WW2 Army Radio Receiver Restoration - SCR-284 Part 2

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This is the second in a series of videos covering the repair and restoration of a WW2-era SCR-284 radio set. In this video, I complete the receiver section of the Crosley BC-654 restoration, and demonstrate the receiver in operation on an amateur radio band. This process includes cleaning, fabrication of a WW2 reproduction battery pack, circuit checks, capacitor replacement and restuffing, speaker repairs, and testing using on-air ham radio CW (Morse code) transmissions.
Subscribe to keep up to date on historical military restoration projects, with a focus on the Second World War. New videos are always in development, including more amateur radios, field gear, and other military technology. If you have an idea/request, you are welcome to leave it in the comments!
See github.com/wartimeworkshop/BC... for dimensions and decals from the BA-43 reproduction.
CORRECTIONS (thanks to those who comment and help us all learn something new!):
7/1/2020 - The wax on Battery BA-43 is over the label; it seems the blob of material covered by the label in the reference photo is not wax. I intend to fix this in a future revision. Correction credit: John
7/1/2020 - The driver in the LS-7 shown is not correct. The real driver should have an impedance matching transformer; this model of BC-654 expects a 4000Ω speaker. It will be apparent in the future if there is any damage due to the much lower impedance used here, but I suspect all is well. Future testing will use an appropriately matched load, and I will be sure to update if I obtain a proper, original LS-7 driver. Correction credit: Cheif Santana
7/8/2020 - While I've never heard any horror stories about these particular caps, I've decided to replace the electrolytics in the receiver (2-C-42 through 2-C-45). There are only four, and they are relatively small. This will be addressed in a future video.
Special thanks to these sites:
K4CHE's Website - www.k4che.com/SCR-284/SCR-284%...
N6CC's Website - www.n6cc.com/scr-284-radio-set
G503 Military Vehicle Forum - forums.g503.com/
Radionerds SCR-284 entry - radionerds.com/index.php/SCR-284
Scanned user manuals - www.radiomanual.info/
MicaMold capacitor restuffing instructions - antiqueradios.com/forums/view...
World Radio History (source for MicaMold ad) - worldradiohistory.com/
Carl's M37 Website - web.archive.org/web/202105132...
[EDIT: Carl has updated his website to include a reference to the channel. Thank you so much, Carl, for your kind words and involvement in the community!]
00:00 - Intro
00:42 - Power Supply Concepts
01:47 - Battery BA-43 Reproduction
11:36 - Capacitor Repairs
13:56 - Loudspeaker LS-7 Repair
15:40 - Receiver Testing
16:31 - Acknowledgements and Closing Remarks
Made in 2020 by Wartime Workshop.

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19 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 143

@FarawayForge 4 года назад

This deserves way more views!

@clifffiftytwo 3 года назад

Your repairs on the speaker are very much in keeping with the spirit of early amateur radio hobbyists. You worked with what you had and didn't discard anything. The internet and the ubiquitous brown delivery truck have spoiled us in the twenty-first century. Can't wait to see you tackle the transmitter - FB on the receiver! 73 -

@towerman75 6 месяцев назад

Definitely an artist. I use to rebuild old equipment, but never took the extremes like you have shown here. You should be very proud.

@AstonishingStudios 4 года назад

Dang if your editing after two videos is this good I can only wonder as to what superhuman level of editing you’ll ascend to by your next video. Was nice to see the CRB in some shots.

@CarlReinemann 4 года назад

Amazing attention to detail, I love it!

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

Thank you so much, Carl. Couldn't have done it without your amazing site!

@AwesomeShotStudios 3 года назад

Found your work when looking at field radios on eBay. I think I'm in a new rabbit hole. Nice work on both the restoration and your video. Keep it up!

@u453902 4 года назад

The printing on the battery is on the cardboard, which is waxed over. I re-created a Ray-O-Vac BC-611 battery using the closest color thick cardboard, printed it with a laser printer before cutting. I spent as much time creating the Ray-O-Vac logo as you did. I have an original battery to copy and was able to come up with a very close font. I am very impressed with your attention to detail, especially repacking the Micamolds. I look forward to more videos.

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

Great to know there are others who care about this stuff, and thank you for your feedback! I debated whether it was under the wax or over; I had it in my head the white spot in the reference at 4:30 was a globule of wax. Based on your response I imagine this must be adhesive or leakage, and not a clump of wax. I'll certainly be accounting for that in rev 2.

@christopherhorswell9603 3 года назад

Battery Case - Connector End. All dry battery connectors are sealed against moisture at manufacture with a sealing strip before the whole thing is wax coated. The missing markings are from when the battery is put in service. To do this the tape has to be torn off the battery end to free the connector in order to connect it. Great work and excellent video many thanks. Greetings from Vienna in Austria. Chris H.

