[ARC5] OT? bc-348 bfo question

[Fernando - LU2DFM]

On Sat, Sep 14, 2013 at 11:39:13AM -0400, Michael St. Angelo wrote:
> Don't be concerned about the hacking criticism. Modifying our equipment has
> always been a part of amateur radio.
> 
> If hacking helps you understand the operation of the receiver it has
> accomplished it's goal.
> 
> I started in the hobby in the 1960's. I could not afford new equipment and
> received my first surplus form an uncle.  He had operated communications
> equipment in WW2 and encouraged me to experiment with it to learn how it
> worked and to improve it.
> 
> Surplus equipment was plentiful back then. Unmodified equipment is scarce
> these days but there is plenty of modified equipment around these days to
> hack.

Thank you. I think that modifying a good radio these days is no go for
the reasons exposed in other posts. I feel like some sort of vandalism
to do so, it's better to sell it to collectors or donate to museums,
there are plenty of junk to learn on, modify or take apart.

*This* BC-348 of mine is not in any good shape by any means. It had a
rough time in it's life, was heavy modified and "repaired", painted
several times (silver, light blue!), sanded and what not. I bought it
for parts, and later decided to try to get it working again.

Which I did.

> Look luck and keep us informed of your progress.

I've tested briefly the options I've mentioned, and setted for now on a
bigger capacity gimmick; simple testings and measurements suggest that's
ok. It needs more time in the air to make clear if it's really good or
not. For now, it works ok on normal to strong signals on SSB and CW with
MVC (manual RF gain) and AVC (AGC on). I'll test later low signal
performance, I need to work other areas of the receiver and then realign.

It's perhaps interesting to note that little changes to the gimmick make
_necessary_ an IF alignment retouch at least of the 2nd and 3rd xformers 
to evaluate improvement; I was not aware of this fact as yesterday.

I've put a little not in my site with a short video where I tune on a
strong local SSB signal, MVC and AVC showed. There are a couple of pics
of the gimmicks:
http://www.lu2dfm.com.ar/articles/art.php?file=art_20130914_bc348bfo.php

Thank you all for your help.

-- 
73 de Fer, LU2DFM