I parted one out a couple of years ago. I don't care much for the way RCA
laid out their transmitters, although they used superbly built components.
The physical layout doesn't lend itself for conversion to higher
frequencies. They just seemed to place the components in the most
convenient spot, then run whatever length leads it took to interconnect
them. The result is some extremely long leads connecting critical rf
components. That is not so important below 2 mc/s, but to convert to higher
frequencies, you really need to clean ouh the whole rf compartment and make
a fresh start from scratch, using more conventional hf transmitter
construction techniques.
I thought the RCA was way too big, so I stripped down the cabinet and used a
skillsaw to separate the individual panels in the unibody construction. The
transmitter had a lot of missing components and had been sitting for over a
year under a leaky tornado-damaged roof, so I didn't think the thing was
worth trying to restore. Some of the components went to other BTA-1R owners
who were lacking critical specialised parts, and the remainder ended up my
parts inventory. The mod transformer and tubes were missing, but I got an
excellent mod reactor out of the deal, plus a nice ADC replacement plate
transformer.
Don K4KYV
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