[Boatanchors] How many use the BC-342 in it's case?

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Phil, 	
	
Oddly enough, i was conversing with a Ham in Finland last evening (this morning
UTC) and he mentioned his first receiver was the BC-342! His memory was a little
foggy about it, so thanks to your recent proliferation of posts filled with
info, I was able to help him remember some features about it.	
	
He used it in the fifties and early sixties, but not for SW listening. Just
prior to getting a Drake station, followed by a Hallicrafters SR-500. He had
fond memories of the BC-342 and thought that it was quite well designed and
remarkably sensitive/selective for a receiver of that era.   	
	
Have fun!	
	
Duane Fischer, W8DBF	


----------
From: Philip Atchley <beaconeer at elite.net>
To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Boatanchors] How many use the BC-342 in it's case?
Date: Friday, May 28, 2004 6:45 PM

Hi all,
Yeah, I know ya all are probably getting tired of these endless questions
<G>.

Today I cooked the BC-342 in for a couple hours, then did an IF alignment to
the Xtal frequency, which wasn't too far off, even after all that work I did
on the filter.

Anyway, right now the set is ensconced in it's "duty post" as the primary
SWL receiver, the Hallicrafters SX-71 being moved over to the Right seat as
secondary receiver (I like reading the dial of the BC-342 much better, it's
much more "spread out" and accurate).

All this time I've been trying the set out it has been operated out of it's
cabinet.  Now, primarily for temperature reasons I've made a plug in unit to
replace the rectifier with silicon (blasphemy ;-) and in the power supply
chassis added another stage of filtering (250 Ohm resistor and 40uF cap) to
bring the voltages back to normal.  That along with larger value filter
capacitors has also reduced hum a LOT.  It has also seemed to reduce the
heat in that area considerably.

QUESTION 1:  How many of you operate your BC-342 in it's (unmodified)
cabinet
and does it seem to affect component life any?  While I haven't tried it
yet, it seems that the nearly completely sealed cabinet would really build
up heat!  In this listening post, radios are often run for considerable time
(though not 24/7 like the military).

QUESTION 2:  I'm just curious, how many of you use your BC-342 for extensive
SWLing or extensively for other purposes?

73 from the "Beaconeers Lair".
Phil, KO6BB

DX begins at the noise floor!
Merced, Central California
37.18N  120.29W  CM97sh

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