My story of the BC-223 begins in summer of 1963 when I became a sophomore at Saint Joe's High School.  I originally joined the school’s amateur radio club (W8KTZ) to get my ham ticket.  But unfortunately, being involved in so many other school activities, I never got around to getting my license.  Getting that license would have to wait for at least another twenty years!  However, I didn’t walk away from the club completely empty handed. For five dollars I acquired an old World War II surplus radio transmitter at one of the club’s many flea markets.  It was an old BC-223-A transmitter.

Unfortunately, only being 15 years old at the time, without a job, and very little money, I couldn’t afford a power supply.  And even if I could, I had minimal electronic skills to get that rig working.  Nonetheless, I bought the radio anyway.  It weighed over forty pounds.  I dragged that rig home on the bus (it took three different buses at that time), and it lived in my bedroom throughout my high school years.  Oh yeah, I occasionally twisted the dials and dreamed of the day when I would eventually get it fired it up.  But, the only thing I ever managed to do was to light the filaments.  As time went on, I eventually disassemble that old rig just to see how it was put together.  Before long it was in hundreds of pieces, with the bulk of it winding up in the trash.

Back in the sixties, World War II radio surplus goodies were available in abundance. I’ve learned that The Heathkit Company was a big buyer of war surplus equipment and was instrumental in getting many of those rigs into the hands of equipment-starved Amateur Radio operators. 

I had always felt a little perturbed for allowing myself to dismantle that old transmitter.  After the Internet arrived, I finally started doing a little research about it, and learned that the BC-223 was actually designed for use in various receiver/transmitter configurations.  It carried a variation of either the SCR-210 or SCR-245 designation, and was one of the communications workhorses prior to the outbreak of World War II.  It was commonly used in Light and Medium Tanks, Combat cars, Scout Cars, ½-ton trucks and 75mm gun motor carriages.  Its usage continued through to the early part of World War II until it was replaced with more sophisticated equipment.

Well, as luck would have it, a few years ago I was surfing the Internet and came across a BC-223-A that was being auctioned on eBay.  I jumped on it.  I put in my “high bid” of $50.00  --ten times what I paid for it nearly 40 years earlier!  I fully expected to be the top bidder at the end of auction.  Well, to my astonishment, "that" rig went for nearly $500.00!  I was stunned!  I couldn’t believe that it would fetch that much.  I decided to put the BC-223 into my Favorite Searches on eBay and waited for another one to come along.  Every once in a while one would appear, and each time it commanded a high price.  I was starting to feel as though I would never own a BC-223 again.

Then one day I received an email alert from eBay informing me that another BC-223-A was up for auction.  Well, this time it was on my day off.  I knew that I was one of the first to hit the web site that day.  The hit counter was still very low.  It was an estate sale and radio looked complete.  Interestingly, the seller also inserted a “BUY NOW” button with a purchase price of $400.00.  I quickly called my wife at work to get her permission, and after a short conversation, she agreed.  I immediately pushed the “BUY NOW” button, and the rig was mine!  Waves of nostalgia crept over me.  I finally owned a BC-223 again!  My second rig --nearly forty years to the day of my first acquisition!

It was a great day in Mentor, Ohio, when that UPS guy lugged that big crate it up the front steps. That rig sat on the living room carpet for well over two weeks before I even began to tinker with it.  All I did was stare at it. : It wasn’t, necessarily, a gorgeous radio; it did have some wear and tear, and a little corrosion here and there. But, it was complete!  Nothing on it was missing.

A few months later, I eventually bought an old Fluke 407D power supply, and six months after that, the first CW signal emanated from that rig.  Each little bit of progress swept me with pride.  I soon purchased a matching T-17 microphone from a radio surplus house in London, England . . .

http://www.armyradio.com/arsc/customer/home.php

     . . . and I even found a crystal supplier . . .

http://www.af4k.com/FT171_crystals.htm

     . . . that would “rock up” pretty much any frequency in any empty crystal container.  He installed it into the appropriate crystal holder that I acquired for the BC-223.  I bought four crystals from him to fill the transmitter’s four empty crystal slots.

