Just Scored a BCB Command Set..
 

On You-Know-Where, item #320732828589, ohterwise known as a CCT-46145. Looks unused. Now all I need is the tuning spline, & the AC/dynamoter power supply. I've wanted one of thease things for YEARS, they've always either gone too high, or I've missed 'em somehow. They, & their different frequency brothers were made by the JILLIONS in WW2, & served as cheap sets for all the budding hams after the War. The other models are more common, the BCB band versions tend to get snapped up quickly.

When I was a kid, I had several ARC-5 receivers to play with... I think that they were similar design... never saw one that covered the broadcast band. Great fun to play with, and actually fairly decent sensitivity. War surplus price was quite low.
jr

Yeah...I have a Sept '47 radio mag, & they were selling 'em, new in the box, for $12.98 or something equally ridiculous...They are generically called "Command Sets" or "ARC-5s". They're still fairly common, just a LOT more expensive than $12.98 now...

Not exactly WWII, but the Korean War-vintage ARN-59 ADF set receives Broadcast Band. The Navy had them in helicopters, but rarely used them beyond crew entertainment. When I was stationed at NAS Norfolk, one of the helo squadrons had a VIP helo, once used as Marine One for President Johnson. We maintained the ARN-59 for it. Pilots would get flight time by hovering for 30 minutes while listening to the AM Rock station. Heck, the Automatic Pilot (ASE) did the flyin' - they just jammed to tunes from the ARN-59... The 30 minutes of hovering counted as one fight hour, just enough to get flight duty pay.

If you do get an ARN-59 receiver, get the dynamotor (28v input) and the control box with the mechanical tuning cable. Just don't bother with the indicator, or the loop antenna. Works great as a narrow band AM receiver without them, 600 ohm output and all.

Cheers,

Congrats OM
The BC-946 and it's earlier models are the next to the rarest, or least manufactured the least being the 1.5-3mc model only made as the ARC-5 version. Don't believe the bcb model was made in the ARC-5 version only CCT&BC models. The army back in the 50's took a bunch of the BC-453's and converted them to BC-946. I think I've got one of those around here somewhere. The only difference is the plug in coils, Rf/IF, and the bfo transformer. Also back in the day they where snapped up and used a car radios.
Have had a few of them over the years and they are hot set on the BC band. They also had the variable IF coupling like the Q5er/BC-453 so they can be broad as a barn or sharp as a razor. If you like to listen in on the SW bands a Gonset super6 ahead of it works great too.
Terry

Sandy, good scroe! And the rarest of the ARC 5 series. Many of the few built became car radios when surplussed. And a hot DX machine too.

Finally have got around to trying to get parts/power supply for this l'il beastie... Anybody know where I can go to try & dig 'em out ? Tried Evilbay & Fair Radio-No luck.

Sandy,
My dad bought me a copy of this about the time it was published.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNDERSTANDIN...item27c7fb4225

It exhaustively covers the ARC-5, with articles culled from QST magazine and/or the ARRL handbooks of the era, including at least one power supply. You can start modifying right away from the articles. These have a "smoke 'em if you got 'em" attitude about power, it's happy with a wide range of DC supplied. There are also editions of Surplus Radio Conversion Manual by Everson and Beach who cover it from a different workbench.

Now for the big question: how badly molested is it?

Its not-Other than the usual scrapes where the black wrinkle paint is flakin' off. The inside looks PRISTINE-Unused. The green felt on the removable "Lid" is like new. I'm almost thinkin' it was NEVER used. Has that wonderful "Old Electronics" smell inside to it.

Good to hear, Sandy. My half-dozen or so came in various states. One 3-6 Megger was fresh-looking just like yours, and purred like a kitten with the 125-150-ish B+ from an old ERIC tuner and a 24-Volt filament transformer attached (you'll probably want to rewire your filaments in parallel for 12-Volt operation). Another BCB version had a home-brew supply on the back which produced smoke when I powered it up!

Here's a link to the Everson/Beach manual (it didn't attack my computer):

http://hilltoparmyradios.com/Surplus...anual_vol2.pdf

Take it with a grain of salt, they are hams, not BCB DX'ers like us, but it's at least a primer.
One last thing, the audio output xfmr is not the right impedance for a speaker.

Yeah, I know about speaker impedance issues after foolin' around w/Boatanchors for 10-12 years now...If I'd THOUGHT, I woulda laid back a stock of those little RatShak impedances trannies back when they were, what, $4 each or sumpin' ?!?

Most any AA5 output should be okay for a replacement...