ARC-5

The AN/ARC-5 Command Radio Set is a series of radio receivers, transmitters, and accessories carried aboard U.S. Navy aircraft during World War II and for some years afterward. It is described as "a complete multi-channel radio transmitting and receiving set providing communication and navigation facilities for aircraft. The LF-MF-HF components are designed to transmit and receive voice, tone-modulated, and continuous wave (cw) signals." Its flexible design provided AM radiotelephone voice communication and MCW and CW Morse code modes, all of which are typical capabilities in other Navy aircraft communication sets of the period. It was an improvement of the Navy's ARA/ATA command set. Similar units designated SCR-274-N were used in U.S. Army aircraft. The Army set is based on the ARA/ATA, not the later AN/ARC-5. The ARA/ATA and SCR-274-N series are informally referred to as "ARC-5", despite small differences that render all three series incompatible. Like the AN/ARC-5, the ARA/ATA and SCR-274-N had AM voice communication and two-way MCW and CW Morse code capability.

The AN/ARC-5 command set was used by the US Navy from the latter part of World War II into the post-war era. It was fitted in many different aircraft types for communication between aircraft, navigation, and communication back to base. Units were available that covered much of the MF, HF, and VHF spectrum. Despite the use of octal base vacuum tubes, they were compact, rugged and light weight. Many became surplus after the war and were often converted for amateur radio use. The term 'ARC-5', while correctly applied to the AN/ARC-5 series, has also come to be a generic, though incorrect, term for the ARA/ATA and SCR-274-N command set units, including those designed by the Aircraft Radio Corporation in the late 1930s.

The antecedent of the AN/ARC-5 system was the U.S. Navy's ARA/ATA system, initially deployed in 1940. The designations ARA and ATA are a pre-World War II Navy equipment nomenclature. The major units of the ARA are five receivers covering 0.19 to 9.1 MHz, each unit with its own dynamotor power supply. The major units of the ATA are five transmitters covering 2.1 to 9.1 MHz, using a common transmitter dynamotor/screen modulator unit. Most units were made by the Aircraft Radio Corporation (USN manufacturer's code CBY). Many units were also made by Stromberg-Carlson (USN manufacturer's code CCT).

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