[MRCA] BC-654 coax

[mkdorney at aol.com]

The BC-654 I have that has been modified for coax at depot is being modified back to it's original, WW2 configuration.  The mod to coaxial cable was never adopted by the US Military, making the mod on this radio really historically insignificant.  I was able to find a BC-654 locally that is a real basket case - PE-104 door removed, switch added for God only knows what, and the case the set is housed in cut in half ( I wonder what that was all about).  But it has the correct antenna and grounding posts intact, and hopefully nothing more in the coax modified BC-654 was changed, although I have many replacement parts in the basket case BC-654.  Both radios still have their serial number matched tuning charts.  I only paid $50 for the basket case BC-654 after explaining to the seller that THAT radio truly was unrestorable.  
 
If anybody has some specific small parts requests for their BC-654 radios, let me know now, and if these parts are available, we can work deals ( Very cheap for HAMs, not so much for vehicle people looking for make a paperweight radio on the vehicle look pretty).  I can bring them to Gilbert on Friday.  After pulling parts, what's left gets scrapped.
 
73
Mark
WW2RDO
 
In a message dated 9/16/2018 11:17:44 AM Eastern Standard Time, mrca at mailman.qth.net writes:

 
Hello Everybody,

      I've done more digging, and found out that some experimentation with modifying the BC-654 to use coaxial cable was done by the US Army Signal Corps in the very early 1950's, at the start of the Korean War.  The US Military was drastically short of radio equipment, and brought many of these WW2 sets back into service.  The attempt to modify the BC-654 was made to enable to make it more compatible with the newer antennas then being brought online by US Ground Forces.  The attempt to modify the BC-654 was found to be uneconomical and ended relatively quickly as new radios were brought online, and the US Army started using FM radios for most of  their tactical communications.

 
 
73
Mark
WW2RDO
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