Cool, you want a BC-348 to pair with your ART-13, USAF Museum has a good set of pictures of the B-29 including a 360 of the radio operators station. If you want to be uptown and do what no one else has done before, at least as far as I know  the next thing to do is start looking for the two cylinder Andover APU to install and then you will have the power source that was used in the B-29 or at least until they got the engines up and running.

Have seen a couple people who have done flight decks but never with authentic power. It would be a lot of work building up an enclosure and the sound proofing but  it would be uptown.

As to the BC-348 J,N and Q think they are representative of where technology was going by the end of the war and the other BC-348 with the grids top tubes and overbuilt capacitor decks are representative of what was “state of the art” prewar.

Ray F/KA3EKH

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Herb Mooney
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2023 2:16 PM
To: Doran Platt <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [MRCA] BC-224 vs BC-348

Thank you, good info for a NOOB :-) So offering a working restored BC-224 with dynamotor for a working restored or original condition BC-348 with dynamotor might be a good trade or of interest to someone of the WWII radio persuasion? This BC-224 is a beauty, but I am trying to recreate the B-29 radio room in my mobile P-30 Bomber Step-Van (bread/UPS Truck). The BC-224 isn't exactly correct for a B-29 setup.                                                                                   

On Wed, May 31, 2023 at 1:56 PM Doran Platt <[email protected]> wrote:

Concur with Ray on almost all.  The non-concur is Ford vs. Chevy. I prefer the other-than J, N, and Q models. Much easier to remove the "modules".  Also, arguably easier to recap.  That said, the alignment variable caps on other than J, N, and Q models are more robust. The other than models are exhibiting split collars allowing the cap to short. The J, N, and Q models have non-shielded cans for Xtal filter and BFO.  But, when any model works, it does work. Antenna trimmer? Your call.  IMHO......

Jeep K3HVG

On 05/31/2023 11:13 AM EDT Ray Fantini <[email protected]> wrote:

May be wrong but I always though the BC-224 was the twelve volt version of the BC-348 and was paired up with things like the BC-191 transmitters for ground use and the BC-348 was most frequently paired with the ART-13 for the AN/ARC-8, then again the SCR-193 for ground operation used a BC-312 with a BC-191 transmitter, BC-312 and 342 receivers were more a ground radio where the BC-224 and 348 were built lighter for air use?

I have a BC-224 just because its so weird in being twelve volt but otherwise appears the same as a 348, personally I prefer the later production run BC-348Q  over the older design 224/348 although I think all were in production at the same time. Don’t think any of them are a good retirement investment. Collect what you like or find fun to use, once you get into perceived value things go downhill fast!

Ray F/KA3EKH