@charlieb.4273 4 года назад

I am impressed by your attention to detail and dedication to historical accuracy. The most telling statement is your goal of giving the operator the feel of working on this equipment in its original form. Looking forward to the next video. Charlie KM4ZZ

@rphuntarchive1 4 года назад

This was fun. This kind of tech was practically art ( e.g. 12:09 ) and it's gratifying to see there is enough appreciation out there leveraging modern tech to bring it back to life. Great example of why maker culture is so cool, and Wartie ;) did a fantastic job here.

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

Glad you enjoyed it! I agree this is stuff is art and deserves to be appreciated.

@scottwood1143 7 месяцев назад

Truly beautiful work on a fantastic specimen 😊 My dad operated one of these in the war.

@lomgshorts3 9 месяцев назад

I also approve of the speaker repair! Very Ham Radio approved. The battery box I would have built would have used 18650 lipo batteries and parallel sized D cells, and I would have built a more permanent AC supply for stationary use. This is just my take on making the radio “user friendly“, not what you should have done (your take was fine!). Lucky to have found a matching speaker, too. I have a BC-348 Q in my shack, un modded with the dynamo, and it may be a bit noisy, but it does fine on the 24volt battery I got used from the local airfield. So it doesn't receive the high HF frequencies, but it works with my 40 and 80 meters QRP CW transmitters. Lots of fun! Good Luck and 73 de W4FJF.

@davecavner9689 3 года назад

This is a super cool (and way over my head) video. I have two WWII BC-1000/SCR-300 backpack radios and two BC-659 jeep mounted radios (two WWII jeeps as well). I haven't had much time to dig into them, however, one of the BC-1000s powers up. This is inspiring. Great job!...and the battery reproduction is awesome.

@captndavie 3 года назад

Impressive level of detail!!! So cool!

@GunsandGearNetwork Год назад

AMAZING JOB, on this restoration!! Earned yourself a new sub!!

@davesublette7447 3 года назад

When you get to the point of working on the vibrator supply, use a set of dummy load resistors to adjust the circuit instead of risking the tubes in the set. Proper current values can be figured out using tube specs and/or measurements taken from the battery pack while the receiver is operating. No need to stress your nerves or the set :-) Nice profile in QST! 73 de K4TO, Dave

@davesublette7447 3 года назад

ps -- I will be 79 in a couple of months. If you think the set's components suffer from old age, you should feel how some of my parts feel! ;-)

@rumproast2000 3 года назад

Nicely done! I like your work re-stuffing the Micamold paper caps. I would recommend re-stuffing the electrolytic capacitors since they are probably out-of-tolerance as well. One could go a step further and test all of the resistors, but a set of this vintage will work fine with component values that have drifted. Also, it seems that there is a terminal board missing from the back of the speaker. Some solder terminals mounted to one of the magnet screws would work well to provide a more secure place to connect the wires going out of the case. Thanks for the video, and for preserving this great old set!

@rscelectrical7091 3 года назад

Excellent video, your attention to detail and accuracy is a credit to you 👍

@ramjet4025 5 месяцев назад

Very nice reproduction battery. Very nice art work.

@kharakim 3 года назад

Nicely done. Much appreciate your production values and restoration skills. Would have enjoyed seeing more of the operation of the unit.

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

Thanks for the support everyone! Since there are so many more experienced people out there who are willing to take the time to teach others, I expect to have corrections to add to most of my videos. I will place these in the description under the "corrections" heading. Please take note of the items listed, especially if you are trying to use my videos for reference in your own build/restoration. When an issue impacts the safety or longevity of the piece, I'll try to include the fix in a future video.

@bairdswestciv9542 3 года назад

Excellent work and VG video. I have a 654 as well and am about to attack its restoration. Mine works but those Micamolds are are a bear. Luckily, the 654 doesn't have alot. Try a BC-342. They have about 30. I have an alternative to restuffing them. I buy caps from Justradios.com and cast them in hobby resin. JR's are quality and small. Colored black, they come out looking like the real thing. You then just paint in the code dots. Micamolds were also coated in wax about half the time, so you can hide imperfections with wax. I can post some pics on G503. I am Greywulf there. I love your battery. I have been planning on building my own, but you beat me to the punch. I have collected several batteries as examples and most of my military ones have the ink on carboard and then waxed (BA-48, BA-53, BA-2, BA-28, etc). From the bat packs you built, you could easily do a BA-48 for the BC-1306. Again, excellent work.

