WB2FCN was minding his own "Radio Business", while suffering from the "FLU" when he saw on the List Server a cry to rescue yet another BC-610. It turns out Rich W5VDU wanted to sell a BC-610 he had gotten at an estate sale. Too many projects and no time, Jim saw this list posting and replied to Rich asking what the "deal" was on the "Beast". He said the first person to say I'll take it, gets it.Well Jim did and he asked when it had to be picked up, by next week was the answer as the auctioneer wanted to have the house cleaned out by then. So Jim and a friend packed up and drove over to bring it home. The unit had sat for quite a long time gathering dust and other residues of a household and looked pretty gross when he first saw it, but after taking a look inside Jim made a bet with Rich he could have it on the air in four days. Remember that he gets to it later. Took the skins off of the BC-610, and Jim carried the Antenna tuner BC-939-B and the Speech amplifier BC-614-E out to the station wagon. When Jim came back in this is what he saw.

Talk about your basic "Ugly Duckling" it looked like it had sat for a very long time. Most of the tubes were missing, there were "NO" usuable plug-in tuning units, and "NO" output coils. Hum well that is alright Jim can still put it on the "Air", just have to clean it up. There was about an eighth of an inch of dust on every horizontal surface and component. There was also some kind of liquid dripped on the R.F. deck around the PA tube socket.

Jim left to carry out the Antenna tuner and speech amplifier, while his friend "Loosened" the bolts on the Beast. He returned to find that the friend had "completely" removed the bolts on all three decks. Now boys and girls, don't try this at home, but Jim quickly told the friend to step back and away from the BC-610 and not to touch it! Lesson number one in disassembling a BC-610(I)

" NEVER TAKE ALL THE BOLTS OUT FIRST"!!!

He explained to the friend that when you do that, the only thing keeping the decks in place is gravity. Yes, he knows they weigh a lot but if you bump any deck off the tiny rails it goes crashing down (gravity), and if there are tubes on the deck below, they get crushed, and the wiring harness to the decks gets "YANKED" out by the roots. So, first Jim took the harnesses off the decks one at a time starting with the R.F. deck, and removed the deck (lightest). Then he removed the harness from the modulator deck, and took it out. Now pay attention Ladies and Gentlemen, to remove (lift down) the Mod-Deck, center your body on the rear of the deck, reach forward with your favored hand (the one you lift with) and grab the mod transformer on top. Slide the deck towards you until it is almost off the rails and then grab the bottom of the chassis with your other hand. Take one step backward, and lower the deck to the floor. Rest the deck up so you are looking under the chassis, this leans it on the transformers and caps mounted on the front of the chassis. Last you remove the harnesses from the HV deck, don't forget the two (2) leads going to the tune resistor. Then walk around to the front panel and face it, grab the top of the rails one hand on each side, and lift while taking one step backward. The HV deck will be in the clear and sitting on the floor, remove the four screws on each side of the front panel and the rails that hold the decks comes loose and that is how it is done.

Well enough looking time to disassemble it and load it in the wagon. Boy that really fills the wagon up quick.

Holy Smoke, it looks like a space vehicle in there, but we got room for all the stuff anyway. Now for the drive back. Did Jim mention the transmitter was in Dayton,Ohio. It rained all the way there and all the way back to Buffalo, bummer! Well here are a few more shots of the dirt etc;

AND THE RUST

All-righty- then!!!!

Remember that "bet" with Rich, well Jim better get busy if he intends to have this thing on the air by Sunday. Now we have to clean everything up so first the chassis frame. Since everyone knows the frame has to be bolted to something in order to stand, first Jim cleaned the frame, then the Modulator deck, thats the one that goes in the middle position, the decks top to bottom are, R.F. Deck - top, Modulator deck - middle, and you guessed it Power Supply deck on the bottom. Since the power supply deck is heavy, make that EXTREMELY heavy and he only wants to move it around as necessary, that one goes in last. So he started with the modulator deck, here is a shot of the deck after cleaning and reattaching the cable harness.

Bolt that to the side rails! Oomph, four bolts on each side, and don't forget to tighten them well, but not over tightened, loose and the chassis vibrates, too tight and the washers break in half!

Jim picked a bad day to give up lifting weights.

Add some of the cabling.

Then he is ready to clean and mount the R.F. Deck!

Did it need cleaning? Here is a partial wipe down. Be sure to clean all the dust off the variable capacitor plates including the neutralizing cap.

Here is the finished deck, there was some kind of liquid that mutilated the legend on the P.A. tube mounting plate.

Jim got it cleaned quite well with lots of help from his Friend. Then mounted it in the rack with the Modulator Deck.

Things are getting a little tight for moving around the "beast".

Hey, this is starting to look like a working radio, we have room now to drag/carry the H.V. power supply in after we clean it outside.
Dirty

Then cleaned as best as can be, hey come on I'm on a deadline here.

Alright, what did Jim do with the

SPEECH AMP?

Hey the schematic is still in place!

The insides look like the old "Monster Movies" castle cobwebs crawling over everything.

Hmmm, Igor the brush Quickly this one is still moving!!!

There are more pictures.
However to get this on in a hurry, Jim must continue the story. All the cleaning and reassembly took place from Wednesday through Saturday afternoon, Jim heard "Craft - T - Bob", "N0DGN" on and wanted to talk to him but that was when Jim was letting the smoke out of a 100TH during the "smoke - test" phase. Jim also couldn't climb over the LARGE pile of boxes blocking in the spare tube box so therefore he couldn't test the AM Fone capability. The good news (Heh Heh) is Jim also "DOES" CW, so Jim got HIS straight key and plugged it in and started testing into a 2.5 KW dummy load Oil Filled. With a Bird wattmeter in the line and the transmitter in tune mode, Jim keyed it and, "Happy Happy, Joy Joy" there you go 250 watts in the tune mode output. Is this a Great Country, or what?

Well Sunday gets there, and Jim tunes the transmitter in the full power mode and got 400 watts output into the dummy load, testing is fine but the "Real Test" is what does it do on the "Air"? So that afternoon Jim inserted his 7030 xtal, plugged in the plate coil ran a cable over to the BC-610 and answered "Doug AKA VO1CKX/VE3" on 7031.5 CW running 250 watts CW, then backed the power down to 150 watts (as minimal as it goes w/2.2 KV) and HE carried on a QSO for over an hour.

Follows is the tube complement:
1) 250TH Eimac 190.00
2) 100TH Eimac 175.00
2) 3B28 13.00
2) 5Z3 19.00
2) 2A3 55.00
3) OD3/VR150 4.00
2) 807 RCA 15.00
1) 6L6G Metal 23.00
1) 6V6GT 11.00

These are the recommended tube replacements per the manual.

Final Result 1

Final Result 2

BC-610(*), REAL RADIOs weigh 450 pounds, have four
handles and are PORTABLE.73 (--... ...--)

MY Mic!

Bob N0DGN

mesothelioma