The AM Forum

At the last HAMFEST VE3PVR gave me a ruf condition BC454 reciever. Thank you BTW. After beating on it for a week I now have it working beautifuly and am somewhat impressed with this tiny rig. I am seriously wondering about finding its mate transmitter which in this case would be I believe BC 696 . Does anyone have one of these transmitters on the air and how diffficult is it to find one? I believe the BC series is a screen modulated  rig. I have heard and read the ARC 5 series transmitter the TR19 is plate modulated. However in the interest of having aproper matched setI would like to run theBC version. Any sugggestions, leads or ideas?Specs also of the Bc and T transmitters would be of interest.
Don VE3LYX

Have you tried the "Milsurplus" email reflector or the MRCA reflector? Cretin someone on one of those groups would help or offer to sell you something. You can subscribe to Milsurplus by going to QTH.net mailing list page. Is what you have the TRF receiver that uses plug in coils? Think the transmitter that went with that is something like a GF-11 that also has plug in coil and uses something like four VT-25 tubes that are always missing but have seen the transmitter on eBay quite often.

Right you are, the BC-696 is the 3.0 to 4.0 transmitter. They show up fairly often at Hamfests in various states of dis-repair. I see prices from 25 to 100 bucks depending. Harder to find is the BC-456 modulator, but they are out there. A little patience and you will find a nice one of both.
Connectors and racks are also available but take a little longer to find at fests. The suggestion of the Milsurplus reflector is good advise.

Bill KA8WTK

Basically, as originally supplied, the ARC-5 units are plate modulation with shunt fed PA circuits while everything else (BC like yours) is screen modulation with series fed PA.  The modulators are seriously pricey these days as the military collectors want them and I suspect they were the first things thrown out back in the 1950's when hams were converting these.  The dynamotor went on the modulator.  The general rule of thumb is that the screen modulator is the bare aluminum one (BC-456 or CBY---) and the MD-7/ARC-5 is black wrinkle (there were some black wrinkle screen modulators too but they seem less common.)   In your case you want the BC-456 screen modulator, although I would think it wouldn't be too much effort to make one with an AC supply.

The screen, modulator BC-456 is not rare and they can be had quite inexpensively. The MD-7's on the other hand were butchered for parts and are a bit harder to find. The BC-696 is quite common. Saw one today at Nearfest for 10 bucks.

Mike WU2D