My BC-1G was rescued at Portage, near Altoona, PA, where it had been in use at WWML.

WWML was a small-town station operating on 1470 kHz at a power of 500 watts output.  Sometime prior to 2004 the owner moved the license to the Pittsburgh market and obtained more modern equipment.  The BC-1G occupied rented space in a small transmitter building owned by the local FM station.  In fact, the tower that supports the FM antenna was shunt fed to provide a vertical radiator for the BC-1G.  Since rent was no longer coming in, the owner of the FM station wanted the AM equipment removed.  Enter W4QCU.

Acting on a tip from WA3VJB, I contacted the station engineer (WB1EWS) and expressed my desire to adopt the unwanted transmitter.  So it came to pass that at the end of March 2005, I drove to south-central Pennsylvania in a rented Chevy van, not knowing what to expect but hoping for the best.   The trip up I-81 skirted the Shenandoah Valley into West Virginia and Maryland.  From Hagerstown I took I-70 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike and shortly thereafter, I-99 .   Exiting I-99 I followed a narrow winding road into surrounding hills and Portage.   As a Chicago native, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the lingering snow and air that was much chillier than it had been 10 hours earlier in Tennessee.  But, I had finally arrived.  Shortly after 4 pm I met Paul (WB1EWS) at the transmitter building, which sits at the end of dirt road atop a hill behind the city high school. 

My first impressions were less than uplifting.  The building is surprisingly small, maybe 12 by 20 feet.  A barbed wire fence surrounds the building and tower.  The fence was twisted and otherwise in disrepair, and the carcass of a van was parked inside with weeds growing in the front seat.  Station call letters and some catchy slogan were discernable on the side through a layer of rust.  The entire scene bore witness to better days now gone. 

Once inside the building, I spotted an operating 3-KW FM transmitter, the Gates, and a Collins 20-V look-alike.  Apparently the Gates had replaced the Collins, which was obviously defunct.  I was struck by the lack of housekeeping.  The inside was dirty and dusty, and much of the space was littered with empty boxes, dead parts, and loose papers of all kinds.  I immediately understood the need for large filters on the cabinet air intakes. 

On the bright side, I was much relieved by the appearance of the BC-1G.  Paul had taken good care of the transmitter.  Nothing was missing or broken, and the cabinet was in good shape.  I was tired from the long drive and sundown was approaching and thought the plan was to return first thing in the morning.  I was wrong.  

As I rummaged through stacks of parts, papers, manuals, and the like, Paul began to prepare the BC-1G for moving.  Soon I was lugging cabinet doors, a side panel, and heavy iron out of the building.  I wondered how we could possibly finish before darkness.  Thanks to Paul’s expertise and the use of steel pipes as rollers, we soon had the cabinet out of the building.   There were a few anxious moments, as space was very tight and disrupting FM programming would have been frowned upon to say the least.  Darkness descended as we headed for Altoona, where dinner, a much needed shower, and a good rest awaited.  I regret that no pictures were taken, but the pace was frantic and the moving crew consisted only of Paul and me.

Early the next morning I headed back to Oak Ridge with my prize in the back of the van.  By early evening, the Gates was safely stored in my garage.  Phase one was behind me, but two months of work lay ahead. 

The first task was cleaning.  I used a small vacuum, makeup brushes, rags, 409 Cleaner, and  isopropyl alcohol among other things to remove loose dirt and more adherent grime.  While I cleaned, I also looked for anomalies such as loose or suspicious wires.  A full size copy of the schematic was taped to wall and served as a medium to record notes.  I also spent a lot of time studying the control scheme, going back and forth between the schematic and the transmitter tracing wiring, and looking for modifications and other potential problems.  The problems I found and modifications that were made are detailed in another file.  One thing I found very useful was low voltage testing using a jury-rigged 240 volt extension cord.  During this testing the plate transformer was not installed.  Still I was able to test all of my control circuits, the oscillator, and RF driver.  I was also able to neutralize the 833As and establish approximate output coil settings.   The latter was done by powering the low power RF sections, connecting the internal 50-ohm dummy load, and observing S-meter readings on a nearby receiver.

Finally I hired a local mover to transport the transmitter from the garage to the basement ham shack.  The pros did the job in less than one hour (arrival to departure) and charged a mere $75.    The heavy iron was re-installed, and startup with high voltage went very smoothly.