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

[Jim DiMauro]

I have a BC-342 that I bought in 1970 and still have.  It was my only ham
radio receiver for over 10 years, and I've never so much as replaced a
single tube.  I've always used it in its original case.  It plays to this
day.  I never checked for drift, but since your question was related to
component life, the internal heat didn't seem to affect my radio.

73,
Jim
WA2MER

-----Original Message-----
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Philip Atchley
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 6:43 PM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Milsurplus] How many use the BC-342 in it's case?


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:  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).

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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