For many years my WWII vintage BC-1004-C receiver has been gathering dust in a corner of the basement. I grabbed the radio and power supply in a metal rack (150 lbs. total) when it was junked from the ham shack at my college and used it for a few years to listen to short wave. I had reconditioned it by doing a compete alignment and a face lift with new front panel paint and lettering but since our move 23 years ago it has been inactive.
I recently decided to get it working again and upon power up it lit up just fine. After a few hours with power though it became a smoke generator and stopped working. The problem was a wax sealed cap in one of the IF cans had shorted and took out a resistor. From the schematic I knew the part values needed and from the smoke I knew where they were. Replacements were available from my junk box and after a few hours of surgery and a general clean up it was working again. The last alignment was in 1975 ( I wrote this inside the chassis) so I decided to do it again. Nothing needed to be changed and all 18 tubes checked good. Pretty impressive.
The BC-1004-C is regarded by many as having audio quality among the best available for AM and I agree with this assessment. All was well until I tuned my part 15 station's signal which was terribly distorted. It turns out that since the radio is less than 10 feet from the transmit antenna that the front end was overloaded. This radio has many knobs including a manual AVC pot and switch. Going from automatic to manual mode solved the problem. I am able to adjust the gain for super quality audio despite the strong signal. I also compared my signal to those of several local stations and there was no comparison. The other signals were dull sounding and mine was crystal clear.
The radio has IF bandwidth knobs which can vary the bandwidth from a few Hz up to 16 KHz. Wide open, the radio produces audio from my station which is close to FM in quality and clarity.
This note is to brag a bit about my treasure but also to give an operating hint about monitoring your part 15 AM signal; namely, make sure you are not overloading your receiver when you are testing.
Neil
Hey Neil
The thread next door has been asking questions about getting wide-bandwidth on the transmit antenna, and here you have wide-bandwidth.
What kind of transmitting antenna are you using?
Hey Neil
The thread next door has been asking questions about getting wide-bandwidth on the transmit antenna, and here you have wide-bandwidth.
What kind of transmitting antenna are you using?
My xmit antenna is a 3/4 inch copper pipe suspended from the ceiling of my basement and running horizontally along the joists. It is fed via a link coupled L/C coil tuned to a very sharp resonance. The reason I am using the pipe is that I built it with the intent of installing it outdoors with a radial system but the project never got off (or above) the ground and I decided to try it indoors. Prior to using the pipe I used a wire and hence the observation I related in the other thread.
It is not a great setup but it covers my house and yard nicely and keeps all the equipment indoors.
Neil
My xmit antenna is a 3/4 inch copper pipe suspended from the ceiling of my basement and running horizontally along the joists. It is fed via a link coupled L/C coil tuned to a very sharp resonance. The reason I am using the pipe is that I built it with the intent of installing it outdoors with a radial system but the project never got off (or above) the ground and I decided to try it indoors. Prior to using the pipe I used a wire and hence the observation I related in the other thread.
It is not a great setup but it covers my house and yard nicely and keeps all the equipment indoors.
Neil
Hi Neil:
Isn't it a great thing to power up a radio
that hasn't been used in a while!
You have the skills to do what needs to
be done to get everything right again.
I have never heard of that receiver, but
it sounds like a special rig.
I have a forty year plus collection of radios.
But in trying to remain low key with my
ham setup - I have a small operating position,
and I change the radios once in a while.
It is really fun to bring a rig out of storage
and rediscover it.
By the way. You talked about overload when
listening to your Part 15 AM signal. I had a
small portable AM receiver (don't remember
what it was) that would go completely silent
when placed next to my Part 15 AM antenna.
(Even when the volume was turned way up.)
At first it would distort, and then the sound
would disappear.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
Hi Neil:
Isn't it a great thing to power up a radio
that hasn't been used in a while!
You have the skills to do what needs to
be done to get everything right again.
I have never heard of that receiver, but
it sounds like a special rig.
I have a forty year plus collection of radios.
But in trying to remain low key with my
ham setup - I have a small operating position,
and I change the radios once in a while.
It is really fun to bring a rig out of storage
and rediscover it.
By the way. You talked about overload when
listening to your Part 15 AM signal. I had a
small portable AM receiver (don't remember
what it was) that would go completely silent
when placed next to my Part 15 AM antenna.
(Even when the volume was turned way up.)
At first it would distort, and then the sound
would disappear.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
Bruce,
Here's a link to some pictures of the radio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammarlund_Super_Pro
Mine is marked "Fungus Proofed June 1943" so I presume that is when it was manufactured.
These were used in the military and the cost at the time was from $465 to $507 1943 dollars. This translates to $5700 to $6121 in 2009 dollars so this radio was not for the home market.
I also have a Crosley vintage 1936 Tombstone style radio which still works and it does not overload with my signal. Its sensitivity and AVC must be very different from the 1004 radio. It cost about $70 when new which translates to $1072 in 2009 dollars. This appears to have been about two week's pay back then. Considering the abundance of these and Philco Cathedral radios on the antique market today for about $25 to $100 it seems they are not very rare so folks back in the '30s must have bought many of them even at the relatively high price.
