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Back in 1961 or 62 when I was 13 or 14, I bought an Arc5 receiver from Fair Radio Co. in Ohio and rewired it from 24 to 12 volts. I got a 12v dynamorter for it. Once I figured out I needed an audio transformer the speaker I had came to life. What a great day! Powered from two 6v lantern batteries. I enjoyed your video. Alex
Very pleased to see this series continued. Hope it is a hit. That Ultra Probe is the most effective piece of troubleshooting gear I have. Thank you for the design.
I was thinking if you had these radios from WW2 bombers at Oshkosh Air show Mr Carlson would be swamped and everyone would want your autograph!!✍️. Snazzy radio. Your test probe design very high quality and high end test equipment. When you mentioned checking ball bearings, I realized you have a piece of test gear that can do mechanical NDT non destruction testing to ASTM or ASME standards. You really smart Mr.Carlson
Fantastic to see a resumption of the Grand Receiver restoration series - incredibly interesting content and so educational as well. Looking forward to part 2, and can hardly wait for the day when some of these amazing heavyweights are put to the test and slug it out for the crown! Please could you include the beautiful GE CX371 🙏
We bought BC-348, strip the black crinkle paint, buff and polish the fronts and knobs and sold them with speakers and solid state power supplies. Good times. 73s from KD7CKT
In the late 1950s and early 60s you could get an unused BC342 or 348 series radio for US $50 to $80. The ones with crystal filters made great receivers for CW, because of their selectivity and stability (much better than the inexpensive commercial units available then). The only problem was that (IIRC) the frequency coverage topped out at about 18 MHz. But it was easy to build a crystal-controlled converter for higher frequencies.
Own the same 2 BC-348 receivers we had in my ham radio club. On this receiver I learned and made my first CW communications. This was in 1965-1969, and I have very fond memories of using these receivers. My club was SP2ZBE in Poland. We received these receivers as a gift from the Polish Army as scrap metal, but they were in very good working condition. I, to this day, have no idea where these receivers came from in the Polish Army, because for the most part the military used Russian equipment. Greetings from Poland. Raymond SP2EEF.
Both the BC-342/312 and BC-348 only went to 18 MHz. As you say, a crystal controlled converter made higher frequency reception easy. In fact 20 meter reception could be improved that way too.
I would definitely love to see a dedicated video on your ultra probe. It might be fun to compare it to the super probe in that video too, so we can also see how much more sensitive the ultra probe is.
Very interesting. Two of my interest, aviation (incensed pilot)and electronics ( a degree in electronics and a former avionics bench tech for King Radio).
I have the BC-624-A, I hope they're similar, it's complete and I've never tried to power it up....I'm a bit excited, surely they're similar.... Thanks for all the time you put into your videos, it's much appreciated and I'm proud to be a Patron, so, so many benefits! Cheers, Darren
I saw the title and thought the model sounded familiar; I built a b-17 model, and modified the kit to include authentic details, one of which was a fully equipped radio room made with 3d printed individual pieces of equipment. All the transmitters, receivers, ground receiver, and modulator. Nice to see a real one back in operation!
This is great Paul... Really looking forward to part 2... Thanks as always for all of the excellent content you produce and the unique way you do it...
Own the same 2 BC-348 receivers we had in my ham radio club. On this receiver I learned and made my first CW communications. This was in 1965-1969, and I have very fond memories of using these receivers. My club was SP2ZBE in Poland. We received these receivers as a gift from the Polish Army as scrap metal, but they were in very good working condition. I, to this day, have no idea where these receivers came from in the Polish Army, because for the most part the military used Russian equipment. Greetings from Poland. Raymond SP2EEF.
Sensitivity, small, light, rugged, what a great radio. Not the ultimate of course, but it served the intended purpose very well. I love mine. It was very heavily modified, not in original case, needs some love, but it's still a favorite. These don't normally have a speaker output, higher and lower impedance headphones were the options. Although modifications for a speaker are common.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: This channel offer's up some of the best content on RU-vid. Wish I had the ability to offer up more than a comment and a like (Already Sub'd) Thank you.
Thanks for getting back to the BC-348Q. I'm excited to watch the next episode when it comes out. Time to get out my radio, dust it off, and fire it up.😀
That must be an updated version of your Ultraprobe. I remember the small metal cased one similar to your capacitor tester. I like the new look. Thanks for all your great videos and information on restoration of old electronic equipment. I would like to see a restoration on old digital multimeters, Nixie tube types and old LED types, as well as signal generators too.
