[Milsurplus] Milsurplus Digest, Vol 267, Issue 6 BC 659

Sat Jul 4 20:04:57 EDT 2026

 RayI have a complete working BC 659. I bought an inverter for the dry battery which works ok. I had to replace a lot of the variable caps as the shafts slipped an shorted. Once I got those fixed I ordered a 29.6 crystal for it now does receive and transmit. I forgot I had another one at Moms house in the attic which was sitting there for 30 or 40 years. I it brought home and I am restoring it now what reason I’m not sure other than the enjoyment of bringing it back to life. MikeW1ZFB    On Saturday, July 4, 2026 at 01:31:07 PM EDT, <milsurplus-request at mailman.qth.net> wrote:   

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Today's Topics:

  1. BC-659 Fun and Games (Ray Fantini)
  2. Re: BC-659 Fun and Games (Brenda Gentry)

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Message: 1
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2026 16:35:52 +0000
From: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
To: Rhett Isley via MRCA <mmrcg at groups.io>, "mrca at mailman.qth.net"
    <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
Cc: "milsurplus at mailman.qth.net" <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Milsurplus] BC-659 Fun and Games
Message-ID:
    <DM8P220MB047220BE237B228C8CC950E5B8F32 at DM8P220MB0472.NAMP220.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"

Been working on a BC-659J( SCR-609/610) and usually don?t work on stuff this old for other people but decided to take this set on. Can see how Galvin later to become Motorola started to develop a lot of what was used in two-way stuff from the fifties in terms of layout and design. The loctal tubes are weird but imagined they thought it was a good idea to keep tubes in place. AI told me they were developed by Sylvania in 1939 for car radios, and I have to wonder why they never found much application in other military radios. The lack of a T/R relay and the transmitter keying design is more along the lines of a backpack or later handheld radio using the PTT line to turn the transmitter filaments on and off for transmitting. Still working on figuring out how the transmitter oscillator is locked by the output of the discriminator and how they had to use a dry battery pack to get this all to come together. Weirdly, there is a manufactured potted assembly that takes the place of th
 e battery and is fed by the receiver filament bus that somehow appears odd to me that someone would market an assembly for such a useless radio.  After all, anything that covers that frequency and is FM only would have real limited use.
That brings me to the question, this radio only has rocks for 27.0 and 38.80 MHz Going to assume that the person who owns it wants to use it so imagine you can play around with 38.80 on low power and talk to things like VRC-12 and PRC-25 sets but have to wonder if there is any given frequency that Military Vehicle people use below 30 MHz? Think channels 295 to 297 may be useful being 29.5 to 29.7 MHz . I think 29.6 is the FM calling frequency but never used that before.
So, anybody got a rock for channel 296? (6.325MHz) have seen these crystals around for years and now finally know what they are used for.

Ray F/KA3EKH

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Message: 2
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2026 13:30:09 -0400
From: Brenda Gentry <ka2ivy at verizon.net>
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] BC-659 Fun and Games
Message-ID: <c2f4d87b-a6f6-97a1-8159-9f425acc2b21 at verizon.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"

Decades ago, I was in a time and place where CB was more popular and as 
utterly unregulated as it became everywhere? in the 1970s.?? BC-620, 
659, 1335s and an occasional PRC-8 or 9 were often on CB.? For the 
daring and/or more advanced techies, BC 603,604, and 683 684 were to be 
heard as well.? G&G and other surplus dealers? would happily provide the 
rigs with CB crystals on request. A lot of kids with "pump gas-cut 
grass-throw papers" money would order them or find them at flea markets. 
On occasion, with the draft still in place and the Vietnam war, a GRC-8 
might find it's way out, you had to know the right person, "speak easy", 
and have well over a hundred dollars ready in order to get one of them. 
Remember, that was equal to about $2000 today. Restoring these and the 
experimenting we did was quite valuable to our knowledge and prepared us 
for good careers as well as decades of enjoyment. Don't forget? that 
many of those people who had these rigs in high school? were in the 
services soon after, and some didn't make it home.

 ???? B. Gentry, KA2IVY

On 7/4/26 12:35 PM, Ray Fantini via Milsurplus wrote:
> Been working on a BC-659J( SCR-609/610) and usually don?t work on 
> stuff this old for other people but decided to take this set on. Can 
> see how Galvin later to become Motorola started to develop a lot of 
> what was used in two-way stuff from the fifties in terms of layout and 
> design. The loctal tubes are weird but imagined they thought it was a 
> good idea to keep tubes in place. AI told me they were developed by 
> Sylvania in 1939 for car radios, and I have to wonder why they never 
> found much application in other military radios. The lack of a T/R 
> relay and the transmitter keying design is more along the lines of a 
> backpack or later handheld radio using the PTT line to turn the 
> transmitter filaments on and off for transmitting. Still working on 
> figuring out how the transmitter oscillator is locked by the output of 
> the discriminator and how they had to use a dry battery pack to get 
> this all to come together. Weirdly, there is a manufactured potted 
> assembly that takes the place of the battery and is fed by the 
> receiver filament bus that somehow appears odd to me that someone 
> would market an assembly for such a useless radio.? After all, 
> anything that covers that frequency and is FM only would have real 
> limited use.
> That brings me to the question, this radio only has rocks for 27.0 and 
> 38.80 MHz Going to assume that the person who owns it wants to use it 
> so imagine you can play around with 38.80 on low power and talk to 
> things like VRC-12 and PRC-25 sets but have to wonder if there is any 
> given frequency that Military Vehicle people use below 30 MHz? Think 
> channels 295 to 297 may be useful being 29.5 to 29.7 MHz . I think 
> 29.6 is the FM calling frequency but never used that before.
> So, anybody got a rock for channel 296? (6.325MHz) have seen these 
> crystals around for years and now finally know what they are used for.
>
>
> Ray F/KA3EKH
>
>
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End of Milsurplus Digest, Vol 267, Issue 6
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