[ARC5] dying hobby?

[sbjohnston at aol.com]

The BC-603/BC-683 series of receivers were among the first military surplus units I got a chance to work with as a young ham. I remember ordering a NOS dynamotor from Fair Radio to run the receiver. I still have one on the shelf in the back room - I think it may have a power supply in place of the dynamotor.  

To your point, Hue - I have seen many surplus rigs since then, but I don't think any with as thick a coating of MFP varnish!   The matching BC-604/BC-684 transmitters had it thick as well.

When I first moved to my radio station in Pennsylvania in 1990 I was surprised to find a complete set of BC-603/683 (or maybe 683/684) receiver/transmitter on their mount in the basement of the old studio building.  The staff who'd been there since the 1960s said that they used to use that setup mounted in a jeep with the station call letters painted on the side.  That would have been in what is known in broadcasting as "remote pick-up" RPU service for remote broadcasts around town.

If they were feeding it from good mics and a mixer it probably sounded pretty good with its medium-deviation FM.  Depends on the receiver at the station end I'm sure.

In my youthful experiments the carbon mics were usually the weak link in their transmit audio quality.  Substituting a Motorola carbon-equivalent transistorized mic was a great improvement, and broadcast mics and a mixer would have been even better I suspect!

I've talked to hams who remember using these "tank radios" on CB in FM mode.  Not legal but this was CB, you know.


Steve WD8DAS

sbjohnston at aol.com
http://www.wd8das.net/
http://af4k-crystals.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Radio is your best entertainment value.
--------------------------------------------------------------------