[Boatanchors] Somewhat deaf BC-342

[Ian Wilson]

I have a radio that I am fairly sure was originally a BC-342. It has a
number of modifications,
one of which has mounted an S-meter over the nameplate <g>. In addition to
this, the
crystal filter control is gone, and there is a very well-constructed power
supply in place
of the original.

About a week ago, I brought it up gently on a Variac. Everything worked, no
smoke, so
have been running it normally since then.

Initially it received both AM and CW with good sensitivity, although the
audio was rather
low (using a good pair of high-Z headphones). It was pulling in 10MHz WWV
fine on a
few feet of 'antenna'.

Over the past couple of days the audio level has faded more, and I can no
longer hear
AM signals. With the BFO on, I can hear CW signals, and can tune AM signals
by
zero-beating the carrier. But AM seems to have gone.

What's a likely cause of this? Seems to me that the problem must lie with
one or
more RF stages or perhaps the AGC line (although the gain control in both
AVC and
MVC settings appears to be working still).

Thanks for any suggestions,

--ian K3IMW