[MRCA] BC-224 vs BC-348

[Ray Fantini]

The Andover V-32 APU is a thing of beauty! Big problem is finding them today. There is always one or two for sale on eBay but they are expensive. After WW2 they were so common that many were used as stick welders and abused that way. I have my Vietnam M-151A1 MUTT with all its radios and the like and use a MEP-035 28 volt generator set with that. Will easily deliver fifty amps but has the disadvantage of being somewhat loud, I have a fifty foot power cable that runs between the generator and the MUTT so that helps some but the noise from the little field generator has been a source of friction between running nets and the like and the local people at some events.
MEP-035 sell from anywhere  from $100 to $250 at Military Vehicle Shows and I have purchased the MEP-025 that’s the 120 Volts AC version not working for as low as $60 that only needed to have its field flashed to start working again. The 35 is a small two cylinder engine and maybe if you spray paint it black it can pass as a APU if you remove it from its cage.
Maybe you can find someone who will do a swap for the 224 being they are not that common, I got my 224 last year at the Hamvention. Someone was going to basically just give it to us at the MMRCG table just to see it get a good home, John Caldwell was supposed to get it but at the time he was out browsing the Hamvention and I was at the table so there you go, radio collecting can be a cut throat world at times! But it had already had the dyno removed so don’t think that would help you. Have seen many BC-348 receivers for sale at the event. They range in price from $20 to $250 usually and I have purchased both with and without dynos for very reasonable amounts but finding radios that still have the original dyno is still very rare.
Attached is a picture of the ARC-8 radio installation on a C-119 “Flying Boxcar” disregard the gray radios at the end of the table being that this 119 was used to catch Agena  reentry payloads  and the VHF radio would pick up the beacon transmitter on the payload and the scope allowed you to get an idea of where it was reentering from, but the ARC-8 installation is a very clean install.

Trivia: from 1960 to 1987 there were over 260 successful Agena flights with only around a dozen failures. The Agena D series or KH-4 satellites were one of the most successful series of satellites that no one knows about!

Ray F/KA3EKH



From: Herb Mooney <herbert.mooney at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2023 4:34 PM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Cc: Doran Platt <jeepp at comcast.net>; mrca at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [MRCA] BC-224 vs BC-348

Ray, you are my kind of mentor, but a bad bad man so my wallet tells me LOL. :-) Yes,so I'd love to find someone with a working restored BC-348 with Dynamotor to trade for the BC-224 & Dynamotor I have. I have a few BC-348s that have been converted to12 volts, not tested yet, and an extra dynamotor, so I planned to learn how to restore one of the BC-348s black to original condition and power option with the dynamotor. If I can make a trade even better. NOW you open the can of worms and tell me about an APU I need to get. I'm all in, but how hard is that to find...in Florida and will it fit in my StapVan Bomber? I'm planning a hefty overhead console for the ART-13; BC-348, 3 ARC-5 receivers and an LS-3 speaker so far. I will need to find a home for the APU I guess. Here's a picture of my land based B-29 (actually a Grumman P-30 Step Van RV conversion) about to be polished up and vinyl wrapped like a WWII aircraft...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9inF1gudYnsmmvjq9

Herb - W4BCH

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