The BC-348 is a compact American-made

communications receiver A communications receiver is a type of radio receiver used as a component of a radio communication link. This is in contrast to a ''broadcast receiver'' which is used to receive radio broadcasts. A communication receiver receives parts of the ...

, which was mass-produced during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

for the

U.S. Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

. Under the joint Army-Navy nomenclature system, the receiver system became known as the AN/ARR-11. BC-348 Liaison 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 {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...

, 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. They were also used in some ground and mobile installations such as the AN/MRC-20. The BC-348 series ran through 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 The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westin ...

and

Stromberg-Carlson Stromberg-Carlson was a telecommunications equipment and electronics manufacturing company in the United States. It was formed in 1894 as a partnership by Swedish immigrants Alfred Stromberg (1861 Varnhem, Sweden - 1913 Chicago) and Androv Car ...

BC-348 receivers were copied and manufactured by the

U.S.S.R. The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

following War II, by the Russian Vefon Works and labeled УС-9 (US-9 in English) 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.http://nj7p.org/history/bc-348.html BC-224 AND BC-348 AIRCRAFT RADIO RECEIVERS

Enola Gay The ''Enola Gay'' () is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, piloted by Tibbets and Robert A. Lewis during the final stages of World War II, it be ...

, the

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

that dropped "

Little Boy "Little Boy" was the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress '' Enola Gay ...

", the first

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both 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.http://www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk/ VMARS Technical Information Service 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.

Specifications

The BC-224-A, -B, -C, and -D, and the BC-348-B, and -C, tuned 1.5-18

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

in six bands. The Signal Corps had the receiver design modified to add a 200-500

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

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.

References

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''

History

Specifications

References

General references

See also