So happy to see this video come to fruition. I'd almost given up on restoring my BC-48 tat's full of old paper capacitors. Anxious to see how you handle those. I've not powered it up yet or fear of magic smoke and I don't want to damage anything about tis super neat old receiver. Thanks Paul and have a great day for days to come.😃🥰🤩
I've got that exact radio here in my shed, it works, but needs one of the IF can replaced. It has a power supply included but it's external and I had to repair the cut wires and it fired right up. I think I paid 40 bucks for it in the late 90s. I seem to remember it being in good cosmetic shape.
It sounded fine last time I ran it but thats been years. I had the RBC 1 and 2 for a short period in late 70s and definitely all the caps were bad. They still played but it was very distorted and and you could barely make out the audio. They were found in a old warehouse and were moldy. I ended up parting them out after somebody stole the tubes out of them just to mess with me. They were very advanced radios that even had upper and lower side and and weighed 82 pounds each. I still have the data plates.
@@69Dartman i think that bad caps if powered up would result in a destroyed power transformer... an expensive and difficult to replace item. I'D suggest you cut off the power cord. Maybe others will offer their advice too!
It would be entertaining to send a dynamotor to an engineer at a company like (PC Fan Maker) Noctua, just to see if they could produce a quieter implementation with modern bearing tech, or maybe tweak the design of the stator to reduce vibration, etc. It's extremely niche and nerdy, sure, but isn't that why we're all on Mr. C's channel in the first place?
Awesome! The Ultra Probe must be a dream come true for troubleshooting. Can't wait for part two, hope the black water system is complete and working. A true look into the Ultra Probe would be interesting. Thanks Mr C, see you next time. 73
Nice to see another Grand Receiver Restoration. Not knowing this radio, I was watching and thinking Paul obviously knows the speaker input is derived via a transformer and there is no B+ on that jack. Besides who would be dumb enough to put B+ on the tip of a Jack? Oh yes, it happens. 😨 I have even seen a mains extension lead with male plugs both ends to extend a live bench to a dead one.😱 keep safe everyone. Ultra probe is ongoing on my bench hope to finish soon. Thanks Paul
When he used the test, he noticed that there was a Hungarian broadcast on the radio. For now, I don't know what frequency or band it sounded on. We broadcast on medium wave and URH band. There are only pirate broadcasts on the Longwave and Shortwave bands from time to time.
Hi Paul! Can't wait to see the final restoration on this radio. I have to build that probe as I can see many uses for it. I forgot about the forum, so I need to check that out as I really don't have a handle on taking a schematic and turning it into a PC board. The content you provide on this channel is very interesting and in depth and I like that you share your inventions with all of us. I hope you enjoy continued success on this channel as I enjoy your explanations of the circuits your working on. Thanks again for all you do!!
Dear Paul, I recently picked up a BC-243N receiver which was not designed to fly (lifting the receiver can give you a hernia) it seems to be the US Army version of the BC-24X range. The performance of these 1940's receivers in the AM mode is hard to beat, I have nothing that comes close to it's short wave performance on AM . It's a joy to listen to.
I think you mean BC-342N. I have one too, and it's about 70 pounds with case - lots of steel! It's a somewhat different design from the BC-348 (different IF, different tube lineup, etc.)
lol as soon as you fired up your super probe and started moving it around and could hear the radio that was a good selling point to bet your plans and build one!
I seem to remember something about a very quick way to test the audio output - probe a specific pin with a soldering iron (probably the grid?), and if that stage is good you get a LOUD buzz from the speaker. Also, some older speakers used the field winding (not the voice coil) as a B+ choke, and if it was open, the set was dead as a doornail.
Great Video. I really enjoy your videos and supporting your Patreon. SUBJECT: LOUDAPHONE ... I was watching a Video about the Queen Mary Ship and they mentioned the 'Loudaphones' on the ship that create their own electrical energy from voice vibrations between the phones in the noisy engine room and helm. I thought "Mr. Carlson probably has something like this that would work between his home and the workshop that works even if the power goes out." Anyway, just being silly, but it would be a fun way to be called when one is out in your shop from house, even if the power goes out. Maybe a flashing LED to let you know your better half is calling if you are working on something noisy. Once again, thank you for all the great videos and inspirational projects for Electronics Enthusiasts.
Excellent video Paul! Thank you! Makes you wonder how so much tension was on the centre conductor in that remote speaker cable plug? Some gorilla obviously stretched the heck out of it! Yeah I'd love to see you do a demo video of your ultra-probe! From a brief look at its performance in this video it looks like a brilliant piece of test equipment! Paul I want to build your capacitor leakage tester from patreon, but I haven't found out how to access it. Can you please help? Cheers.
Will only a couple tens of volts of difference really cause that much of a performance difference in the set? Or do you think that something else is at play?
