[Milsurplus] BC-221-AK Suggestions wanted.

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

I'm afraid that I must take exception to your second sentence.  I'm not sure 
what dollar value to assign to the sentence, but that's immaterial.  Assuming 
the statement is metaphorical and not literal, there are certainly cases where 
one heterodyne frequency is worth far more than it's weight in cheap digital 
frequency counters.

Consider the recent situation.  Someone is trying to bring up a T-47.  The 
antenna connected to it is a ladder-line fed 80 meter dipole (one leg of ladder 
line to ground and the other to the antenna terminal).  I'm not certain which 
chart was used for presetting the C, D and E controls but of course none are 
applicable so it doesn't matter.  Operating frequency is 3885 KC.  Upon keying 
the transmitter, plate current is high, RF Ammeter reading is zero, and 
counter reads 3885.  As the D control is rotated upwards, meter readings don't 
initially change but counter display starts increasing.  Eventually, plate current 
dips (correspondent doesn't mention RF Ammeter but it may have been showing a 
small reading as listener 15 miles away heard a weak carrier on 7770).  And 
counter reads 7770.  The transmitter is doubling in the 813 final.

With a BC-221, the operator might still not have realized what the problem 
was (C control nowhere near where it needed to be for that antenna).  But he 
wouldn't have thought that the frequency of the oscillator three stages away was 
changing.

Anyway, did you get the knob set screws loose?  One thing to watch out for on 
BC-221's (and any military set, for that matter) is that some use Allen set 
screws and some use Bristol.  Often, it varies with the contractor on otherwise 
the same model set.  Using the wrong type wrench is a guaranteed recipe for 
disaster.  And also, Kroil works better than Liquid Wrench.

In a message dated 11/28/2008 8:58:21 PM Central Standard Time, 
olegerityincj at austin.rr.com writes: 
> A while back, purchased a BC-221-AK;  Yes I know its not worth its 
> weight.  This is a tune up project to get back my soldering and circuit 
> debugging skills back in order with out breaking something of more 
> useful value.  So in this sense its worth the effort.
> 

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480
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