[Milsurplus] Opinions on comm receivers ?

[Ray Fantini]

Been there , done that. Owned a ARR-41 or two with the last one having all original dyna and everything and somehow got into this thing about cannot modify it because of its value. Ended up buying a second gutted power supply deck and building a solid state inverter to run the radio. The original dynamotor was just too loud for me to like, may have been fine in a P-3 where the turboprops drown out any noise but not for me.
The receiver worked ok, some weird cross of technology between a R-390 and a ARC-38, the audio output assembly was almost identical.  On the subject of the R-390 I have worked on too many R-390A sets over the years and tend to think it’s a good CW or AM radio but weighs too much. I think we get spoiled from using SSB radios and the tuning range and feel of a SSB receiver and have a hard time going back to the narrower band spread of the old AM radios like the R-390A
Think context of this thread is WW2 and other “Old School” radios and I will stand by the BC-348Q and HRO but have to say one of the favorite flavor of radios I have been playing around with in the past years is the AN/GRC-106 being I have worked on many for both fun and profit and that is the radio that I have been running in the field in the M-151A1 for both SSB Voice and RTTY for years now at events and just from the backyard. Ok, maybe it’s a bit loud with the amplifier that sounds like a vacuum on steroids and being upper side band only is limiting on lower frequencies but dependability, ease of maintenance and availability of spares has me loving it. Got a lot of big heavy Harris stuff in the shack but any day you can operate from the field is better then a day spent inside.

Ray F/KA3EKH

From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net <milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Hubert Miller
Sent: Monday, June 2, 2025 2:04 PM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Opinions on comm receivers ?


Well  i think i will choose to not get deep into the ARR-41 then. I bought off Ebay a fine booklet on this receiver, lots of great info from a big enthusiast. But the MHZ and kHz tuning smoothness doesn't thrill me. The mechanical filters aren't really what i think of as optimum but the booklet says to leave the original filters alone.
You know what ? I actually bought 2 ofARR-41 back around 1973, from Slep Co., which was shortly after they appeared on the surplus market. I could not get either to work ! And at that time i had very limited acumen to get them working. It could have been simple as a jumper required ! I was very let down and sold them both for a fraction of what i paid. In fact - it occurred to me, this one i have could have actually one of the 2 i bought way back when ! You just do not see these receivers in this corner of the country.
TCS: Yes, i used the pair as my Novice radio back in the '70s. With at first some kind of mil surplus audio filter - the audio was very hard to take - then a Heath Q Mult. Nice well built radios, but for my circumstances, the ( rarity +fun )/( weight + size ) ratio is not favorable.

The 348 set is one of my longtime faves and may be among the last to ever be let loose. I somehow accumulated the BC-224-A, a gov't AC modified 348, and an R-849 with the attached squelch box. Among others.

Which leads me to a question. I have a BC-224-C, with no LF band, which i kind of like, cuz it means a bit better HF dial resolution. I do not like dynamotors. I recall many years ago listening to say BBC Kuching Malaysia on something around 5 MHz and the ARR-15's dynamotor definitely set the noise floor. So my question: i have a BC-224 dynamotor, NOT for the -A model. I won't use it ever. Should i keep it for now  just to sell it or have someone else ( later ) sell it together with a BC-224 ? Dynamotors bring pretty decent money now, compared to earlier years  when they were just "toss!" items. But i tend to save too much stuff, a definite fault. What would you do? Should i just sell this 12 volt dyn ? The 224 dyn like the receiver is a lot less common than the 28 volt version.
-Hue Miller


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