[Milsurplus] ARR 7 vs BC 348

[Boeing377]

I have both and I prefer the BC 348. My ARR 7 drifts noticeably on the higher freqs, quite a bit more than the BC 348. I can leave my warmed up 348 on a 20M SSB net and it stays reasonably on freq. I have to constantly retune the ARR 7 on the same band when copying SSB. Maybe this is not an ARR 7 design issue but a repair that is needed, but I havent found any bad caps or other components that would account for it. My BC 348 has a working xtal filter. Many 348s have bad xtal filters which only operate as attenuators. When fixed the filter is a decent performer. 

My ARR7 is one of the RE Goodheart conversions which removed the re-radiation detector tube, added a product detector. It came with a AC PS that was a decent cosmetic match to the rcvr. Goodheart ran photo ads in CQ and 73 in the mid 60s touting this conversion as a red hot rcvr. "Hot and sharp" was in the ad copy. Well, maybe... It retailed for $199 in 1966 which wasnt a bad deal considering that the two Goodheart rcvrs I have seen appear to have been unused prior to the conversion.

 I also have an APR 4 with the newer bandswitched 4 band TU.  It's fun to use with a panadpator though insensitive and very broad. 

I had a chance to purchase an unused ARR 7 a few years ago from an interesting gentleman in Santa Cruz CA. He was a retired orthopedic surgeon with diverse interests . He had a large collection of surplus radios (most unused), Lionel trains, Leitz optical gear, old time music machines such as player pianos and "band in a box" old time automatic arcade instrument playing machines and Ampex pro grade audio tape recorders. He wanted more than I could spend at the time for the absolutely mint ARR 7 but was very gracious and gave me a guided tour of his whole collection. He had one old arcade music machine that played a real violin and did so quite well. I wonder if anyone on this group knows the gentleman? I don't recall his name. Everyone just called him "Doc".

73
Mark
AF6IM
www.parachutemobile.org