[MRCA] MRCA Digest, Vol 267, Issue 22 BC 659

[Mike Christie]

 Thanks for the videos. I’m currently working on my second restoration of the BC 659. Unfortunately, this one has the fungus proofing done to it, so it makes it rather difficult to trace the signals. I’m waiting for the 4.3 Mhz Crystal to come in to continue my testing as the receiver is completely dead although the audio section is working I can injecting audio signal and it can be heard at the speaker, and the volume control can adjust the signal output. The oscillator is also working but that’s as far as I’ve gotton with it. My other one is working fine on 29.6. This one I manage to get one of those vibrators from Itlay for the internal battery.I would be interested to see how the battery pack was made up and also the vibrator replacement circuit. Unlike the BC 348 serious receivers where there is a complete restoration and testing and so forth, you don’t see that with the BC 659 and theres probably more out there that could be repaired but it would helpfull if there were some more videos or more discussion about repairing the radio, rather than just listening to the reception of the radio.Thanks for keeping these radios alive without gutting the radio and putting a CB or soming else in just make noise come out of the speaker!MikeW1ZFB
    On Wednesday, July 15, 2026 at 12:09:25 PM EDT, <mrca-request at mailman.qth.net> wrote:   

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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: BC-659 Just 4 fun (Tim)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2026 10:26:52 -0700
From: Tim <timsamm at gmail.com>
To: "B. Smith" <smithab11 at comcast.net>
Cc: Military Radio Collectors Association <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [MRCA] BC-659 Just 4 fun
Message-ID:
    <CAG9SHKPevhXavuoavSmJpPFs1WVNtLzMAU478LRt_ZacGyYv3w at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Hi Breck - Nice video - as usual!  You might motivate me to revive my
BC-659.  HiHi
Just for fun I tested the meter needle for radioactivity.  Mine reads 0.22
mR/hr with the detector touching the panel.  That's about 20 times my local
background.  It falls off via 1/r^2 as expected.  The GQ GMC-800 Geiger
counter cannot detect the alpha's from the radium (the meter glass stops
those anyway) but it does detect the associated gamma's.
I had tested my BC-683 "artillery band" VHF FM receiver as well.  It's
quite "Spicy" at over 25 times the level of the BC-659.  Some details on
that here: https://www.n6cc.com/bc-683-vhf-fm-artillery-receiver/

No great concern, we all know the precautions...
Thanks for posting your work!
73, Tim
N6CC

On Mon, Jul 13, 2026 at 4:03?PM B. Smith via MRCA <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
wrote:

> While working on a possible web page for the BC-659 I found these videos.
> Z
>
>
>
> http://k4che.com/Tempvideo/BC-659%20Receiver%20Demo/BC-659%20Bench%20k4che.mp4
>
>
> http://k4che.com/Tempvideo/BC-659%20Mystery%20Signals/Mystery%20ch%20272%20273.mp4
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End of MRCA Digest, Vol 267, Issue 22
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