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

[W7QHO at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/28/2004 6:43:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, beaconeer at elite.net writes (in part):

> 
> QUESTION:  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! 

Yep, sure does.  I had a junk cabinet which I modified by adding extra ventilation ports underneath and on the back, and I also added a small fan blowing directly into the back of the RA-20.  I swap my two sets (an N and an A) in and out of this cabinet when in use.   These mods keep the cabinet cool to the touch even after prolonged operation but the warm-up drift from a cold start is still about 4 KHz on my sets.  In an original cabinet I've observed start-up drift of up to 6 KHz.  By comparison, my BC-348 only drifts 500 cps from a cold start.

Dennis D.  W7QHO
Glendale, CA