@glbaker5595 3 месяца назад

I found this video very interested, but I wonder why you did not continue making videos, you definitely had a good way with handling and teaching

@AuroraMills 3 года назад

Beautiful work, and great production value! Thanks so much!

@Therealmortard 3 года назад

I really appreciate you taking the time to make the battery and make it look like the real one! You did an amazing job and would love to see more things like that.

@WartimeWorkshop 3 года назад

Glad you liked it! There should be some similar stuff in the next episode.

@KD6TKX1 3 года назад

Very very well done! On behalf of the West Coast Military Radio Collectors Group...thumbs up :)

@IrishvintageTVRadio 3 года назад

Wow you really went above and beyond with this one. Excellent work.

@Bernesemtdog 3 года назад

Makes me even more hopeful for restoring a practically dead PRC-77. But mine needs a new Frequency dial Window which I may need to custom make. Other than that she’s almost done, after months of work, she just needs the wires permanently soldered and spliced back together after a little more shortening of a few wires, and two wires needing replacing she should just need to be plugged in and pray the Modules don’t need replacing.

@atomdragon 4 года назад

If you keep making this quality of content you're gonna blow up. Great videos.

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

I certainly hope you’re right! Thanks for watching!

@fanofhifi 3 года назад

Very cool project and well made video. Looking forward to more like this!

@hene193 2 года назад

For the battery and different voltages I probably would have gone with few 18650 cells and then used boost converters for the different voltages required by the radio.

@verwestt 3 года назад

i really enjoy this saga, love it !

@moviestudioland Год назад

Absolutely incredible video and your workmanship is beyond compare. Loved this video. I think you could surpass or complement many museum curators in recreating the artifact in the present day. Thank you.

@GarmrNL 2 месяца назад

I just found your channel when looking up information on the GN-58 B that I have inherited. I love the way you present your information :-) Subscribed to your channel!

@Dngfjnvmdfhg 3 года назад

Very excited to see your next installment!

@lotsabirds 2 года назад

Sounded great! Just like a ww2 era film! Brilliant work!

@scottrand7626 2 года назад

With brittle spkr cones.... maybe try painting the whole of the cone... lightly ... with rubber cement... GREAT job on your battery .... WB0ZLX

@keithglaysher9201 2 года назад

Amazing attention to detail there sir!

@williammitchem8274 3 года назад

Fantastic vid......more...

@feeatlastfeeatlast5283 3 года назад

QST sent me (!). First thing I notice is magnificent audio. Planning and attention to detail is also obvious. 73 de k2xt

@karvast5726 3 года назад

You even made the effort to hide the new components inside the radio,good job,i couldn't be botheted with that since no one will see it

@boxingday11 3 года назад

Thanks, fantastic work.👍🇬🇧

@LeLyfa Год назад

Thank you for this video! I really enjoyed watching it. 73!

@mountaineerfox9234 3 года назад

This is awesome and I'm sharing with friends

@WartimeWorkshop 3 года назад

Thank you!

@triciahunt816 4 года назад

This is amazing!

@Super8Rescue 3 года назад

Amazing work, thanks for sharing with us.

@thevintageaudiolife 3 года назад

Great presentation, awesome video thanks for sharing.

@Velcr0man652 3 года назад

Need part 3 this was awesome!!!

@swagmanexplores7472 2 года назад

Brilliant work !

@dingding554 2 года назад

Great repairment, learnt a lot! Thank you

@josephlicata4304 3 года назад

Incredible! Great job!!

@Transmissions 3 года назад

Man, such awesome work!

@juanmanuelgallego3630 2 месяца назад

Congratulations, that was amazing!

@batterymakermarkii2654 2 года назад

Well done on making your battery pack.

@moodyga40 4 года назад

beautiful radio

@BlakesGarage1 3 года назад

Amazing work. I hope your channel takes off. I have a bc348, among others, that I'm not sure what to do with. Maybe someday I'll get it working.

@Ubermeisteryyy 7 месяцев назад

Incredible work! And a well done video! Subscribed

@c.hundley9714 3 года назад

Awesome work.

@mmouse928 3 года назад

Great video, very nice job.

@francissigrist 3 года назад

Thank for your job and this good vidéo. I love this, you are exemplary. Francis from France 😍👍

@rjy8960 7 месяцев назад

The battery pack work was superb :) New subscriber.

@aussiedazvk4djh889 3 года назад

Very nice rig. 👍

@chrisjanson7237 3 года назад

Wow, I am impressed by your attention to detail! I'm glad to have found your vids through the QST column. W1JCJ

@fretlessfender 7 месяцев назад

I'm not going to lie... but you are up there with the best in RU-vid land! Nice narration, pleasant voice, good quality footage, unbelievable wireless! It is a pity your channel has dried up, for you are able to create huge interesting content! Anyways, subscribed, liked the bell... the whole shebang!