Next, I needed to find an original power connector and my search led me to another company that sells war surplus radio goods and parts: The William Perry Company, Inc of Louisville, Kentucky.  They had the appropriate PL-160 power plug for my rig. And finally, I located the most appropriate eight-conductor power cable that works perfectly with the PL-160 power plug.  Ironically, I found that length of cable only a mile from of my home in Mentor, Ohio; from one of the oldest Electronics Surplus suppliers in the country, Electronics Surplus Inc. (previously Western Salvage of Cleveland, Ohio) .  They have everything you could ever hope to purchase for any project.  Finally, with the addition of my new plug, I could dispense with that rats-nest of alligator clips and single strand wires that were delivering juice to the various power supply pins.

Next, I decided that I should do something about the sorry state of the cabinet appearance, and decided it was time for a little bodywork. Little did I realize that this part of the restoration would be even more formidable than any of the electrical work that I had completed!

Basically, I completely refinished the chassis with black wrinkle paint.  I replaced every 6-32 slotted pan head screw with exact sized replacements on the chassis. I purchased new “rub-on” lettering that exactly matches the font and almost exactly matches the font size.  I did some nickel electroplating where the metal was particularly worn, and even found new "toilet seat” lids for the key and microphone sockets at FAIR RADIO SALES .

Some parts of the mounting clamps, locking clips, clip buttons, switch stops and hand locking screws on the transmitter's chassis were in pretty bad shape, with the brass actually showing through.  After some searching, I found a handheld nickel electroplating kit from Caswell .  With their product, I was able to electroplate the old brassy looking metal with new nickel-plating.  The restored surfaces increased the luster considerably.

The beauty of Caswell's product was that it didn't require any immersion, or removal of any parts.  Their kit included a little 4.5 volt DC wall supply module.  I connected the negative pole the transmitter chassis ground with an alligator clip, and the positive pole connected to a handheld cloth wand, saturated with nickel sulfate, which was included in the kit.  All that was required was to slowly stroke the selected surface areas of the transmitter with the wand and the nickel-plating slowly built up.  Of course, it was imperative that the surfaces were thoroughly cleaned first.  Caswell has solutions for anything - including gold, copper, silver, chrome and nickel plating.  The complete nickel-plating kit, with power supply, wand, 8oz of nickel sulfate, wand and instructions only cost about $30.00.  They have a plating system for just about anything. You have to check out their website.

Next, I drilled out seven frozen screws on the chassis, and tapped in new threads.  I went to Lowe's and found a “tap and drill” combo for about $4.00 each (Vermont American #21681).  I bought four of them but wound up only using two.  It took the longest time to find the appropriate sized pan-head slotted screws to replace the existing ones on the transmitter.  I finally found a boat-building supplier in Jamestown, Rhode Island that carried the exact type of screw that I was looking for.  I also put a lot of thought into whether I should replace the screws with the original "black heads" or "stainless steel".  I finally decided on stainless steel because the new shiny screws would match so nicely with the newly nickel-plated surfaces and contrasted beautifully against the new black wrinkle paint.  I figure if I ever changed my mind, it would be a simple matter to replace the screws with the black heads.  I bought the 6-32 threads in two different lengths: one-quarter inch and one half inch.  Priced pretty reasonably - about at $5.00/100 pieces.

I then purchased four cans of VHT High Temperature Black Wrinkle Paint from ANTIQUE ELECTRONIC SUPPLY ($9.00/each).  However, before I started painting, I took numerous photos of the placement and wording of the original lettering on the transmitter.  The photos would be my only guide when it came time to apply new lettering.  I even made templates out of cardboard for some of the more complex letter/number positions on the tuner section.

