[TenTec] OT (that is Off Topic and Old Timers) BC-610

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Sat, 2009-09-05 at 08:49 -0400, Carter wrote:
> Dr. Gerald N. Johnson wrote:
> 
> >  The main contributions from Collins in WW2 were the ARC-2 and ART-13.
> >  The ART-13 covered LF and HF, PA an 813 modulated by a pair of 811.
> >  It had ten mechanical presets that could be anywhere in its range.
> 
> ...and those motor driven mechanical presets gave the radio its 
> nickname, "The Coffee Grinder". It did NOT run quietly -- but when you 
> were on a B-29, I guess 'noise' was relative.

With the engines running the ART-13 didn't change the noise level at
all, except in receivers. That era military aircraft didn't consider the
hearing of crew members was crucial to the mission.

Last month I was touring the outside part of the air museum at Ellsworth
AFB near Rapid City when a B1B took off and kicked in the afterburners.
It was LOUD on the ground half a mile or more from the run way, and
leaving at a few hundred mph.

> As a snot-nosed kid in the 
> early 60s, I built an HV and 28VDC power supplies to run it on the ham 
> bands and it was fascinating to watch the thing tune. Even operating it 
> was noisy. As I recall, when you were on CW, it keyed everything, up to 
> and including the antenna relay. A LOT of clattering.  I finally got rid 
> of the radio because I couldn't run the thing after my parents went to 
> bed.   :-)

At Washington U (St. Louis) Radio Club (W0QEV) we had one. Found the
power connector and the dynamotor and built up the cable. The station
was in the attic of the EE building behind the wall that the ROTC rifle
range shot towards. We mounted an AC motor (probably 10 hp) and a 28
volt generator on further west in the attic outside the hamshack and ran
it that way. It preferred odd antennas to dipoles so we hooked it
between the building electrical ground and the tower ground. The tower
ground wire ran down the back of the building about 4 stories while the
building ground ran down the front with two stories below the attic. One
time for a SS operation, we hung a used fluorescent tube on that tower
ground wire and it lit up nicely with the key down.

That tower mounted on the roof had been the tower that held up one of
the flat top for one of the first AM stations in St. Louis in the 1920s.

One time a freshman in the shack was dying for a smoke and none of us
doing home work there smoked. So I warmed up the ART-13 with the lid
off. Without an antenna I keyed it and used an insulated screwdriver
(very large one left by the fire escape installers, probably used as pry
bar, that size) to draw a fluffy arc (screwdriver not grounded, just its
capacitance) off the 813 place connection and lit a sheet of paper from
that arc. He didn't ask for a light in the hamshack after that. I'm not
sure he came back. Might have lost a member.

73, Jerry, K0CQ
> 
> Carter  K8VT