[MRCA] BC-342 and end of displays

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Yahbut you are forgetting one important factor.  There are probably more 
Jeeps running around the US with BC-659's in them than there were on VE Day.  
So putting one of the HF radios in the Jeep gives the owner greater bragging 
rights.  :-)  Plus as a more practical matter, day and night there is 
always something that you can listen to.

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480

In a message dated 10/08/2017 15:10:34 PM Central Daylight Time, 
mrca at mailman.qth.net writes: 
>        God bless Chuck for putting that big honking radio set up in his 
> jeep.  I just wrote an article for Army Motors about practical radios for 
> use by restorers in vintage WW2 jeeps.  I would not have picked the set up 
> with the BC-342 - transmitter and receiver takes up too much room.  Even the 
> BC-654 is too big, and the BC -1306 is marginal ( and you loose access to a 
> tool box ).  Keeping in mind that the Military Vehicle Preservation 
> Association ( MVPA ) is a vehicle club and not a radio club, I recommended the 
> BC-659, set on 29.6 MHz and 29.1 MHz FM ( FM Simplex frequency, and 1 
> frequency that doesn't interfere with local repeaters here in NY or with Amateur 
> satellite  operations), and does not take up most of the back of the jeep.  
> Most vintage vehicle owners use a military radio more as a decoration 
> rather than a radio, but the BC-659 ( as opposed to the BC-620 ) allows them to 
> legally ( with a licence ) operate an unmodified vintage military radio on 
> voice, one that is appropriate for their vehicle, and doesn't really affect 
> the carrying capacity for their vehicle ( parades, reenactments etc ).  
> Interest in working vintage radios is just beginning to catch on with vintage 
> military vehicle owners right now - if we can get Johnny Jeep Owner 
> interested in getting the vintage radio working in their vintage vehicle, and get 
> them then interested in actually getting a HAM licence, there is an 
> opportunity to expand the HAM radio community.  The BC-659 would give these guys 
> a radio to play with, and maybe plants the bug for them to go beyond just 
> that one, very limited radio. 
> 
> 
> 
>     I don't just talk the talk here.  I have a BC-654 in my 1942 WC-52 
> Weapons Carrier.  I'm about to install a BC-659 to go along side the BC-654.  
> I actually have an operational 1945 VRC-3, but the operating frequencies 
> aren't in any HAM band.  My BC-1306 is on the back burner right now, and when 
> it's finished, I probably sell it ( as a complete set, not for parts).  
> And of course I have a couple of BC-611 Handie Talkies to prove the BC-654 
> works.
> 
> 73
>  Mark
>  WW2RDO
> 
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