The BC-610-E has landed

[N6YW]

The screen grid resistors of the 807's measure about 30K instead of 22K. The secondary plate leads of the modulation transformer measures 300 ohms instead of 670 ohms. All other DC measurements fall close to the listed specs in the manual.

[N8ETQ]

The screen grid resistors of the 807's measure about 30K instead of 22K. The secondary plate leads of the modulation transformer measures 300 ohms instead of 670 ohms. All other DC measurements fall close to the listed specs in the manual.

   
Hey Billy,

    My mod trans. also measures 300 ohm between the 100th plate caps.
Got my audio issue squared away, C111 in the 614 took a dive. Can't
believe I've had this thing over 20 years now but when I got it it was
not even 50 yrs. old Hi.  Now the old beast is pushing 70. It looks like
I need to re-cap his speech amp soon as well. 

    Terry made some good points, I wonder if you have a crystal or if
your testing with the MO's?  I get more drive from a rock than the
MO's for some reason.  My 610 also has those "R"'s under the VR
tubes on the RF deck changed out. Guess they tended to fail.

That pix of my meter panel I posted the other day was tuned up
with a rock on 3885.

GL

/Dan

BTW: I took some pix but have to work tonight so no time
to post them now.

[N6YW]

Dan
Yes, Terry made some great points and I am glad to hear your Mod Trans measures the same as mine!
I was sweating that a little thinking it had broken down.
I have been using the rock on 3945 which is what came with the unit. During the daytime, no one around here is using the frequency, and yes I also get less outpoot from the MO. Evidently, MO stands for LESS.
Aside from what you all have seen in the photos so far, this beast is in unbelievable electronic condition, not so much for it's age, but by the fact that it hasn't been seriously molested in any fashion.
Mine is dated from May 1944, so it's almost 70 years old and in that light, I find myself to be lucky
for not having to undo a lot of ugly mods. The insulation on the wiring harnesses is in very good shape which makes it an even better unit in terms of work to be done... I hope.
I have her all buttoned up and wrapped up for the WX due here tomorrow. Meanwhile, more reading and studying in order to fully grasp the operation and schemes employed.
The beer is cold, I am tired but readying for the AMI net on 3870 to start in a little while. Sharon, K6IRD will be hosting tonight. Good times ahead for sure. AM rules.
Billy

[N6YW]

Some minor stuff...
My first gripe with the BC-614 was the cabinet. It was just a bare chassis bottom used for mechanical security mounting which provides no means for modern day protection from it's obvious scraping abilities which means that the surface it sits on will get messed up. I cured that problem by using some scrap 3/8" inch MDO plywood secured to the bottom of the case using the holes left behind from some previous application. I finished this MDO with black paint just to mask the color. I then used brand new rubber bumpers (feet) as used on Collins S-Line equipment. These were mounted at 1" centers from each corner and it now clears the deck by at least 3/8" of an inch. This is the way it should be, no marring of finished surfaces, such as the super fine condition top deck of the BC-610. While testing, I had to use a small scrap of carpet to protect the surface from being gouged by the cabinet. Ultimately, the 614 will be sitting on a shelf away from the 610 and I can now place it anywhere without it doing damage.

For those of you who don't know about MDO, it stands for medium density overlay, which is a hard paper product laminated onto plywood. This is used specifically for sign making and is very durable and can accept a wide variety of finishes. It's also expensive but if you need a product that is truly flat, and must be in plain sight, the MDO is great material. I would also encourage it being used as speaker baffle material. I am not aware of any dead spots or voids in MDO. It's laminate layers are of excellent quality and ideal for acoustical use. I will post a photo shortly.
73 de Billy N6YW

[N8ETQ]

Hey Billy,

    Nice job on the feets for the 614.. It was intended to
be mounted to the top of the JB-70 with a special mounting
device.  The JB-70 was bolted to the bottom of CH-120
over a large cutout for access to the connectors on the
bottom of the JB-70.   Here is a pix of what it looks like.


