[Milsurplus] Surplus conversion manuals/ BC-455-B Modification

[Robert Nickels]

Well I can add a recent perspective, as I was tickled to pick up a 
mostly-complete "Cheap and Easy SSB" transmitter at a hamfest last 
summer.   Mine was a very good copy of the W2EWL design as published in 
QST in 1956 and in subsequent Sideband Handbooks.  The conversion 
basically is to strip everything but the VFO from the BC-458, and while 
it's crowded and hard to work on some areas, everything fits and the 
result is a very compact rig for the time.    I'm a nut for early SSB 
and always wanted to build one of these, so finding one in this 
condition was great for me, especially since it had already been passed 
over as junk by the real ARC-5 collectors.

I can only try to get into the mindset of a ham who got the SSB itch the 
year before Sputnik when the average US income was a little over $3500.  
He likely had several hundred dollars already tied up in his AM/CW gear 
that was still in popular use, so being able to convert a $5 piece of 
common surplus gear into a transmitter that could let him play with the 
Next Big Thing was probably pretty attractive.  It may have made 
possible for many to squeeze a $20-25 project into the family budget by 
not having to buy the chassis, VFO, tubes and all that were salvaged 
from the BC-458.

Just saying that in those days, many of these same hams were WWII vets 
and I'm sure they meant no disrespect when they re-purposed military 
surplus gear.   They just saw it as a way to get the most out of their 
ham hobby investment dollars.

73, Bob W9RAN