BC-869 #7
Description
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The BC-348 is a compact American-made communications receiver, which was
mass-produced during World War II for the U.S. Army Air Force. Under the Joint
Army-Navy nomenclature system, the receiver system became known as the
AN/ARR-11.
BC 348 radio receiver
HISTORY
The BC-348 is the 28 vdc powered version of the 14 vdc powered BC-224. The first
version, the BC-224-A, was produced in 1936. Installed in almost all USAAF (and
some USN, some British and some Canadian) multi-engined transports and bombers
used during the fifteen-year period from before World War II through the Korean
War, BC-348 radio receivers were easy to operate and reliable. Designed as
LF/MF/HF receivers for use in larger aircraft (B-17, B-24, B-25, B-26, B-29,
C-47, etc.), they were initially paired with a BC-375 transmitter in the
SCR-287-A system. Late in World War II, the AN/ARR-11 (BC-348) was the receiver
and the AN/ART-13A ( ART-13) was the transmitter in the AN/ARC-8 system.
Russian version on IL-14 aircraft.
They were also used in some ground and mobile installations such as the
AN/MRC-20. The BC-348 series ran to several variations during its long
production history, which included the BC-224. More than 100,000 of these
receivers were produced, 80 percent by Belmont Radio and Wells-Gardner and the
balance by RCA and Stromberg-Carlson.
BC-348 receivers were copied and manufactured by the U.S.S.R. following War II
by the Russian Vefon Works and labeled УС-9 (US-9 in English, US as Universal
Superheterodyne, not United States.) The УС-9 continued to be produced in the
Soviet Union through the 1970s, with such improvements as a solid state inverter
to replace the dynamotor.
Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped "Little Boy", the first
atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan was equipped with a BC-348 receiver as part of
the aircraft's AN/ARC-8 system. Today, many examples of the BC-348 are restored
and operated by vintage and military amateur radio enthusiasts.
The AN/ARC-8 system was still in service in older USAF aircraft in the early
1970s. At that time, military surplus dealers near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
in Tucson, Arizona, had stacks of the BC-348, that had been removed from
aircraft, for sale to the public at $17 each.
SPECIFICATIONS
BC 224 version
The BC-224-A, -B, -C, and -D, and the BC-348-B, and -C, tuned 1.5-18 MHz in six
bands. The Signal Corps had the receiver design modified to add a 200-500 kHz
band and compress the 1.5-18 MHz coverage into the remaining five bands. This
modified design became the BC-224-E and the BC-348-E. The 200–500 kHz and
1.5-18 MHz tuning range remained constant for subsequent production of all
models.
GENERAL REFERENCES
- U. S. Army Signal Corps Technical Order No. 08-10-24, 12 June 1936,
Instruction Book for Radio Receiver BC-224-A manufactured by RCA
Manufacturing Co., Inc., Camden, N.J., U.S.A., Order No. SC-132373 - Army Air Forces Technical Order No. 08-10-119, December 15, 1942; Instruction
Book for Operation and Maintenance of Radio Receiver BC-348-E Radio Receiver
BC-348-M Radio Receiver BC-348-P - U.S. Air Force Technical Order 12R2-3BC348-2, revised 15 April 1957; was AN
16-40BC-348-3, 21 June 1948; was AN 08-10-112, 17 July 1943, revised 18
December 1943, revised 30 July 1945; Handbook Maintenance Instructions Radio
Receivers BC-348-J BC-348-N BC-348-Q - U.S. Air Force Technical Order 12R2-3BC-112, revised 15 April 1957; was AN
16-40BC224-2, 20 July 1945, revised 11 May 1948; Handbook Maintenance
Instructions Radio Receivers BC-224-F BC-224-K BC-348-H BC-348-K BC-348-L
BC-348-R