I suggest it's an unsupported leap of imagination to suppose the BC-348 conversions were
somehow to monitor aircraft. There is nothing special about the BC-348 that makes it better
or worse for air traffic monitoring. They "could" have been used for this at Naval Air Stations,
but airfield operations were on VHF at this time. The Navy did still use HF at sea and for fleet
"Fox" broadcasts. And for harbor operations of course in the 2 MHz band. So it's still a guess
why they wanted these. We have also seen RBM receivers converted by Navy to rack mount
front panel - that's a lot of work, and no one knows the "why".
I once owned a 348 with an additional plate below the BC-348 nameplate. The additional
plate read something like "Modified for 115 AC by Puget Sound Naval Shipyard". So I think we
can assume the 100 to be modified as specified in Terry Comstock's letter, all had this additional
nameplate.  The AC - modified one I have still retains the 24 volt heaters, the power supply is
more robust than the EP-298, and the wiring is factory spec, way to good for a surplus dealer -
"I think". So there were a bunch of these conversion projects going on.
-Hue Miller
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