Humorous Naval Air Flight Experiences

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:34:34 GMT, Dave in San diego
postulated :

You had to go and do it - bring up old painful memories. The ARC-27 was
my second least favorite piece of tron gear to replace. The ARN-21 TACAN
ranked first, primarily because of its generally more difficult location
in the a/c. Can you believe they still had those boat anchors around into
the 80s?

I worked on FJ-3M, F9F, F11F, AD-6, and A4D.
The A4D was the worst for me with that damned "biscuit" which housed
it all. The ARC-27 was my bread and butter gear. Easy to diagnose
problems. Using the bicycle pump always attracted the attention of the
other shops. The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6
transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell
aimed at the Top Secret cavitron.

The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6
transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell
aimed at the Top Secret cavitron.

This cries out for further explanation. From context, I assume the idea
was to prevent the bad guys from reverse engineering the IFF and figuring
out a method to interrogate it. But was the self destruct mechanism
*really* a live .45 calibre shell?

(Paul Michael Brown) wrote in
news
The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6
transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell
aimed at the Top Secret cavitron.

This cries out for further explanation. From context, I assume the
idea was to prevent the bad guys from reverse engineering the IFF and
figuring out a method to interrogate it. But was the self destruct
mechanism *really* a live .45 calibre shell?

I don't think so, but there was a CAD in each of the three cavities to
destroy them, The idea was to keep the bad guys from determining the
operating frequency, which, at that time, was changed every day. Later
on, after an intact unit was compromised, the SIF coder was added to the
system and the frequencies were fixed at 1030 and 1090 MHz. Mode 4 came
much later.

Greasy Rider wrote in
:

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:34:34 GMT, Dave in San diego
postulated :

You had to go and do it - bring up old painful memories. The ARC-27
was my second least favorite piece of tron gear to replace. The ARN-21
TACAN ranked first, primarily because of its generally more difficult
location in the a/c. Can you believe they still had those boat anchors
around into the 80s?

I worked on FJ-3M, F9F, F11F, AD-6, and A4D.
The A4D was the worst for me with that damned "biscuit" which housed
it all. The ARC-27 was my bread and butter gear. Easy to diagnose
problems. Using the bicycle pump always attracted the attention of the
other shops. The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6
transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell
aimed at the Top Secret cavitron.

Oh, the APX-6 was actually one of the easiest pieces I got to work with.
I saw it in "A" School, and briefly in the fleet before they transitioned
to the APX-72. The 72 was another item requiring the bicycle pump.

Speaking of that, when I was in Brunswick, we were having problems with
the 27s in some visiting EA-3s. Would work OK on the ground, and on
climb-out but would fail at altitude. When we went to AIMD and asked what
pressure they were pumped up to, the techs replied, "We never pump them
up, Stoofs don't go that high." Needless to say, after the **** flowed
downhill, ALL gear requiring pressurization was properly serviced from
then on.

Dave in San Diego

"STOOFs" were the S2Fs.

"Dave in San diego" wrote in message
. ..
Greasy Rider wrote in
:

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:34:34 GMT, Dave in San diego
postulated :

You had to go and do it - bring up old painful memories. The ARC-27
was my second least favorite piece of tron gear to replace. The ARN-21
TACAN ranked first, primarily because of its generally more difficult
location in the a/c. Can you believe they still had those boat anchors
around into the 80s?

I worked on FJ-3M, F9F, F11F, AD-6, and A4D.
The A4D was the worst for me with that damned "biscuit" which housed
it all. The ARC-27 was my bread and butter gear. Easy to diagnose
problems. Using the bicycle pump always attracted the attention of the
other shops. The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6
transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell
aimed at the Top Secret cavitron.

Oh, the APX-6 was actually one of the easiest pieces I got to work with.
I saw it in "A" School, and briefly in the fleet before they transitioned
to the APX-72. The 72 was another item requiring the bicycle pump.

Speaking of that, when I was in Brunswick, we were having problems with
the 27s in some visiting EA-3s. Would work OK on the ground, and on
climb-out but would fail at altitude. When we went to AIMD and asked what
pressure they were pumped up to, the techs replied, "We never pump them
up, Stoofs don't go that high." Needless to say, after the **** flowed
downhill, ALL gear requiring pressurization was properly serviced from
then on.

Dave in San Diego

The A4D was the worst for me with that damned "biscuit" which
housed
it all. The ARC-27 was my bread and butter gear. Easy to
diagnose
problems. Using the bicycle pump always attracted the
attention of the
other shops. The only gear I never really understood was the
APX-6
transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45
shell
aimed at the Top Secret cavitron.

Ah ha, the old ASQ-17. It was used on the A4D, F-8U, and believe
the F-11.

Leanne

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:19:46 -0500, "Leanne"
postulated :

Ah ha, the old ASQ-17. It was used on the A4D, F-8U, and believe
the F-11.

I hated the damned thing so much I forgot the designation but then
it's been almost 50 years and I'm entitled!

Repaired many an ARC-27 @ Whiting Field in the '70s.
Tough radio.
Jim

Good ole' ARC-27 you could always tell where in the shop the ARC-27
bench was or had been. From all of the holes in the ceiling where the
scribe ended up after forgetting to unkey the transmitter while tuning
the final PA stages capacitor plates. B+ of 1500 volts'll do that to ya.

Greasy Rider wrote:
On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:34:34 GMT, Dave in San diego
postulated :


You had to go and do it - bring up old painful memories. The ARC-27 was
my second least favorite piece of tron gear to replace. The ARN-21 TACAN
ranked first, primarily because of its generally more difficult location
in the a/c. Can you believe they still had those boat anchors around into
the 80s?


I worked on FJ-3M, F9F, F11F, AD-6, and A4D.
The A4D was the worst for me with that damned "biscuit" which housed
it all. The ARC-27 was my bread and butter gear. Easy to diagnose
problems. Using the bicycle pump always attracted the attention of the
other shops. The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6
transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell
aimed at the Top Secret cavitron.

YUP! Had that happen many times. every once in a while - one of them would
loosen fall onto the bench.