[MRCA] BC-1000

[Robert Downs]

Minor correction:  The BA-38 used in BC-611, BC-721 and SCR-625 output 103.5 VDC when new, not 90, although 90 VDC will run the radio OK.  But a carbon-zinc 90 volt battery isn’t fully discharged until 45 VDC.  And most radios quit working at about 60 VDC.  

 

AFAIK, the final manufacturer of the BA-38 was Brentronics.  And the final order for them was placed on 04 OCTOBER 1993 by me.

 

Robert Downs

 

From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of jeepp
Sent: Friday, February 1, 2019 12:21
To: W9RAN at oneradio.net; mrca at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [MRCA] BC-1000

 

FWIW, Burgess made the XX-69 90 volt battery for the BC-611 well into the 1960s.  The above, and the likes of the multi-tap batteries for the BC-620 and BC-659 are enigmatic, to say the east.

K3HVG

 

 

 

Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE smartphone



-------- Original message --------
From: Robert Nickels <ranickel at comcast.net> 
Date: 2/1/19 12:05 (GMT-05:00) 
To: mrca at mailman.qth.net 
Subject: Re: [MRCA] BC-1000 

On 2/1/2019 9:58 AM, michael tyler via MRCA wrote:
> Once upon a time you could buy 90 volt batteries intended for a camping light that K-Mart use to sell....any thoughts?

You're probably remembering the Burgess Safari Lite that was made here 
in Freeport IL:

http://www.flashlightmuseum.com/burgess-flashlight-165-2-safari-lite-fluoresent-lantern-burgess-green-label-2-69v-646-or-246-1961

Burgess Battery was a leading manufacture of carbon-zinc batteries for 
decades, having been started by Dr. C. F. Burgess after he consulted 
with Northern Battery Co. which was the forerunner of today's 
Ray-O-Vac.    But after his death the company lived off of carbon-zinc 
technology (including the batteries used in BC-611 and many other 
military radios) and failed to invest in alkaline technology and went 
out of business. Environmental contamination put the old factory 
property on the EPA's superfund list, and the last owner, Clevite Corp, 
contributed to the remediation about 20 years ago.  Today the site is a 
bike and water trail head that I use often.   I toured the old factory 
before it was torn down and believe me, it was not a place  that would 
have been fun to work in.

So unless you make your own, batteries are not an option anymore, and 
DC-DC converters operating from a low-voltage DC supply are the best 
choice for radios as well as the two 69-volt dry batteries originally 
used in the Safari Lite.

73, Bob W9RAN

______________________________________________________________
MRCA mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/mrca
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:MRCA at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/mrca/attachments/20190201/242edc7e/attachment-0001.html>