@elkabong6429 3 года назад

Both videos are amazing in the attention to detail as well as the quality of the video itself. I can't wait for the third installment. Since it's been six months, I am hoping that all is well with you and yours and that you will be posting again soon.

@WartimeWorkshop 3 года назад

Everything is fine! Just been extremely busy with work and pandemic life. Working hard to get a new video out as soon as possible!

@christianguerrero19 Год назад

great my frien, greetings from Callao Peru

@MrHBSoftware 3 года назад

12:59 that is indeed true...thats the way capacitance meters work and i am tired of hearing in other videos people saying that the capacitor is fine it just went up in value...capacitors dont go up in value, they develop leakage and the meter thinks it is seeing a larger capacitor bevause it takes longer to charge...capacitor time constant is also used in advantage of the engineers to design oscillator circuits in radios, tvs and old equipment in general were the frequency is determined by the rate of charge of a capacitor, sometimes a capacitor and inductor etc

@OleJoe Год назад

That is so cool!

@Dallas-Rife-UDX-347-Tennessee 3 года назад

Awesome ,, I just subscribed. I love old radios of any kind . Especially old and modern military radios . I’m about to take my general class soon as I can get an exam site figured out . 73’s to you , I’ll be checking out your channel

@joselopez-ci5wm 3 года назад

This is awesome

@allenmiddendorff2068 2 года назад

Very nice!

@MartenElectric 3 года назад

Great production quality, great project. You have an instant subscribe from me!

@HarleyFXS 4 года назад

You do nice work. I will have to pull my box of mica caps out, always wondered about the ones with high capacity being mica. I know I seen the brand Micamold on some, will have to check them for leakage. They probably all came from military equipment.

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

Thank you sir! Micamold-branded stuff is definitely present in civilian radios too. Evidently they did make true mica caps in the smaller sizes that one might expect. However a lot of restoration people are just gonna replace almost anything that says Micamold on it; they are known to be pretty bad.

@ordinaryaverageguy76 3 года назад

@@WartimeWorkshop Micamold made a lot of true mica capacitors in that format. I recently bought a couple hundred NOS "postage stamp" (some call them "domino") caps & verified all were mica construction in values up to about 0.02 uF. And all passed leakage & value tests with flying colors.

@fly-high-me 3 года назад

Ok it's a totally gem

@hoofie2002 3 года назад

I'm now desperate for Part 3!

@WartimeWorkshop 3 года назад

It is still happening, just severely delayed! And more projects to come. Targeting end of June for episode 3 release.

@Indyjunk 3 года назад

@@WartimeWorkshop Just checked back in to see if there was anything new, wonderful to see you're still working on content. I'm looking forward to PT3!

@sergiocritelli7240 3 года назад

un eccellente lavoro complimenti

@whstark 2 года назад

Great Video, I could not spend the time though putting old casing back on caps, maybe an can cap that was showing on top, Can't hide new resistors, or new wire. On the lighter side I've seen on old 20's radios JFET'S put under tubes and yellow led's to simulate filaments. After that I took an old SW took the tubes out and put JFET's used the Filament supply to make a regulated supply, used a amp board for audio. Worked like before but cooler running, and could run off 12 volts then to.

@arenaengineering8070 2 года назад

Wonderful job. As for the battery, I would prefer to use 10-11 size 6LR61 (9v) batteries to get a high voltage supply for the vacuum tubes.

@normanaulabaugh8707 3 года назад

Outstanding video of an outstanding restoration. Norm KC9RGG

@juanchemencedji1911 Год назад

sencillamente exelente,amigo,soy amante de los trastos de guerra...algo tenemos en el shack...cx3et...

@francisbackstreet Год назад

Amazing :)

@MIKROWAVE1 5 месяцев назад

I had one of these beat me. I got the Rx and TX to work separately powered with my hombrew power supply. But together - Boom. Smoked PSU. I passed the unit on.

@nielswereldchannel 3 года назад

2 amazing videos, I really enjoyed them ! Are you gonna make more videos ?

@Radiogenes Год назад

Very nice videos! Suscribed!!

@mohamadothman9208 3 года назад

This is a very underrated video. amazing job. I have been thinking for a while if we can recreative the same ww2 radio with modern technology and observe the size and quality difference. Could you work on something like this?

