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Author Topic: FYI: Gated BC1-G went cheap!  (Read 27499 times)
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WBear2GCR
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« on: December 05, 2014, 03:09:38 PM »


FYI, that Gates BC1-G mentioned in the ebay links section here sold (apparently for the second time up) for about $227!! It was in Greenwich, Ct.

I certainly considered bidding, but my personal situation would not give me enough free time to go and get the beast. <Boo Hoo>  Shame that. Finally a monster rig shows up nearby, and I can't do anything about it. Grrrr...

Cheap enough, eh? The tubes alone cost more than what it went for. Wow.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251736184499?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

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W3GMS
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« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2014, 03:30:19 PM »


FYI, that Gates BC1-G mentioned in the ebay links section here sold (apparently for the second time up) for about $227!! It was in Greenwich, Ct.

I certainly considered bidding, but my personal situation would not give me enough free time to go and get the beast. <Boo Hoo>  Shame that. Finally a monster rig shows up nearby, and I can't do anything about it. Grrrr...

Cheap enough, eh? The tubes alone cost more than what it went for. Wow.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251736184499?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

                            _-_-


The BC-1G is a very good transmitter.  Whoever got it really got a good deal on it.  Lets hope they put it back on the air and have some fun with it hopefully on the Ham bands. 

Lately the BC rigs have gone pretty cheap.   It wasn't that many years ago that folks were paying 1500 or so for a rig in good shape.  Now a lot of stations seem to be almost giving them away. 

Joe, GMS       
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KA3EKH
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« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2014, 04:45:24 PM »

Don’t think I would have paid that much or more if it was local to me, and with having to spend five hundred or a thousand dollars to go pick it up and everything you got to really want one. I tried to give away two or three transmitters including a cleaner BC-1 several times and the same scenario would come up, the person would be all excited until they learn that it weighs over a thousand pounds and they have to remove it. Still over the years have managed to give away at least three and picked up a RCA-BTA1MX that I spent several hundred hours on rebuilding and installing in the shop with an old General Radio modulation monitor and Volumax processor all running on 1.885 but in reality have only used it a handful of times and have thought of selling it but although I paid nothing for it the thousand or so dollars that I would want for it is way beyond what anyone would spend, so I am inclined to think there are more transmitters on the market then there are Hams who have the capabilities to use them and unless it’s a Collins 20V that for some reason people think is so special the days of big money for old broadcast transmitter is over. Then again it can just be me, have noticed anything that I want is always more expensive then it should be but after I buy it it’s somehow not worth much at all. That’s the story of my life when it comes to buying and selling this stuff, buy high and sell low. Buy broken and spend more on part then the cost of a working unit, things like that.

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WBear2GCR
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« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2014, 05:16:23 PM »


Fwiw, Greenwich CT is within driving distance for me. I think that it would have taken the better part of a full day to get there, disassemble the big I-Ron, and then load the beast into my van, drive back and unload. Not that much of a big deal. A helper would likely be needed...

Making it run on a ham band is an entirely different story.

Personally, I don't find the BC1-G to have a particularly "eye-candy" look. So, assuming I had one, I'd probably opt for "repackaging" the important guts into a more compact form. That, of course does not account for the many hours involved with this or any DIY project.

Ymmv.



 
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W2VW
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« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2014, 06:01:07 PM »

Take the mod iron and make the rest into a boat.

People always say u can't find mod iron.
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KX5JT
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« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2014, 11:17:04 PM »

My thoughts too... the Iron may be well worth the money!
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AMI#1684
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« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2014, 02:56:47 AM »

Moving a thousand pound unit should be easy.  This summer I sold some of my heavy machines and the buyers came with the right trucks or trailers and we loaded them with no problems.  They were 4000lbs, 3800lbs, 1800lbs, and 1700lbs. Attachments and other parts probably over 2000lbs.

Thousand pound xmtr, piece of cake Grin

Fred
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« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2014, 07:20:50 AM »

I know the guy who sold that transmitter.  Didn't know about it until this post.  He never said anything about it on the air!  Not that I personally would have been interested, except maybe for the parts, but there are a whole lot of AMers in the North-East who would have been interested.

Usually when I see a transmitter like that for sale, it is a thousand miles or more from here and with a high price tag.
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« Reply #8 on: December 06, 2014, 08:56:54 AM »

Broadcast MW AM is circling the drain. Plenty more to come.
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flintstone mop
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« Reply #9 on: December 06, 2014, 12:02:59 PM »

Broadcast MW AM is circling the drain. Plenty more to come.

