[MRCA] Pondering the conversion of the BC-620 radio for eithet Ham or CB use.

[Robert Nickels]

An old time Chicago ham told me an interesting story about the BC-603 
which is the receiver component of the SCR-508 that tuned from 20-28 Mhz 
- FM of course.   The important feature to him was that it used a 
pushbutton-controlled local oscillator rather than crystals for the 
channel frequency.    He'd just finished high school in the Chicago area 
where Motorola was located, and thanks to their influence, the local 
police were among the first to abandon medium wave AM for the newfangled 
VHF FM band, leaving many frustrated police-radio listeners behind.

This fellow saw opportunity and purchased custom converters from 
Vanguard Electronics in Hollis NY to bring the new police frequencies 
down to the range of the BC-603.   Then it was just a matter of setting 
the needed frequencies into the pushbuttons and wiring everything up.   
The BC-603 "tank radio" was plentiful and cheap at local surplus stores 
because most hams had little use for them,  but that it could run from 
12 volts and had squelch made it nearly ideal for his needs.    He says 
he had no problem selling enough of these "mobile police receivers" to 
pay for college.

73, Bob W9RAN