Citroman Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 I found this old british transciever. The seller advertised it as an aviation radio but i am not sure. I think it is an early car-phone. Anyone know this model. I can't find almost nothing about this firm BCC. Other than it's gone up in Racal. The aluminium casing was put around by someone. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g0ozs Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 BCC was part of Daniel Prenn's Truevox group which merged into RACAL around 1970 becoming RACAL-BCC - most of the "RACAL" Clansman sets are really BCC designs or descended from them - they represent a separate, parallel product line with BCC model numbers (even through to 1980s BCC39 Panther family secure radios) to the RACAL Mobilcal subsidiary which made sets with RA or MA numbers for export. This looks quite early - probably around 1960. If the labels above and to the left of the "Channel" switch are frequencies then 122.8 and 123.? MHz is consistent with air mobile or ground to air use. BCC transferred its aeronautical radio business to another Truevox group company before 1960 according to http://brenelltape.co.uk.websitebuilder.prositehosting.co.uk/truvox . Regards Iain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citroman Posted December 12, 2017 Author Share Posted December 12, 2017 (edited) Thanks for the info. Yes it was used on an glider airfield as far as i know. (123.4 Mhz) Did find this old ad. Edited December 12, 2017 by Citroman picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citroman Posted December 18, 2017 Author Share Posted December 18, 2017 It did recieve the radio-telephone and opened it. It is a 17 valve beast and it has 3 transistors. But more than noise isn't coming out of it yet. And it drains a lot of energy from the eletrical charger... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendelspanswick Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Did you wait for it to warm up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citroman Posted December 19, 2017 Author Share Posted December 19, 2017 Maybe not warmed it long enough. But i will wait till the weekend there is a glider airfield nearby maybe there is something to be heard.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g0ozs Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 The heater current alone will be significant - I would expect for something of this period that the heaters are wired to run off the vehicle supply and the transistors will be a power oscillator driving the transformer for the high voltage supply (in preference to the mechanical vibrators used in 1940s sets). It's worth turning the lights off when it is powered to check all the valves are glowing. I would expect for a set getting on for 60 60 years old that some components will have aged - the usual suspects are capacitors (both electrolytics and "Hunts" paper capacitors with a metal can that has a tag one end and a wire through a rubber bung the other end) gradually which become leaky and carbon composition resistors which end up much higher than marked value. Disconnecting and testing these is generally a good idea. Mechanical contacts in switches and potentiometers also tend to corrosion and go high resistance if disused, especially in cool damp storage. You may find: https://www.vintage-radio.com/repair-restore-information/index.html useful. Early germanium transistors suffer from various slow deterioration mechanisms unknown at the time they were made - both crystal growths on the surface in storage electro-migration when in use. If the power inverter is not oscillating because of transistor failure then there will be no HT voltage even though the valves are lit. If it does have an inverter power supply using the transistors as I suspect, then the circuit is likely similar to a Heathkit HP-13 see: http://radionerds.com/images/3/3f/Portable_power_for_the_TCS-Roger_Basford_G3VKM.pdf As it has two fixed channels determined by the crystals either side of the relay at bottom right you will need to either find an airfield that uses those channels or use a signal generator instead - changing the crystals before it is otherwise working is unlikely to succeed because there are then too many unknowns Regards Iain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citroman Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 Hi Iain. Thanks for your elaborate help. It has 3 Mullard OC35 transistors in the front under the plate with the enamelled BCC logo. There a 5 cristals 4 by the relay and one under a grey cover next to the transformer. It looks very clean inside. But indeed i have to check the parts. I am a member of an local oldtimer radioclub but a transciever is something different. Transistors with intern cristal growth can be recovered. I did that already on an Sailor ships radio. I found out BCC made this type of equipment for Marconi also and it was used by the emergency services. It had a similar look but was painted completly in hammerite style silver-grey. Regards Fer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citroman Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 Did give it a try, all tubes light up and apart of some soft noise from the speaker there is nothing. A light crackling when turning the volume button. And the red power light varies a bit in intensity. Didn't want try to send without an appropriate antenna. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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