[MRCA] BC-342 and end of displays

[jeepp]

Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE smartphone

-------- Original message --------
From: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> 
Date: 10/10/17  09:09  (GMT-05:00) 
To: mkdorney at aol.com, mrca at mailman.qth.net 
Subject: Re: [MRCA] BC-342 and end of displays 

BC-620 sets were selling for stupid big money at Gilbert this year. Saw one for $700 and it was unknown if it was working or not.  Most of the old WW2 AM HF stuff sells way under that. Also most BC-1000 and BC-620 sets I have seen don’t work. It’s always an accomplishment whenever I see one working at the Cold War Net at Dayton. Think a lot of that old first generation FM equipment has not aged well but the old AM HF stuff keeps right on going.
Post war and Korean stuff works with no issues PRC-10, AN/RT-68 and the RT-70 sets appear to be incapable of failure except maybe the vibrators but in my experience working BC-1000 backpacks and BC-620 sets are not that common, at least of what I have seen in the field.
This last weekend Mr. Smith and I both dragged our mutts out to a local air show. They had a military display section that we were all located in along with about six other vehicles from WW2 to the M151 and one M-38 owner there had a PRC-10 in the back of his 38 that he had but did not know anything about it. Just for fun we decided to try it out so Breck took the battery pack, handset and antenna from his restored PRC-10 and attached them to this unknown radio that conceivably has not been powered up in years, maybe decades and the radio came to life, it passed calibration and was able to function without issue on 51.0 and net with the other radios that were there. Good example of the quality of components and construction for something that old and not restored to spring right back to life.
Another point about all that Korean War vintage wide band tube equipment is it sells for way less than the WW2 stuff or the Vietnam stuff. Think you can buy RT-68, RT-70 and R-108 sets for a fraction of what you would pay for a VRC-12 or a non-working BC-620/SCR-510

Ray F/KA3EKH





From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of WW2RDO via MRCA
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2017 1:44 AM
To: mrca at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [MRCA] BC-342 and end of displays

     I've been in the vintage military vehicle hobby for 30 years, and can tell you 90% of the couple of hundred or so MB and GPW Jeeps I've seen didn't have any radio mounted.  Of the 10% that I've seen with the radio, most were BC-620 radios that can't operate on the voice section of the 10 meter band without major modification ( easier to convert to CB frequencies), and none of which actually worked.  I've seen 3 jeeps that had BC-1306 radio sets installed, and they worked, but they took up most of the back of the jeep.  I've actually seen more Korean/ Vietnam Era military vehicles with radios installed than I have in  WW2 vintage vehicles.   I've also known quite a few vehicle guys who have actually removed non-working radios from vehicles because the owners saw no sense in hauling around something that took up room and did nothing else.  The push to get the radios in the WW2 vehicles actually working seems to be just beginning to catch hold now in my experience, what with the internet allowing owners to both find radios they can use, and repa
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