[Milsurplus] ARC 65 vs ARC 58, and the winner is...

[Boeing377]

Long ago Hughes Aircraft contracted with the USAF to do airborne RTTY tests using a new Hughes designed modem. The test aircraft was a USAF T 29, like a Convair 240 (or 340?) airliner. A Collins ARC 58 and an RCA ARC 65 were installed. The plane flew all over the place, Iceland, Greenland, Europe etc running comm tests.

The ARC 65 consistently outperformed the ARC 58 in RTTY copy. The difference was attributed to the 65 having a superior rcvr. 

I spoke with a tech who maintained ARC 65s in the ANG. They were used on some KC 97s before being replaced by ARC 58s. He said the 65s suffered frequent failures, low MTBF. He said they were failly easy to service because you could just swap known good modules. He said the 58s were far more reliable. 

73
Mark
AF6IM
www.parachutemobile.org