Neil
The Super Pro looks very similar to the HQ-129-X. I had one of those for several years. When times got tough I had to let it go for a few bucks.
It was my first real Ham Radio receiver when I got my Novice license in 1972. It had a great bandwidth filter for CW. It had a little drift problem with line voltage changes. I always figured it was the local oscillator tube filament changing temperature with voltage changes.
Hi Everyone!
I didn't realize that the BC-1004-C was
a Super Pro.
I knew a guy in the 1970s that sold his
whole ham station so he could buy a
Super Pro.
I have a wonderful Hammarlund HQ-140X.
It is the second one I have owned. (I had
another one years ago and had to get rid
of it.)
I got my ham license in 1971. The first good
receiver I got was the original HQ-140X.
Finally, after struggling with a Heathkit HR-10B,
I had something I could work with.
Not only was the Hammarlund a really good
ham receiver, it was really good on the
AM BCB. I heard Spain on 683 (or 684...?) kHz
the first year I had the original HQ-140X.
The Hammarlund receivers are still great,
decades and decades later after they
came out of the factory!
Best Wishes
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
I also have a Hammarlund-- the "HQ-ONE SEVENTY." This is actually how the model number is displayed on the front panel. I haven't turned it on in years. I'll use a variac when I do to avoid smoking electrolytics.
I had one of those, too.
It was one of the best ham receivers I
ever had.
I used to have regular ham radio contacts
between Connecticut (my location) and
Chicago. A good friend and I would hook
up every Friday night on 40 meters (7.0 -7.3 MHz,
for you guys out there who aren't familiar with
the ham radio bands) cw (Morse code.)
My friend was transmitting with an ancient
Collins transmitter. It might have been a
32V3, but I'll have to check. It was real
square and old looking. I just can't remember.
Anyway, his transmitting antenna was just the
rain downspout on the side of his apartment
building. So even though he was running a
fair amount of power, he didn't put out much
of a signal.
The HQ-170 dug that weak signal out of all
the surrounding interference with no problem
at all. It was 1979 and 40 meters at night
was absolutely jammed with Morse code
signals.
I got rid of the HQ-170 so I could buy a
Kenwood TS-520S. I still have the 520S,
but the power supply sort of self destructed
a couple of years ago. I bet the HQ-170
(wherever it is) is still running.
My ham radio friend and I are still talking on
cw now - 31 years later. We're just using
different radios now. And it's still on Friday
night.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
My Kenwood TS-520SE is still running well.
It had been in storage for a while and I got the bug again. When I checked it out, I found the high voltage not working. I replaced two large electrolytics that had leaked out and everything is fine and dandy again.
It's the only new HF Ham radio I ever bought. It covers 160 thru 10 meters, SSB and CW. I mainly ran CW but have tinkered lately with the newer PSK teletype mode and SSTV as all I needed was a free software download to try it out.
I have a friend in New Jersey who said he
could fix my TS-520S for free. I live in
Connecticut so I would have to ship it
to him. (He does things slowly, though. The
radio might not come back for a year, which is
OK.)
It is a really really good radio. I bought mine
used in 1981. My favorite bands have always
been 80 and 40 cw. (That's where it all started
for me.) I also love 10 meters, when it is open.
In that case I run sideband just because it is
quicker. As you know, you can make unbelievable
QRP contacts on ten meters when conditions are
good.
I don't do much ham radio because I don't have the
time. I have the 80 meter cw contacts with my
friend on Friday nights. The transmitter is a 1 tube
6AQ5 rig that was built in a square cookie tin.
I have a lot of different receivers I can use.
Similarly, I have all these things I want to do for my
Part 15 station, but time is not really there. I have
a bunch of projects for MICRO1690/1700 that are
going slowly and will take years to complete. The
solar powered repeater is what I'm tinkering with
right now.
Until I get MICRO put back on the air with a good
AM signal, I am just using it in the house. I have
been playing lots of phonograph records. That's
really cool.
Enjoy your TS-520SE. It is a real gem.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
Thanks for the compliment about the 520SE. It's been a very good radio. When I first got it the propagation on 10 meters was extrordinary. With a 4 element yagi 5 feet off the roof, I could talk anywhere in the world, any time of the day or night. It was fantastic.
Somewhere along the way I must have given the yagi away. I went back to my very first 40 meter dipole (which I swear I'm gonna put back up someday.) I made a contact from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio to Florida with only .5 watts CW using that antenna.
Ditto regarding finding the time. My Ham activities are limited but I do turn it on to listen and make the occasional contact. I should look you and your buddy up sometime, see if my copy is still any good.
I like the 1 tube cookie tin transmitter. I still have a very old Popular Electronics with a 1 tube TX project which someday I'd like to build. In the classic way it's built on a piece of wood.
Let me know what frequency you QSO on and I'll give a listen.