/Dan

[N6YW]

Thanks Dan!
Nice photo of the actual mounting.
My initial inquiries looking for a JB-70 have yielded the replies of "good luck" finding one. 
Feets don't fail me now.

[N8ETQ]

Thanks Dan!
Nice photo of the actual mounting.
My initial inquiries looking for a JB-70 have yielded the replies of "good luck" finding one. 
Feets don't fail me now.

      Well that's probably a good thing Billy, they are full of connectors
that you would pay an arm and a leg for anyway.  Another good reason to "Roll your own". Mine has an internal 12v dc supply for whatever BC-312 I happen
to have, My current one has the RA-20 in it.  I have a couple of 30 position
terminal strips for all the interconnects to the JB70 and it looks OK.  My
START/STOP switch is just there for "The Looks". I don't have the PE-95.

     When I get a round to getting the EE-8's to Modulate the TX I'll
get some pix of the Inards. it wasn't that hard to lash up, Most of the
effort was just in the front panel to make it look right.


73

/Dan

[N2DTS]

There seems to be some secret language BC 610 guys talk, PE-95, JB-70, RA-20, BC-312, and the 614.

Just you guys wait till I get my bg-5000 going, with a full VG2243 into it!
I might even plug in a pair of xm-244's...

 

[N6YW]

There seems to be some secret language BC 610 guys talk, PE-95, JB-70, RA-20, BC-312, and the 614.

Just you guys wait till I get my bg-5000 going, with a full VG2243 into it!
I might even plug in a pair of xm-244's...

 

               

[W2PFY]

I once had the JB-70 and traded it to an 8 lander. I won't give his call as it must be more rare then the  Ark of the Covenant. It probably also has mystical powers as well? I thought about doing a remote with the EE8 but it would have been for my amusement as it would have had telephone quality audio and the hi fi nuts, me included, would have had a severe gut wrench extreme enough to knot their backsides    Can't have space shuttle audio in these parts!

BTW, I would change out those screen resistors that are measuring 30K as they probably go higher when in use.

[N6YW]

"BTW, I would change out those screen resistors that are measuring 30K as they probably go higher when in use"

Yes indeed. When this rain passes, that will happen first thing. It's a funny thing about those old cracked carbon resistors... some remain at spec even after 60 years and some go wildly out of spec under load. I will use metal film units.

[W2PFY]

I think I used two 47K in parallel, the theory being that if one crapped out, the other would carry it till spring. My station is heated with wood & over 100 miles from the QTH near Albany and rarely visited in the winter months. One more tip, always short out the plate tuning cap to the lid over it before changing out coils. If the bleeder fails, you get the 2000 volt surprise jolt of your life! On my D model the bleeder does a good job but on the C model, the thing would throw quite a spark.  There is never a time and I repeat, never a time when I reach in there without shorting it out.

On 160 you will never need that cap that clicks into the top of the tuning cap but you may find that you cannot get up to 250 mills on 160. This is caused by not enough turns in the link in the coil to properly couple the RF out of it.

[N6YW]

I am going to try to get the beast on the air tomorrow night for Heavy Metal night. I will have the ART-13 as back-up. I hope conditions are good. I didn't get to bring it up on Christmas, just too much family stuff going on and we had way too much fun eating and drinking ourselves into oblivion. What a fantastic Christmas we had, but it could have been better if I could've gotten my brother in law, Josh KI6DNN to witness some heavy metal activity first hand for the first time. However, we were too busy entertaining his 92 year old Mother and having way too much fun. I think for his birthday, I will give him my TX-1 Apache to get him started. It's no longer "Scratchy" and sounds quite good. I am going to get him to monitor the activity tomorrow and let him hear first hand some of the more impressive West coasters we have, throttling the airwaves. It will be awesome.
73 and stay tuned.
Billy N6YW