Highly Modified BC-458-A

[KA8WTK]

  I was at a hamfest this week emd and came across this (cheap)......

   http://www.ohio.net/~ka8wtk/458/458.htm

  It appears to be a SSB transmitter made out of a BC-458-A series unit and setup for 20 meters. The guy did a real fine job, but unfortunatly he is a silent key and there is no documentation available. There is an empty socket on the rig, but I am not sure that something even belongs there as he has every other tube and adjustment labled except for this socket. The unit is missing a 9.0mHz crystal.
  Has anyone ever seen this done? Could this have been from an article in some mag or conversion handbook?
  Thanks for looking............Bill

[Ralph W3GL]

Hi,

Check QST indexes for the 1955/56 era and I think (if I remember right) the
guy that committed the act of vilance on the command transmitter was W2EWL...
 

[The Slab Bacon]

Hi Bill,
         Is it a fazzing or a filter exciter? If it is a filter exciter, the socket may have held a couple of crapstals for the slicing filter. If it is a fazing exciter, it may have held one of those pre packaged audio faze shift networks often used in some of the older phazing exciters. You'll have to look very closely at how the socket is wired to figger it out.
                                                              The Slab Bacon

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

Bill - It looks like the guy did a FBOM job on the conversion and modifying the front panel. I have a few of the old WWII surplus conversion books on CD and will see if I can find any conversion information for you.
Best Regards,
                 Joe Cro N3IBX

[w1guh]

Looks like a W2EWL special from an article in CQ, "Cheap and Easy Sideband".

I believe it was 75 and 20, phasing type.  If you google "W2EWL special" you'll come up with some descriptions.  Here's one link...


http://www.ac6v.com/73.htm


search for W2EWL


Some great nostalgia there...there was a ham in Pontiac whose mobile plans were a Commanche and a 2ewl special.  He was a barber (and not a very good one), but it was always a great hamfest whenever it was haircut time.  His stories of his hernia operation always had everyone in stitches (no pun intended).  Not to mention the time I went out to his shop after a long absence and told him we had had a son.  His reaction?  He told me that I should called him up on "the night" and asked him, "Hey Keith...should I let 'er rip?"     He was W8BQG (Bald Queer Guy)  He was bald, and queer didn't have today's connotation at that time.  (Or maybe it did...his sense of humor was outta site.)

BTW...he ran an Eldico 100F & 75A4 at home...later a TR-3

[KA8WTK]

Ralph and Slab,
  Good Calls!!
  Having a direction to go, some pointed searching makes me believe that this is one of the units done from the QST article. The article was in the March 1956 edition on page 16.
  I have not seen the article yet, but descriptions and pictues on the web point to this being the "Cheap and Easy SSB" rig by W2EWL. The octal socket held a B&W Model 350 audio phase shift network that came in a metal tube case.
  So, now I am down to finding the article, the 9.0 mHz crystal and the phase shift network. Next stop - the "Wanted" page!

Thanks!!!!

[The Slab Bacon]

Bill,
      I may have one of those faze shft units. I used to have one, but I havent seen it in many years. If by some stroke of sheer luck I find it, its yours. No guarantees that it still exists an I may have given it away years ago. I'll look this weekend, if I find it I'll send it your way.
                                                     The Slab Bacon