[Milsurplus] BC-342 / 344 vs BC-348 and the GRR-5 too!

Wed Oct 22 14:48:34 EDT 2025

Ray
Every Army aircraft that had a liaison radio had an HF receiver.  How many B-17s, B24s, B-29 and DC-3 aircraft were produced during WW2?  I believe that the larger Navy transport aircraft also used the BC-348, the smaller aircraft used the ARB.

The romance for the BC-348 is most likely that they were noticed more often in war movies and they are the lighter of the two styles of RCA receivers designed for use by the Army in WW2.  When was the last time you saw the insides of an Army communications van, truck or trailer shown in a war movie?  By my recollection, none.

ARB was 26.8  pounds but since this radio was remote controlled, the frequency dial was lacking in precision.
The BC-348 was 40 pounds and the BC-312 was 58 pounds

Regards,
Jim
Logic: Method used to arrive at the wrong conclusion, with confidence.  Murphy 

    On Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 01:00:38 PM CDT, Ray Fantini via Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net> wrote:   

Cannot make intelligent speculation on production numbers but being the BC-342/312 and its evil twin sister the 314 had to be produced in equal or higher numbers being it was the stock receiver with a number of vehicular mounted sets and field use sets for ground communications for a long time. 

I can say for a fact that in the past several years I have had many people express interest and want to buy BC-348 receivers and no one want BC-342/312 receivers.  I can get $100 to $200 for a clean front panel working BC-348 receiver and would have to work to get $100 for the 342 if at all. 

Attached is a picture of a bunch of BC-348 receivers going acrost the bench.

Ray F/KA3EKH

From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net <milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net>On Behalf Of Hubert Miller
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2025 5:05 PM
To: Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Cc: ARC5 <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] BC-342 / 344 vs BC-348 and the GRR-5 too!

I had no idea the 348 was produced in such numbers. That explains why you ALWAYS see them on Ebay. ( I remember around 1981 in Seattle, at 'Amateur Radio Supply', a NIB unused BC-348 for $125. That was too rich for me then, but - - somebody bought it. ) 

If supply vs demand simply applies, the 342/ 344 should have been priced higher. It was not. So there are other factors. The front panel on the 348 is alu, so it's a lot easier to add controls, meter and so on. Some opinions are, it looks better too.

I seem to recall speaking with someone at G&G NYC long ago. The person said they were reimporting them from France and restoring HFO wiring from dual diversity to independent use. I think France used them into the 1960s. I spoke with G&G must have been, 1973. I ordered one 348 and one 342, but nothing, zero transpired and many months later i got a letter asking if i still wanted to place the order, which i did not. Perhaps this was the, or a, period when the owner was out ill.

About this time i got an ARR-15, which was an overlaul and came in a large cardboard barrel. It had been a MARS giveaway. Unfortunately, i semi hacked it. I was pretty ignorant. Still am, i guess, but about different areas now, like eschatology. 

I had one of the France BC-342. Was noteworthy because a front panel marking altho English, was misspelled "DIAL LINGHT".  I recall seeing surplus 342 but not 348 offered in French radio magazines from early 1970s. 

The latest 348 manual i have is TM 11-6920, 1955, and it's just the J, N, P manual reprinted. 

The 342 was certainly used in Korea War and i'm sure i have a photo or 2.

I did not set out at all to gather 348s but i have the BC-224-A and also an R-849 which is K.W. and has the squelch box on top for K.W. radio jeep use with ART-13. 

I prefer the early no - LF band models. The LF band is useless to me and i like the slightly better bandspread. 

Steve Bartkowski many years ago told me he saw a 348 where the LF band had been rewound to tune our AM broadcast band. I don't understand how that could be, without some screeching mess happening. 

-Hue Miller

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