[Milsurplus] P.A.R. radio on Ebay

[Hubert Miller]

Your comments are as usual pretty astute especially I think, regarding the appearance of these sets, which I had thought also but never put into words. 
Right on the variable tuning, I didn't note the MW BC tuning range. 
Just a guess, but I would think, maybe for use in a marine radio shop, or maybe just a ship repair facility ? Too expensive a toy for other landlubbers. 
Bob, your photo didn't make it. Too large ? I would really like to see it.

Fellow in the Seattle antique radio club ( PSARA ) has a PAR modified BC-654 with 3 band receive up to 12 MHz. I am VERY curious how they did that.
It still uses the original PE-103 dynamotor, PAR renamplated I am sure. 
He is pretty attached to it, so no swapping possible. He got it from a retired deep sea ( hard hat ) diver estate. Thinks the guy confiscated it for non-payment
for a job. 
-Hue 

On 10/26/2019 1:20 AM, Hubert Miller wrote:
>
> I like PAR, but this item is pretty useless. I am sure the 'tuning 
> knob' is only for peaking up the RF on different channels.
>
> I would probably pay up to, a whole $35 for it..maybe.
>
That sure is a pretty radio however!   If it was a transmitter-receiver I'd be tempted to make what would doubtless be seen as a ridiculous offer, but for a receiver only, the pics will do me too.   I've never seen one set up for "duplex" like this but it makes sense to hear the ship to shore stations.   My first thought would have been that there was a tunable receive position on the bandswitch and that's what the big dial is for - however, the two sections on the variable cap are the same size. But they are not wired in parallel like a preselector might be, you can see one section is wired to the grid cap and the other dives into the chassis.   Since the dial is also calibrated for AM BC band, I'm still thinking it's got a variable tuning position, and since if so it looks to be able to tune both 160 and 80 meters, that would make it semi-useful.    Since it runs on AC power I wonder who the intended customer was?

This is why I like the boat radios - they almost always LOOK like a two-way radio ought to look.  Some are pretty stylish - like the one below that I got last year off eBay just because I liked it's appearance.

73, Bob W9RAN