine USS COD docked in Cleveland OH . Bill was kind enough to record the QSO! Listen here! I also had a nice ARC-5 to ARC-5 QSO with Chris AJ1G!



The BC-454-B Receiver is powered by a DM-32A Dynamotor. I have two of them, one manufactured by the A.G. Redmond Company (Model 5044) and the other manufactured by General Electric Co. (Model 5DY82AB1). Since both also have "Made by" Western Electric KS-5572L1 labels on them, it appears both Redmond and GE made them under contract for Western Electric.

Here's a shot of the Redmond unit during refurbrishing:



Here's a close up of the 0.001 uF capacitor across the 28V connectors:


Note there appear to be only two color dots. There really are three -- the 1st dot is the same color (brown) as the Mica capacitor body, and a different color of brown was not used for it. I've read this was a common practice to save paint. So, the value is Brown(1) Black(0) Red(x100) which is 10x100 = 1000 pF (0.001 uF). This capacitor was on the General Electric unit; one was not present on the Redmond unit (but I did put one there....)

My BC-455-B and BC-454-B mounted on my FT-220-A receiver tray.





Copyright (c) Mark S. Bell 2013