[ARC5] SSB Transceiver from a BC-453

[Bob Groh]

Thank you, Bob. A nice and concise summary of the two designs. Greatly
appreciated.

Bob Groh, WA2CKY

P.S. Back in the day (i.e.1957'ish) I built a copy of Don Stoner's Q5'er
and used it a part of my Novice station (replacing a S-40B receiver). On my
list of 'things to do' is to build another Q5'er one of these days - have
saved two BC-453's just for that purpose.


On Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 8:06 PM Robert Nickels <ranickel at comcast.net> wrote:

> Thanks for the comments.    I'll just add a few clarifying comments
> since the common element is the glut of inexpensive surplus Command Sets
> that hit the market in the 50s' at the same time hams were exploring the
> new mode of single sideband.
>
> The W2EWL "Cheap and Easy SSB" transmitter from March 1956 QST was a
> pretty straightforward clone of Don Norgaard's 1948 concept where a 9
> MHz SSB exciter using the phasing method and a VFO tunin the 5 MHz range
> made it easy to put a SSB signal on the two most popular bands where it
> was starting to appear.   Central Electronics, Lakeshore, Gonset,and
> others produced nicer commercial versions,  but Tony's design made it
> possible for average hams to build their own SSB exciter with about the
> same skills required to build and AM rig or receiver.   He cleverly
> found a way to fit it all into a BC-458 transmitter chassis, with the
> option of 80 or 20 meter operation, or both.    Tony operated his mobile
> and later added a linear amplifier using four 837s, mounted in the
> trunk.   After it's publication in QST, the W2EWL Special appeared in
> other ARRL publications for years, so it was widely known and quite a
> few were built.
>
> In contrast, the "SSB transceiver from the BC-453" I am inquiring about
> was written up in a 54 page book published by the lesser known Western
> Radio Amateur magazine.   The documentation is extremely detailed, but
> the project was much more complicated and starts with "remove all parts
> from the chassis".     By modifying the 85 kc IF transformers and
> lightly coupling multiple stages, sufficient selectivity was obtained to
> remove the unwanted 85 kHz sideband, and while they managed to make it
> all fit the compact BC-453 chassis, it would doubtless be easier today
> to build the transceiver conventionally using parts from junked
> receivers. Because it was more complex and not as well publicized, very
> few were probably built and I'm hoping to find out if any are still in
> existence.
>
> Both projects were possible because the high quality components provided
> the required stability and Q needed for SSB.     Here's what they look
> like - the W2EWL 80/20 meter transmitter on top and the W6IQY 40 meter
> transceiver on the bottom:
>
> https://i.imgur.com/HYDbbFw.png
>
> The complete construction article can be downloaded here:
> https://radionerds.com/images/1/1b/A_SSB_Transceiver_from_the_BC-453.pdf
>
> I'm always looking for more information about these rigs or other
> homebrew SSB rigs that may turn up.
>
> 73, Bob W9RAN
>
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