I would like one more shot at one............but for free or reeeeel cheep.
I regret the other BC boxes that have slipped through my hands. It's not fun when they can not be in the shack and hear them humm when using it.
Fred
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Fred KC4MOP
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« Reply #10 on: December 15, 2014, 10:07:15 AM »

Looks like you have another chance, just saw it on QTH. Relisted this morning

                                              ****************


 FOR SALE Gates BC1G Broadcast Xmtr   1 KW Broadcast Xmtr (2) 833's modulated by (2) 833's $250. Xmtr located
in Greenwich, CT. and must be picked up by 01/05/2015. email for more info and additional pics.Tnx & Vy 73, KA4NNN. Listing #1170672 - Submitted on 12/15/14 by Callsign KA4NNN - IP: 173.209.212.209 Click Here to Email -- Click Here to View Picture -- Send this Ad to a Friend

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KL7OF
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« Reply #11 on: December 15, 2014, 10:20:00 AM »

I bought a Gates BC1 from an independent engineer...He delivered it to my shack....The transmitter was lying down on a boat trailer..all the tubes and iron still attached....We slid it off the trailer, stood it up and it fired  up on 1250 a couple days later...That was 15 yrs ago and those tubes are still in the transmitter...I don't recommend this method, but it goes to show what you can get away with....
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N2DTS
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« Reply #12 on: December 15, 2014, 03:57:29 PM »

Why?
The things are huge, old, dirty, and huge.
If you get one, you may have to figure out how to get rid of it at some point.
There are much easier ways to get an even better signal on the air these days I think, all in a package with resale value that only takes up a desk top of space.
And some of it will do all band, all mode, with a great RX built in.

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flintstone mop
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« Reply #13 on: December 15, 2014, 06:35:59 PM »

Why?
The things are huge, old, dirty, and huge.
If you get one, you may have to figure out how to get rid of it at some point.
There are much easier ways to get an even better signal on the air these days I think, all in a package with resale value that only takes up a desk top of space.
And some of it will do all band, all mode, with a great RX built in.



It was a rage that was going on around the middle/late 90's to get a broadcast rig and convert to 160M. Our friends from the Left Coast started the craze of acquiring old B'cast TX's. Just before a Gaithersburg Fester a fellow from the West coast had heard that I had a BC1-H and wanted to see it in action. It was a neat surprise visit.
The dirty secret might be that folks like to run the full Kilowatt (NOT P.E.P.!!) and be the channel master. None of the consumer stuff available is going to give a Kilowatt out.
I kinda agree about why get one when they are so hard to transport and convert and power. And when the fun is over; how the heck do you get rid of such a large unit?
The "craze" part of the ownership was the audio. Nothing required to re-engineer a military unit or a hundred watt table top TX. It was move the beast, give it 220, and convert to the Ham bands and have some sort of nice audio equipment and mic. Some folks like to exercise the grey matter and get that old plate modulated beast to operate again and make that B'cast quality audio a reality.
The magic stuff of today is almost a no-brainer to get on the air and have DC to light audio.
And there are flippers around who may have been given a B'cast unit and want to sell it for $1200....No thanks....The Gates unit in eBay went exactly for what it was worth.
Fred
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Fred KC4MOP
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« Reply #14 on: December 15, 2014, 07:49:04 PM »

Build your own.  Same amount of time and work.  Which rig would YOU rather have?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gates-BC1G-1000-Watt-AM-Broadcast-Transmitter-/251736184499?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=zn6nHz2kCCegxy29X3cgjQaTLS4%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

OR:


http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=36463

 Wink

T

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« Reply #15 on: December 15, 2014, 07:54:58 PM »

Chuck did it again!!!

The Gates was once on eBay. I wonder what happened?
Fred
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Fred KC4MOP
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« Reply #16 on: December 15, 2014, 08:41:17 PM »


My take on it is to get the BC rig, strip most of it out, throw out the monster enclosure (unless you can re-use sheet metal or chassis sections...), repackage it into something that suits your stylistic and space requirements. Like atoms, that are made up mostly of empty space (allegedly) the BC xmitr is likewise...

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« Reply #17 on: December 15, 2014, 10:20:44 PM »

If I was young and had plenty of space (and no wife) some were very good looking, at least from the outside.
Its not very hard to brew up a KW amp, or maybe a class E rig.

The size and weight are really something to think about!
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flintstone mop
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« Reply #18 on: December 16, 2014, 12:26:51 PM »


My take on it is to get the BC rig, strip most of it out, throw out the monster enclosure (unless you can re-use sheet metal or chassis sections...), repackage it into something that suits your stylistic and space requirements. Like atoms, that are made up mostly of empty space (allegedly) the BC xmitr is likewise...