I thoroughly hand cleaned the non-removable covers with "409" and a toothbrush.  Any cover that could be removed went through the dishwasher.  Just prior to painting, I pre-heated the surfaces with a space heater to about 85 degrees.  I painted in deliberate baby-steps.  First, I tried my inexperienced technique on the little (removable) inspection plate on the left side of the transmitter.  Next, I worked on the (removed) right side pocket, followed by the top front cover.  As I got more courageous, I did the right panel, then the back lower cover, followed by the top/rear angled cover.  By this time I figured I'd had enough experience and decided to mask off all the exposed metal on the left cover (where the control and dynamotor sockets were located) – and went for it!  It came out great.  Finally, I masked off the face of the tuner and the transmitter and painted those surfaces.

I discovered that the trick to achieving a good result when applying wrinkle paint is to keep the surfaces flat, applying a heavy coat first, followed by about four or five additional lighter "irritant" coats (in four or five minute intervals).  Each new coat was applied to the previous while it was still wet.  It's important to not apply the paint too heavily, and you can’t allow it pool or run.  Doing some practice applications on other pieces of metal first is highly recommended.

Once the paint is applied, the wrinkles will begin to appear within a couple of hours, and continue to become more evident over the next eight to twelve hours.  The more coats that are applied, the larger the wrinkles will become.  To accelerate the process, I made a point of keeping a space heater directed towards the freshly painted surfaces to speed up the curing and drying process.  I think my results came out great -- nearly factory.  Those shiny new stainless steel screws really contrasted nicely with the wrinkle paint.  The transmitter looks as though it built as a classic special edition model.

ANTIQUE ELECTRONIC SUPPLY also sells the correct sized “rub-on” transfer lettering that suited the transmitter perfectly.  I bought six white "rub-on" lettering packets: Three ham radio lettering kits (S-M180), two audio lettering kits (S-M178) and one dial lettering kit (S-M176) (for the little printed "lock arrows" above the tuner's hand lock screws).  The cost was about $5.00/each per pack. However, getting the lettering on properly was a bit tricky.  For the left cover (where there were multiple antenna connections in a row), I stretched a bright white sewing thread across the surface and secured it at into place with some tape at both ends.  That gave me a straight-line guide for lettering.  I then cut the specific letter wording from the sheets for each application, and slowly rolled a piece of clear Scotch Tape over it,  transferring it onto the sticky surface.  I then slowly and carefully placed the lettering into position using the tape as a transfer device and lightly pressed it into place.

Using a ballpoint pen, I then lightly scribbled all over the tape above the lettering until the lettering transferred onto the surface of the transmitter.  Lots of practice was necessary for this stage, but fortunately, each sheet of “rub-on” letters included more wording than I actually needed.  Of course mistakes did happen, and when they did, I "removed" them with another piece of tape placed directly over the error.  Scribbling on the tape again, raised the error off the panel and onto to the tape.

All in all, I spent nearly 9 hours applying the lettering to the transmitter.  The various word combinations on the lettering kits did not provide all of the original lettering/verbage that was on the transmitter.  So, I had to "cut and paste" various word combinations together first, line them up on my work table, roll the tape over it, then transfer them onto the face of the transmitter with the tape.  Many of the transfers went bad and/or became misaligned, which required a redo.  Compounding the problem was that the rub-on lettering kit that I bought only included two “RIGHT TURN” arrows (for the locks). Mental preparation was paramount.

Finally, to permanently secure the rub-on lettering to the chassis, I applied several very light coats of clear acrylic spray.  I found that MINWAX's water-based Polycrylic Clear Gloss worked best.  To verify that it suitable, I first applied some rub-on lettering to the back panel of the transmitter's chassis and sprayed the protective coating onto the lettering.  After letting it dry for a few days, I ran the panel through the dishwasher with dish soap on full cycle.  The lettering held fast, and the acrylic was virtually invisible.

The BC-223-A looks brand new; just as though it just came off The Rauland Corporation's assembly line.  It’s hard to believe that this transmitter was actually manufactured in 1942.  All it took was a little time and a bit of patience.  Now, it sits in my station as a nostalgic reminder of the past.

--73, de Pete, N8PB