[ARC5] BC-453 Question BC-454 Also

[Bob Groh]

First of all, I am NOT a collector - just an old timer ham radio operator
who (FYI) made and used a Q5'er 'back in the day' (i.e. 1957 or
thereabouts) - loved it by the way. Huge nostalgia thing for me and I sort
of intend to build a new one some day.

Having said that, I recently resurrected two LF receivers (a BC-453 and a
R-23 (which is basically a BC-453 in Navy trim - all black - the 453 is
unpainted aluminum)) with the idea of seeing what I had and to lay plans
for further work.  That, of course, meant going down the 'rabbit hole' and
chasing down lots of interesting information and opinions. Here are some of
my thoughts:
1.  If your BC-453 is 'unmodified' and in virgin state - don't muck with
it. Today unmodified military gear is rare. The collectors will applaud you.
2.  If it is mucked up anyways, then go for it. Roam the web - lots of good
information out there on bring them back from the dead.

My other thoughts: My two were a mixed bag. The BC-453 has great metal work
but had been hacked a bit to add a power supply on the back and it is minus
the BFO coil and the audio output transformer. Have an offer for a BFO coil
but the audio output transformer - well, I'll have to hack that in. This is
probably the one that I will use for my Q5'er nostalgia machine.

The R-23 is in great shape but missing a bit of metalwork - the dyno area
is a bit hacked but other than those two areas the rest looks great.  So I
am going to leave it alone.

Power supply - I am NOT going to try to build one on or in the R-23 but
rather an external one. Aiming at transformer isolated, 150 VDC'ish (no
higher) and keeping filament at 24 VAC.

Cap replacement - absolutely. I am not going to try 'stuffing' the pots -
just little mini-boards. I will save the pots for others.

As a side note, if you have bits and pieces (e.g. tuning knob) that are
sought after, you might consider selling those separately.  I don't care if
I have a hacked up tuning knob assembly but a collector really wants the
real thing.

Just my thoughts. Have fun.

73
Bob Groh, WA2CKY

On Thu, Apr 2, 2020 at 10:27 PM Whitebear1122 <whitebear1122 at comcast.net>
wrote:

> Today I brought in from the garage a BC-453 that has been sitting out
> there for several years. It has been sitting in an old timers basement
> since the early 60’s so it was gunky with grime.  So I had to clean it up
> before I wanted to get to close to it..  It cleaned up nicely with some
> GOJO and a tooth brush, and looks great.
>
> I’m thinking of building a Q5’er with it.
>
> Question for you experts:  How would you approach powering this up? One
> option is to just plug it into a variac and slowly bring it up and find out
> what happens.  Another approach would be to disconnect all the 0.05 or 0.5
> cans and measure capacitance and leakage current.  Another approach is to
> shot gun replace those caps.
>
> I know there has been a lot of discussion about recapping the BC-348
> Micamold caps and just getting it over with.   What about the ARC5
> receivers?  What has been your experience?
>
> Thanks, Scott WA9WFA
>
>
>
>
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