@henrikstenlund5385 9 дней назад

Thanks for sharing this. In 1968 I found the manual of this radio in the store of a radio shop. These units were not available in my country at all. Therefore I am still wondering how this secured document could be available. At that time I built tube radios and repaired all kinds of radios and tv's. Henrik OH2BLO

@garrettvannorden7723 3 года назад

I am PROUD to be your 800th sub

@N6MKC 3 года назад

Very impressive BA-43 reproduction! Top notch work! One thing, though...that grey glue you used to restuff the Micamolds wasn't JB Weld, was it? Unless I'm mistaken, that stuff is conductive.

@Mr_Mooo 4 года назад

I am really enjoying the series. You got another sub here! Also, fun to see the EEVBlog BM235 multimeter! I wonder if David has seen your website yet? Also, if there is another fellow Aussie restoring vintage radios that may be of interest to some, David Tipton. At this point you may think all Aussies' are called Dave, but we have a few Steve's, Dazza's and Bruce's. ;)

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

Thank you! Yes, I am a fan of this meter. I really want to try the 121GW at some point.

@billblum2018 3 года назад

From the electronic perspective I am sure, that there is more to do then replacing a few paper caps. What about all switches and the connector of the tube e.g. From a mere restoration perspective, your "fetishism" with details is great! Tks for your work! Hope to see more of it. 73 de db1pv

@ordinaryaverageguy76 3 года назад

I noted there were electolytics likely to need of replacement as much the Micamolds. Every resistor ought to be checked for drifted values. I never apply power to a radio so old as that without first going thru & testing every component I can check & marking connections & components verified with a highlighter on a large copy of the schematic. There's a lot of tolerance in most old sets for out-of-spec parts but they work better when the parts are in spec.

@gwebocelestron9194 Год назад

I recently bought at a flea market a WWII G-3 hand crank generator that went with the TRC-7 radio. Working on restoring it. The generator works just great. It just needed a little TLC - bending back into shape the brace which attached the seat to the tripod and some touch up paint. It was also missing one of the handles, so I'm making new handles. Also had no cable, so I have to create a 3 prong DIN like connector and cable. If anyone has such parts (handle and/or cable) I would be interested.

@moodyga40 4 года назад

the wiring is called point to point

@zbyszekpodchmielony2642 Год назад

👏👏👏👏👏+ 👍 Super ! Best 73 & Gl !

@egoncasteel 4 года назад

Have you tried using laser printer toner mixed with wax as screen printing ink\paint?

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

I have not tried that; I was thinking about using encaustic paint, which would be similar. However it seems that I was wrong about the ink being on top; the "blob" in the image is something underneath both the wax and the printed label. I'll be correcting this on the next one I make.

@guus4118 3 года назад

Hey man, I was wondering if you can listen to FM radio stations with the restored BC-654

@WartimeWorkshop 3 года назад

No, it is exclusively AM voice and CW.

@mountaineerfox9234 3 года назад

You should tackle a BC-348

@md10591 3 года назад

great restoration job !! 73 ka2kug

@k1mgy Год назад

What a labor of love. Fascinated with your font reproduction work! Are these available public domain (as .ttf files)? I have a number of "boat anchors" that I will never be able to restore and must part with. CV-920A (x2), an AM-2477B/URR, a R390A, and numerous mil-surplus RF test gear. Perhaps you or someone out there may have an interest?

@Thinks-First 3 года назад

Wow.

@kazprado5356 4 года назад

Can you restore the WWII Iconoscope Camera from RCA?

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

I would absolutely love to, if I could track one down. There is a single Iconoscope tube for sale on ebay right now, but I would want to start from something a bit more complete.

@billwagner8520 3 года назад

don't stop making the vidios---I always lean new Things TNX Wb9jia

@oldschoolelectronics8573 4 года назад

Just subbed. You are going be be competing with Mr. Carlsons Lab very soon with the high quality videos you are putting out:)

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

Thank you, that is a huge compliment! I have only recently discovered MCL and he is fantastic. I may be using some of his techniques in my next video, when I investigate the higher voltage electrolytics in the transmitter section.

@oldschoolelectronics8573 4 года назад

@@WartimeWorkshop Awesome! Cant wait to see it!

@WartimeWorkshop 4 года назад

Minor correction: I just reviewed the schematic again and the caps I was looking at aren't actually electrolytic, they are oil-filled paper. So we might get to explore an even more esoteric sort of capacitor next time!

@oldschoolelectronics8573 4 года назад

@@WartimeWorkshop Nice! I know that they are commonly found in old military equipment and should be reliable but they can leak oil that contains PCB's which aren't good for you. I would check them for visible oil leakage and then with a leakage tester or an LCR meter. If its good, it should read 20+megohms or infinity on your LCR meter. Good luck on the transmitter!