Actually, you are getting a couple of very rare pieces. The shunt capacitor and remote control are very hard to find. I wish you luck in the auction. It looks like a very good candidate for getting on the air quickly. Mine is working very well and with a powered D-104, it sounds real good and punchy and cuts through without being nasally or harsh. Your choice of power supply is very important too. I should mention that the audio amplifier unit used bathtub style bypass capacitors. These need to be replaced immediately. Your frequency response will suffer greatly if you don't. The interstage coupling caps should be checked and perhaps upgraded. I used .02 uf@600 volt polyester caps and they work fine and sound good. As daunting as these radios may seem to many, they are actually easy to service once you understand some useful caveats regarding the approach needed. All of the major assemblies are captive, meaning they are removed with screws in a manner that would become the norm for later Collins military gear. The oscillator, audio amp modules mount onto mating Jones style connectors underneath and held in place with screws. Many times, these connectors have damaged wafers that hold the conductor blades in place, causing them to slip down and not making the connection. A visual inspection immediately reveals this. The modulation transformer is also easily removed and is a very novel design whereby a quick exchange can be made. The 813 final can be a bit of a pain to remove due to the tight quarters. I recommend using a surgical glove to enhance grabbing the glass while rocking the tube gently and pulling upward. There is a lot to cover and I could easily spend hours talking about this remarkable transmitter. I will reiterate what I have said so many times, owning and using these transmitters is earned, not given. You have to work to get it on the air unless all of this has been done already. Once you get one on the air, there is a feeling that is singular unto the ART-13, and the pride of owning and using it is so sweet. No other transmitter I have owned has the endorphin reinforcement or rush. It's simply a blast. Keep us informed as to what happens with the auction. 73 de Billy N6YW
Hey Carl. I don't know how the PM works on this forum. I started a conversation but I'm not sure that's how to do it. Send me an e-mail; skyboltone at yahoo
Ok, I threw a pretty good bid at it and did not hit the reserve price. I think that with shipping and the purchase price I offered I'm going to move on. If anybody wants to go after it I have no objections at all. Not that they would do any good anyway. I might have been tempted to try harder but I just bought a new computer and should cool it for awhile. Thanks for the help Carl
Yes, the ART-13 is an amazing Collins design, using their Autotune system for 10 preset frequencies. The compactness and ruggedness are amazing. The 813 final and 811 modulators are running way below max ratings. Unlike many WW2 HF radios, the ART-13 family were used long after the war ended.
I always liked the look of the ART-13. There's something formidable about the meters with white-letters-on-black, the wrinkle finish front panel, and the layout of the auto-tune knobs. And that's before getting inside to be further impressed! The form factor is also unusual, considerably wider than it is deep. That, in turn, reminds me of the Meissner 150, another quite rugged transmitter, nearly in the same category as the ART-13 when it comes to well-built, conservative design and high duty cycle.
I have the VFO part of the US Army version of the 150 and use it often as my QRP rig after a full overhaul and some TC capacitor drift stabilization. The coil sets go right down into the BC band and it would sure be easy to modulate The bids were way less than I expected, a clean ART-13 is usually going at $250 and up. Carl
The ART-13 is the way it is because it was designed as a military aircraft transmitter. It had to be able to withstand shock, vibration, high and low temperature extremes, low atmospheric pressure, and abuse (such as transmitting into no antenna). The paint scheme was dictated by Navy requirements of the time. Not unusual at all - look at the BC-191/375, the BC-348, and the ATD. The application dictated the form factor. Think about what an ART-13 cost the taxpayers when it was new.....
That form factor goes back to the early battery sets, many radios of the 30's to 60's and even many of the current SS versions. The ATC/ART-13 wound up in a wide variety of aircraft from single to 6 engine + Carl
