[Milsurplus] Radio converters

[Robert Nickels]

As an interesting sidebar to this general topic, I had a conversation 
with an old timer who earned enough money to pay most of his college 
expenses with a converter-related scheme.

I was looking for information on the Vanguard company of Hollis NY which 
sold converters, walkie-talkie kits, and later TV cameras and other 
products for many years.    In the late 50s' when WWII surplus was 
plentiful, this fellow got an idea - he could buy BC-603 "tank radio" 
20-29.7 MHz receivers for a few dollars but unlike most hams,  he came 
up with a perfect use for these pushbutton-tuned NBFM receivers.   By 
adding a Vanguard converter and a coupler to the car radio antenna,  he 
transformed them into mobile police monitor receivers and sold them 
around the Chicago area as fast as he could put them together.    Due to 
local company Motorola's urging, some police and fire departments had 
already started moving from low-band to high-band VHF so some of his 
customers even installed separate BC-603-converter sets for each band.   
It wasn't quite a "scanner" but he said his customers would give those 
10 pushbuttons a good workout while driving around, checking the various 
frequencies in use.   And instead of having to buy a new crystal, all 
they had to do was re-adjust a pushbutton when a new frequency came into 
use.

73, Bob W9RAN