[Milsurplus] BC-348 thoughts

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Actually, I said "el cheapo".  The Wells Gardner models were cost saving 
redesigns.  But the receiver used in the photo is not a JNQ.  It has the antenna 
trimmer.  The nameplate is from a Belmont Radio Corp. model (HKLR).  But the 
receiver could just as well have been an EMOPS, as the front panels on the RCA 
and Belmont models are the same.  The plugged hole is higher than the location 
of the C. W. OSC ON OFF switch on the JNQ.  Must have been a ham hack.  Note 
that the jack covers are missing.  And the lip on the bottom front of the 
cabinet has been cropped or was cut off of the cabinet before the photo was made.

The BC-344-D in the two photos is missing the jack cover over the PHONES 1ST 
AUDIO jack and the knob on the antenna trimmer isn't original.  And the 
spinner or crank post is missing from the Fast Tuning knob.

Earlier in the book, the unit identified as RADIO RECEIVER ARC-5 (VHF) has a 
rectangular box of some sort attached to the top cover.

You'd think, as plentiful as this stuff was even as late as 1959 that they 
could have used photos of unmodified examples.  Or as the copied all of the 
schematics from original manuals, why didn't they just copy the photographs as 
well?

In a message dated 8/10/2007 8:03:58 PM Central Daylight Time, 
kargo_cult at msn.com writes: 
> Was looking at "THE SURPLUS HANDBOOK"  "VOLUME 1 Receivers
> and Transceivers"  ( no further volumes were published, AFAIK ), by
> Caringella and Clark, 1959. There is a photo of a BC-348. I note that
> in the upper left, where some versions have a CW OSC  ON-OFF knob,
> this one has a "hole cover" plugged in, and below it the CW OSC ON-OFF
> toggle switch, as on other versions. How explain this manufacturer change?
> >From the photo it's apparent this is not a post-military hammy mod. The
> nameplate in the photo, the receiver number is obscured by paint or some-
> thing so you really cannot tell what version this was. Very oddly, it looks 
> like
> from the photo, the nameplate was pried off, and then maybe just glued back
> onto the front panel for the photo, and crooked too. ( Yes, there are some 
> slapdash attributes of this book, for example using the same photo of a 
> BC-344 for both the BC-314/344 and BC-312/342 pages - except one photo
> has too much light exposure. Very professional job.
> 
> Now re the "cheapo versions" ( is that what Robert Downs called them? )
> versus the "premium edition":
> 

Robert Downs - Houston
<http://www.wa5cab.com> (Web Store)
MVPA 9480
<wa5cab at cs.com> (Primary email)
<wa5cab at comcast.net> (Backup email)
   
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