EC-47P and EC-47Q Mission Avionics

[yahya]

The EC-47P and EC-47Q were an upgrade to the EC-47N aerial radio direction finding aircraft of the Vietnam War. Their mission was to pinpoint illicit radio transmitters in the South East Asian jungle.

The EC-47P and EC-47Q received the AN/ALR-35 and AN/ALR-38 radio direction finders, respectively, which are believed to operate automatically thanks to the Nortronics 1060 processor relieving the burden from the navigator, who previously had to manually calculate and plot the bearings on a chart as it happened with the AN/ALR-34 setup on the EC-47N.

There are numerous sources elaborating the basics of the EC-47 operation, which can be found here:

EC-47 ARDF Intel in Vietnam

ARDF Checo Report 1970 Chapter03

6. The EC-47 Tour (Part IV: Back End)

NOTE: At some point in the future, a section providing details about some of the equipment may be added.This page is simply to give the viewer some idea of what it was like to be inside the Electric Goon. The EC-47 'Back End' The fuselage of the EC-47, the back end , was the center of mission...

ec47.com

However, they are confusing.

Hence, my questions are:

• What exactly appeared on the panel with LED displays and blue buttons in the center console of the navigator's stand of the EC-47P and Q?
• What was the average effective range of the AN/ALR-35 and AN/ALR-38? Was it improved from the earlier AN/ALR-34, which was effective only within ca. 15 miles from the targeted transmitter?

The images are hot linked from the last link listed above. The two panels with white keypads also belonged to the AN/ALR-35.