[Milsurplus] BC-659 addenda

[Dr. Jones]

de N4TGC Eric

A few more tidbits about the BC-659: the article in ER #135 is an excellant
"how I did it", by that prime suspect, Dennis D.  Read it and weep: the
BC-659 is one more bugger to 'boot up'.  I recently acquired a BC-1335,
which is the BC-659 with most of it's faults corrected: the power supply is
internal, if you're using the 6/12v vehicle battery; it mostly uses cheap
and plentiful miniature 7-pin tubes; it has spare tubes and xtals mounted
inside; it has instructions and provision for tuning built in, etc.
Negatives: two ballast tubes, the rare 6AF6 'magic eye' tube, un-braced
VR-90 (drop the unit, and it will snap right off!), and specs are much the
same as the BC-659, in being way too wide for 10M tx and rx, etc.

I will synopsize Dennis' article, as it mentions several things of import:
there's no squelch, (which is pretty darn noisy); receive is 100kc wide
(sheesh!); xmit is rated 1.3w, which with a good antenna, will go 30 miles
or better (10 times the stated distance), BUT, there's no provision for
antenna tuning!  (it was designed for a whip and nothing else); it takes up
to 15uv signal for full quieting; tuning requires 16! awkward presets;
there's an odd internal battery that has to substituted for (see article
for Dennis' design)  BTW, the BC-1335 info  mentions an internal "bias cell
battery BT-1" - why?  I see where it plugs in, I think ...

I'll hazard a value guess: I'd give about $35 straight up for the BC-659,
and allow up to $50 for a trade.  I don't have NEAR the patience Dennis D.
has ... I haven't seriously considered 'booting up' the BC-1335: the RT-67
is easier for me to deal with, and fits with all the other GRC-type gear I
have.  BTW, Robert W. Downs probably has the manuals and connectors for the
BC-659, and Dave S. has already said he has one type of p/s.	e