R-26/ARC5

I've had this set up for nearly 20 years. It was given to me by the folks that were in charge of the Ham Radio Education Center at the Discovery Place Science Museum in Charlotte.

The original owner and builder John Shaw W4EYF donated his amateur station to Discovery Place, the problem was they didn't have any way to use it or display it at the time so the asked if they could give it to one of their members who was a collector and had a museum.

The mail station was a Halicrafters SX-101A, a Globe Scout transmitter and Heathkit VFO.

Because of my bad back I've started getting rid of things that are too heavy for me to move, so all of this stuff has been traded of in the last few years. But I did keep one item from the collection, it's the R-26/ARC5 receiver that he built a power supply audio amp with a BFO switch.

It has a Dymo label on the side of the speaker with his daughter Ruthie Shaw's name.

A couple months ago I got an email from Mr. Shaw's daughter Jackie O'Neill saying she had another radio and wanted a suggestion as to how best to sell it. It was a Philco model 51 mantel clock. I told her about the upcoming

2011 Charlotte Antique Radio Conference and offered to list it in the auction for her.

After the conference she asked if she could come visit my collection and see the radio her dad had built for her mom.

The other day I got it down of the top shelf and wiped off years of dust and took to to the display room. After a quick look over I hooked up a short antenna and plugged it in. It still works and works great. I spent several evenings listening to the 75 meter ham band, the BFO works surprisingly good on SSB and the AMers on 3885 sound great. It's amazing how good it works with just 6 feet of wire for an antenna.

Below are some more photos of it. I'm trying to decide if I want to repaint the speaker/power supply or leave it alone.

The R-26/ARC5 tunes 3 - 6 mhz

it was used in WW2 Navy planes as a communications receiver.

I don't think I ever seen an aux tuning knob like this

for a ARC5.

PLEASE sign my guest book.

I built this web page this morning, this afternoon I had a couple special visitors. Jackie Shaw O'N'eill and Ruth Shaw Matthews, John Shaw's daughters came by for a visit.

This is Jackie on the left and Ruth on the right sitting behind their dad's radio.

Here's Ruth pointing at the Dymo label with her name "Ruthie Shaw".

Jackie brought one of the QSLs her dad got back in 1939.

Below are close ups of it.

Freeman F. Gosden was part of the original Amos & Andy radio

comedy team.

An interesting bit of side trivia, Jackie Shaw O'Neill was married to

Dick O'Neill whom I'm sure you've seen on TV in many roles. He was a big time character actor. I googled him and knew instantly who he was, he played several different roles on M*A*S*H over years along with a bunch

of other lesser TV shows (you might be able to tell I'm a MASH fan).

What a great way to spend the afternoon,

thanks for the visit ladies.