[ARC5] BC-221-AKs

[Laura and Jim]

The one I have is a real survivor. A pal found it, caseless, in the bushes along a rural road while taking a leak. He knew I liked tube-anything and brought it to me for parts. It had taken a hit on the lower part of the front panel violent enough to bend the lower 3/4" back at nearly 45 degrees. The internal frame members were buckled, the RF output post was broken off, the dial lock knob hung up badly all the way around. 

It looked relatively intact otherwise (!) so I kept it for parts. Tonight, I dug it out and started testing it. I found the mixer tube dead and something rattling inside the crystal case. I swapped in a new tube and borrowed a crystal from my '221-M, brought the power up and the baby sprang to life! I was blown away!

And the fun keeps going.........Figuring I had nothing to lose, I tried to pry the base off the crystal can, but it appeared to have been epoxied(?) in place, then crimped. No way to get it off, so I got out my small wheeled pipe cutter and carefully opened the upper part of the can. The square crystal was intact and had merely popped out of its mounts. I cleaned the crystal w/a lint free cloth, loosened the mounts, got it back in place and tightened everything back up. Epoxied the can back together and plugged it into the rig - it popped into oscillation immediately, providing calibration harmonics all over the place! Appears to settle down very nicely after several hours warm-up. Tomorrow, I'll let it run all day.

The Excel spreadsheet I had for rolling your own LM/221 cal books has gone missing from my computer here. I recall sending it to several List Members. It used basic interpolation between known points identified on a modern receiver. Any one have a copy they could send me?

73 ALL DE JIM K6FWT