                      _-_-

Possibly a novel approach to owning a B'cast TX. Re-packaging the awkward electronic assemblies would take some imagination. The "guts' were usually mounted vertically on a panel and the tube sockets likewise. So, there would have to be some backward thinking to accommodate a smaller box and not something 7 feet tall. There's no getting away from the weight of the iron.
I would think the layout of the electronics were for ease of maintenance and air flow. The entire concept was for 24/7 operation and reliability.
Fred
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Fred KC4MOP
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« Reply #19 on: December 16, 2014, 07:03:26 PM »

I am still waiting for a transmitter to pop up in Michigan or Ohio. Have truck will travel.

John N8QPC
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flintstone mop
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« Reply #20 on: December 16, 2014, 07:56:42 PM »

Broadcast MW AM is circling the drain. Plenty more to come.

Keep the Faith Detroit47, John
I will be waiting too but no have truck will travel.
I visited the two AMers in town and the engineers are Hams too and ALSO waiting for giveaway transmitters.
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Fred KC4MOP
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« Reply #21 on: December 16, 2014, 10:48:48 PM »

There's no right way to do it - you can build your own rig using broadcast parts, or restore the broadcast rig itself.  It is really a matter of taste and personal preference.  I love to homebrew stuff but I also enjoy restoration of commercial gear.  For legal limit AM I chose to restore an existing broadcast transmitter and convert it to ham band operation, rather than homebrew a complete new transmitter.   

I have two Gates BC-1T rigs - one on 160 meters and the other on 75m.  I liked the first well enough to  restore/convert a second rig (rather than to add bandswitching to the first one).

http://www.wd8das.net/gates.html

When building a homebrew high-power transmitter guys often use a standard 19" rack as the enclosure, and sometimes that's a bit tight for components of this size.  One ends up moving heavy chassis around.  I prefer the larger cabinets of the old broadcast rigs and work on them in place.  Plus the control system, power supplies, interlocks, etc are already done. 

Steve WD8DAS

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« Reply #22 on: December 17, 2014, 09:29:12 AM »

My thoughts on owning and operating old broadcast transmitters:
Like everything in life, if you got to ask you probably won’t understand. Thirty or so years ago while I was still in high school and because I was a Ham I was able to get into broadcast engineering. The RCA and Gates stuff was still in use in many of the smaller AM broadcast stations and spent many hours cleaning, changing tubes and other operations trying to keep that stuff on air. At the time you regarded that stuff as junk and dreamed of the day that you would have an all solid state transmitter that did not require almost constant support, then years later when you find for the last ten years or so you have not seen or changed a tube and you live in a world where you almost never have to do anything with a transmitter except to change out some non-field repairable sub assembly you start to look back on that old junk with some sort of fondness and then you learn of transmitters that are being taken off line and destined for the scrap yard the idea creeps into your head about maybe bringing one home and converting it to 160 and maybe running it sometimes.
So that’s how I ended up with my RCA BTA1-MX on 1.885 and yes there is lots to be said for the idea of a nice new small transceiver and all its capabilities but I am one of those hams that have no burning desire to just get on the air and talk and am much more content to work on the stuff. And the old AM stuff has an advantage over all the other broadcast equipment that is being decommissioned now days with the older generation of tube FM broadcast transmitters and just about everything that was involved in analog television being all too high power, too large and now too obsolete to have any use or value so don’t expect to see any of that junk in ten or twenty years but the old AM transmitters still can have some limited use in the Ham bands, but it’s just to a select few.
So it’s like owning a vintage car, or an antique tractor, although a Gates BC-1 may not have the same appeal to the general public as a 47 Ford N at the end of the day if it appeals to you get it and if it don’t its only so much junk. Owning these large obsolete and often dangerous things may have its downside, but if it’s what you want to do then that’s all the justification you need.
Do have to wonder if the current generation of Harris DAX-5 and BE AM-6 transmitters will have any appeal to future Hams or if being all solid state and complex will be of little value when they get retired?


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WBear2GCR
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« Reply #23 on: December 17, 2014, 01:11:45 PM »


Sure, shoot me the old Harris stuff. Would love to get the finals out of a now obsolete solid state VHF NTSC transmitter! Got any? Cheesy 

                                     
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« Reply #24 on: December 17, 2014, 01:37:41 PM »

Sorry, everything I did was UHF channels 28, 44 and 56 can set you up with a 30 kW liquid cooled IOT though. It’s an old article in Current but still somewhat relevant being at all of the above stations all the old analog stuff is still there somewhat, in the case of channel 28 we moved the transmitters into the parking lot and over the last couple years we have been removing antennas from towers but still all that old analog junk is lurking around transmitter sites:

http://www.current.org/wp-content/themes/current/archive-site/dtv/dtv0904analog.shtml

Also have a sixteen bay Bogner channel 64 antenna lying on the ground that would make the world’s largest G4 antenna!
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