[Milsurplus] Thought on the BC-221 and QST

[J. Forster]

Hacked, modified, and partly stripped ones are easy enough and often go
begging for homes. They have had home brew AC supplies cobbled in, and
worse.

Just try and find a really clean, complete, unhacked -AK, with the
original book, canvass, and battery retaining post and plate intact.

I don't care a whit about "the history of ham hacking mil radios".

-John

================





> The history of Ham radio is all about building and modifying equipment and
> in today's world operators who increasingly only buy prebuilt equipment
> anything that talks about construction or building is a good thing. I
> recall that QST did a article about the ARC-5 series receivers a year or
> so back and that did not go over well because the author did not live up
> to the expectations of this group, but like it or not QST represents the
> main stream view of armature radio today. The majorities of ham operators
> want to operate the radio and make contacts and are not interested in
> building museum displays. Everyone is carrying on as if the BC-221 is a
> rare and valuable item but what was the total amount produced? They were
> used with everything for over a decade so I would assume they had a
> production run of over tens of thousands. I can understand that if you
> want to have your all original ARC/SCR setup you need to have one with it
> to complete the system but I cannot imagine that som
>  ewhere out there is a collector who can't find one. Over the years I have
> owned at least a dozen or so if not more. They are a common item at
> larger Hamfest and rarely sell for more than $10 to $25 complete with
> book and sometimes internal power supplies.
> The QST article is not that impressive and I think the author would have
> been better off using a smaller case but like it or not due to the low
> value attached to the BC-221 it leads itself open for a cheap box to be
> used for modification.  The original function of the BC-221/LM series
> frequency meters is almost useless today with most radios exceeding the
> design accuracy with ease of the old heterodyne frequency meters. The only
> use I can imagine for a BC-221 is with other period radios or older sets
> as an external reference. The day of the heterodyne frequency meter are
> thru, don't see anyone getting worked up over preserving the Lampkin 105.
> As long as the value of an item is less than a Bud box this is what's
> going to happen.
> Ray F.
>
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