[ARC5] Surplus Radio Conversion Manuals

[D C _Mac_ Macdonald]

I built one of those W2EWL rigs back in 1962 when I was at Mather AFB, CA.  I didn't have the smarts or equipment to get rid of the unwanted sideband, but carrier suppression was superb.  With careful zero-beating most SSB stations never noticed the "extra" sideband.  It was my first SSB rig.  I even built up a VOX/anti-VOX unit for it.
Back around 1955 or so, I had used the 1.5-3.0 receiver as the I.F. for a Morrow 5BR-1 converter as my station receiver when I moved up from a Walter Ashe 6AG7-6L6 rig to a Globe Scout 65!  Lost that 1.5-3.0 receiver in a tornado in 1999.

73 de Mac, K2GKK/5
(Since 30 Nov '53)
Oklahoma City, OK
USAF Retired 61-81
FAA Retired 94-10

________________________________
From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net <arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Robert Nickels <ranickel at comcast.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2018 19:49
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Surplus Radio Conversion Manuals

On 4/26/2018 6:57 PM, jeepp wrote:
> At the time, it was plentiful and the mind-set present today had not
> remotely arrived

Of course that's exactly right, with WWII in the rear-view mirror and
technology growing at a rapid rate, hams of the 50s and 60s viewed cheap
surplus radios as a convenient source of parts or a basis for
modification.   A perfect example and one of my favorite projects is the
W2EWL "Cheap and Easy SSB" transmitter that appeared in March 1956 QST
(and in several Mobile and SSB Handbooks).    Tony Vitale's approach to
simplification started with a BC-458 or T21/ARC-5 transmitter which sold
for "$3.95 to $7.95 on the surplus market" at the time.   Construction
started by "the removal of all of the original wiring of the BC-458
except the 1626 oscillator circuit" and a few other parts that were used
where-is.  As he wrote "All the other components are removed from the
chassis but retained; they may come in handy at some future date".

SSB was the newest thing in amateur radio and the W2EWL rig allowed many
hams to get started with the new mode.  The command set transmitter was
a means to an end for them, and since many of those hams had served in
or certainly had been affected by WWII, no one felt this was in any way
disrespectful.

73, Bob W9RAN

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