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Pulled an old ARC-164 radio out of a retired F-16 last month and it still worked on the bench
Had a buddy at the boneyard let me grab one for a project. Powered it up with a bench supply and it actually cycled through frequencies. I was half expecting a dead channel or a blown cap. Thing was built in the late 80s. Makes you wonder why modern stuff craps out after five years. Anyone else have luck with older mil-spec gear holding up?
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hannahs451mo ago
Actually those ARC-164s are from the mid 70s mostly, not the late 80s. The UHF radios on the F-16 got swapped out around 1990 for the ARC-186 if I remember right. I've got a 164 from a 1976 F-4 that still tunes up fine. That old mil spec stuff was built with way thicker traces and bigger caps than anything you'd see today.
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barbaraw471mo ago
Hannahs45, that ARC-164 from a '76 F-4 still tuning fine doesn't surprise me, but I'd argue those thick traces and big caps are exactly why those radios were obsolete by the late 80s. The 164s had a mean failure rate on the frequency synthesizer module by 4000 flight hours, and the ARC-186 swap in 1990 wasn't just about newer gear - it was because the 164's RF amp stages used those vintage germanium transistors that drifted like crazy in heat. Your 164 probably sat in a hangar half its life. A mid-80s 186 with surface mount parts and a solid state amp would outlast it in actual combat conditions. Those old caps you love are just leaky paper and foil waiting to short.
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