[Milsurplus] BC-669

[Robert Downs]

The military models of the BC-669 are the BC-669-A, BC-669-B, BC-669-C and
BC-669-D.  There have been rumors of a BC-669-E but I've never found any
examples.  There are relatively minor differences between the A, B and C and
they are all AM only.  The D has CW capability added.  There were refit kits
(Modification Work Orders) made that added CW capability to the earlier
models, which with the MWO became AM, BM, and CM.  But I have never seen one
nor heard of anyone who had one.

Robert Downs - Houston
WA5CAB


-----Original Message-----
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Robert Nickels
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2018 12:11 PM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] BC-669

On 2/26/2018 10:53 AM, Ray Fantini wrote:
> All this talk about the BC-669 makes me wonder, was that radio an 
> adaption of a set designed by Halicrafters for maritime service or a 
> radio that was designed from the ground up for military use? It 
> appears a bit week compared to other military sets and not up to the 
> same standards as other sets like the TCS, or was it just intended as 
> a cheap radio for use in local communications with things like the BC-611?

Ray, the Hallicrafters HT-14 marine radio aka "The Commodore" - a 6 channel,
45 watts, 1.68-4.45 MHz - is listed in Dachis' book at "1945-46" at a price
of $1061.00.    He says there are "minor variations between the military
models (BC-669 and BC-669A and the HT-14".    Other previous marine radios
included the HT-8 "The Crusing" (1939),  HT-11 "The Ensign" (1939-41) and
the HT-12 (1941-2).

As Walt Hutchens KJ4KV explained in issue #30 of Electric Radio, the Army
bought the HT-12 as the BC-441 or SCR-281,  then probably in 1942, the HT-12
was adapted by Hallicrafters for Army field use becoming the
BC-669 or SCR-543".  He goes on to say "the set was to be used for
semi-mobile applications by field and antiaircraft artillery, probably at
the batallion and regimental level as division and higher levels would have
had the BC-610". Suppliers included Electronic Research Laboratories Inc.,
(ERLA) as well as Hallicrafters with a later switch from black wrinkle to
olive drab paint color and other changes. Several MWOs were done after the
war to keep BC-669s in service, until they turned up on surplus markets and
through MARS around 1960.  A subsequent article by Chuck Teeters puts total
production of BC-669A, B, and C models at over 5,000 units, along with a few
hundred BC-441s. 
There was also a "D" model, and  a list of 15 differences is included in
Hutchen's follow-up article in issue #237.

I have a very clean black-wrinkle Hallicrafters-made unit with it's power
supply in line for restoration and it's got the trademark lower-case "h"
logo on the speaker grille instead of the lightning-bolt "E" that was used
on other versions.   There's an inspection tag attached dated 4/21/44 so I
would assume that Hallicrafters used their "h" logo on the units they
supplied and understandably ERLA did not.  My assumption is that
Hallicrafters sold it to the commercial marine market for a couple of years
after the war and then abandoned that market to competitors as I don't see
any subsequent AM marine offerings.   But unlike the HT-4/BC-610, the HT-14
did not exist pre-war but was the outcome of a previous commercial product
(the HT-12) being adapted for wartime use and then offered commercially
afterward.

73, Bob W9RAN

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