[Milsurplus] BC-611 Operational Question

[Tom]

   Back in 2015 at the West Coast Military Radio Collectors Meet at Camp
San Luis in San Luis Obsipo we did a radio exercise. I was with a number
of guys that went up on a tall hill (signal hill)  that overlooked Camp
San Luis, I could see the building we had our meet in, distance was
around a mile.  We were operating on 3.885 MHz and AM, one of the guys
had a BC-611 with a crystal for 3.885, he tried working us from the
parking lot of that building. He was successful but was just above the
noise floor even at that short a distance. 

   I would also wonder about the nulls in the antenna pattern after you
consider 200 mw and very short 80 meter vertical antenna with no counter
poise 

   Picture is Camp San Luis from Signal Hill on the day of that event. 

                                           W6TOM

On 2024-10-02 11:26, boeing377 at gmail.com wrote:

> https://share.icloud.com/photos/067IVOrnx4x_F9IpYZazcNpUg 
> I made a parachute mobile jump using my BC 611. A friend was on the dropzone with his BC 611. Good luck trying to communicate with B 24s at 20,000 ft. I couldn't hear my friend until I got below 2500 ft. I did hear powerful ground based AM stations on 3885 when I deployed my canopy at 12,000 ft, but they couldn't hear me.  
> 
> I'm not a BC 611 expert but my observations are that it is range limited due to low radiated power. Sure, there will be occasional anomalies where somebody works 1000 miles with a BC 611 but it sure wasn't happening to me.  
> 
> By the way, I believe I am the last person to ever parachute from B 24. I was at a skydiving meet in Illinois in 2000 and both the Collings Foundation B-17 and B 24 were hauling skydivers. I was going to go on the B-17, I could only afford one bomber jump ($350). One of the crew told me I should pick the B 24 because this was the last flight it was ever going to make with jumpers. I made sure I was the last one out of the bomb bay.  
> 
> Mark 
> AF6IM 
> 
> https://www.arrl.org/files/file/QST/This%20Month%20in%20QST/May2016/GLIFFORT.pdf 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 2, 2024 at 10:56 AM Mark K3MSB <mark.k3msb at gmail.com> wrote: 
> 
>> Hi Folks 
>> 
>> I'm interested in hearing about actual confirmed uses of the BC-611 communicating with USAAF aircraft during WW II. 
>> 
>> I'm not interested in a general discussion of the pros and cons of the 611,  but rather actual instances of using them to talk to aircraft. 
>> 
>> I've seen one drawing in a TM of a group of GI's on a hillside using the 611 to talk to a flight of B-24 Liberators,   but I've always viewed that as wishful thinking. 
>> 
>> Reason for asking.  I've been invited to participate with a group of regional USAAF WWI re-enactors.   I'll be redoing my SCR-274N system over the winter to make it transportable for field operations.   I have a pair of 611s that work (well, one has a broken earpiece....) and I was thinking that if the 611 was used in any capacity to talk with USAAF personnel it would make an interesting demo to have people at the event (youth particularly)  talk  to each other with the 274N and a 611. 
>> 
>> Thanks 
>> 
>> Mark K3MSB 
>> 
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