[Milsurplus] SCR-583 / BC-1209 never issued ?

[Hubert Miller]

Y'know, I have been wondering if the BC-1209 / SCR-583 is kind of an orphan like the BC-645.
( This gets confusing because I'm also comparing the BC-1209 to the BC-654. )
I mean that the BC-1209 seems to have been never used, probably manufactured in limited numbers,
and only deployed by surplus stores, and at that, only two. One was the famed G&G and the other I don't
recall, but was some ad in the back of a 1950s Radio News or Electronic Industries mag.

Consider: SCR-284/ BC-654 was already out and proven. Double 2E22 PA, two IF circuit.
SCR-583 / BC-1209 appeared in mid 1944; single 2E22 PA, 1 IF circuit.
BC-1209 at 75 lbs. versus  BC-654 at 45 lbs.
So it would appear dubious on the face of it, that there was any need for the SCR-583 / BC-1209.

The only "advantage" I see to the BC-1209 is that it has wider freq range, 2.2 - 4.6 MHz.
And supposedly could be operated "in driving rain" with the front closed up and only the smaller access door open.
And the somewhat crude output circuit, antenna right to the top of the tuned circuit, like the GF, SCR-283,
and other early radios, could work with a 6 ft. antenna, with zero harmonic suppression of course.
However the BC-654 was already  pretty well proven satisfactory by this time, if "Limited Standard" and being
supplanted by the SCR-694 / BC-1306.

And by mid 1944 the SCR-694 had addressed most of these concerns with smaller package and less weight.
I wonder what the production numbers were for the SCR-583 and when it was canned. It seems none ever made it into
service. One of its "advantages" was that it could be operated while loaded on a horse, but this advantage was rapidly
receding into ancient history by 1944 anyway. And the Merrill's Marauders group in the CBI had no problem transporting
the BC-654 by mule. The mules would disagree.
-Hue
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