[Milsurplus] Re: Question on commercially modified surplus BC 433gear for marine mkts

[Hue Miller]

Unfortunately before the Internet, technical history lore could disappear into the void
amazingly thoroughly and quickly. So your search for info may be quite labor intensive.
If you really want to pursue this, maybe look into publications centered on the fishing
industry from that time span, and also maybe look into the city's business license 
records. Labor intensive. I recently bought some overpriced magazines at an antique
mall just to get a few small ads picturing equipment made by PAR, Seattle, in the 1949 -
1953 time that the company existed. They made a boat radio out of the BC-191/ 375 that
had a receiver, with sliderule dial, get that, in the former plugin T.U. box.  They also
had a model, smaller, in the 30 - 80 watt variations, that was built heavily out of Command
Set components, like antenna current meter, modulation transformer, and other surplus 
parts. I wanted some documentation on that company's products, so i paid the price for
the mags, around $10+ each plus, for some mag that i alone on the planet would pay for.
But that's all it takes, one customer.  Oh yes, this last model used the Command Set 
modulator as the chassis for the radio's power supply. I think these commercially produced
surplus conversions are quite interesting. I sort of regret now not bidding on the G&L
Mariner, ex-ARB, and the Goodheart QX-535, ex-BC-453. Oh another strange thing about
the PAR model 85, some versions advertised a vhf channel operating in "the new 35 - 40
Mcs. band". I do not understand that, and i don't have that model. Another version 
operated into a loop antenna, which i think was maybe made out of coax rigged into a loop
in the rigging, but i'm not sure. And oh yes, also, i did see a TRC-2 ( same as BC-1306 but
1900-3300 kHz ) that had been used as a boat radio in Seattle in the 50s. Only 2 crystal
channels, but i suppose you could net on the other station and no one would be the wiser
that you were vfo not crystal.
-Hue Miller