[ARC5] A Find

[D. Platt]

I believe that back in the late 50's, when I first was licensed, surplus 
was still relatively easy to find.  As such, and given that the idea, at 
the time, was to get something on the air, whatever it took, vice 
restoration and preservation.  There was no foul issued in doing exactly 
what was done to your R-28.  I recall splitting the RF and AF gain 
functions on BC-348's and adding an S-meter.  Of course that elephant's 
trunk on the front of your BC-342 or '312 simply had to go!  Have you 
all read the 1949 (?) mod for the BC-191 and BC-375?  They had you 
junking the whole thing for parts!  That's not the case, these days, of 
course, and we all tend to curse or criticize those who ruined these 
potential museum pieces.  I know I'm guilty.....  I'm doing better now, 
thanks......  hi!

Jeep - K3HVG

On 5/6/2012 5:22 PM, Robert Eleazer wrote:
> Looking at The Find - the Command Sets book - a mystery has been explained, or somewhat, anyway.
>
> I bought an R-28/ARC-5 on ebay a few years ago.  I got it pretty cheap because the seller did not know what it was.  But while I was not especially surprised that a former owner had put a big knob on the front to enable manual tuning, I was perplexed that he had yanked all of the crystal sockets and relays.  Well, the Command Sets book tells you to do just that. In fact the whole conversion was pretty much per the book, including yanking the front power connector and installing a phone jack and volume control on the front.
>
> But I still do not know why the book say to yank the crystal sockets and relays.  The empty space that results is not used for anything and it would seem to be far simpler to just disconnect the wires to those components, also enabling a return to the former configuration.
>
> I guess that is my main criticism of  such vintage conversion articles is that they did so much that was not necessary and which permanently damaged the equipment.  For example, I have a few LF/HF command set receivers where the entire receptacle box that holds the front plug in unit was removed.  It would seem to me to be far easier to modify the FT-230 with switches and jacks and use it - as I have been known to do myself.
>
> Wayne
> WB5WSV
> _