[Milsurplus] Ham use of military radios

[Ray Fantini]

With all of the discussion of the evils of Ham conversion I have started compiling research. Quick checks on references to the BC-348 in QST result in over a dozen articles and many more references. I have not looked at Command sets yet but expect many more. Several books most notably the two volume “CQ Surplus Conversion” have been published on modifications of surplus equipment and all of this is in addition to regular columns that at one time appeared in CQ and 73 on surplus conversion.
The documented history of well thought out and skillfully done conversions in the field of armature radio is a fact. Yes, their were lots of hack jobs and poorly done conversions and lots of people who had no clue what they were trying to do but tell me what line of technology or collecting that this dose not occur? Much of the equipment that currently exists is due to the fact that it had a value to Hams and SWL and so it was spared recycling. Many items spent only a fraction of their time in military service and much more time awaiting conversion, being used in armature service or set aside for conversion that never occurred. Yes it’s vitally important that original examples exist and are kept in that original state but is it also not important to preserve examples of how these items were adapted and used to extend their usefulness way beyond their intended life spans?
I have been so inspired by the statements of the poor quality and bastardizing that hams are capable of that I have decided one of the next projects will be reproducing the ARRL Handbook (1966) pages 225 to 228 “Converting Surplus Transmitter for Novice use” do not know the other years that that article is in, the next handbook I have is from 1976 and it was removed by than. If you can find it read the article first, and as always will document with web pages and youtube.
Ray Fantini KA3EKH