Well, let me nit-pick here.... and with all due respect. The ubiquitous LS-3 speaker is a ground radio speaker organic to the SCR-299 and 399 and not used in the aircraft environment. Owing to its impedance, it is universal use item. No self-respecting ARC-8 or ARC-25, et al would find itself with a speaker.  It is not the companion to the BC-348....   No speaker is.   That said, one will find that speaker used with the BC-348 in radio shops, ops centers, seen in mobile control towers, and in yours and my BC-348/ART-13 setups.  The LS-3 is the visiting uncle who stayed..... hi!!
Jeep K3HVG
On 05/31/2023 4:34 PM EDT Herb Mooney <[email protected]> wrote:
 
 
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

Virus-free.www.avg.com

On Wed, May 31, 2023 at 2:47 PM Ray Fantini <[email protected]> wrote:

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