The BC-610 was a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

based on the

Hallicrafters The Hallicrafters Company manufactured, marketed, and sold radio equipment, and to a lesser extent televisions and phonographs, beginning in 1932. The company was founded by William J. Halligan and based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. In ...

HT-4 and was used by the

U.S. Army Signal Corps ) , colors = Orange and white , colors_label = Corps colors , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = ...

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

History

In the early 1940s, the

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

sought a high-powered radio transmitter capable of infallible voice communications over 100 miles (160 km), sturdy enough to work in all conditions, flexible enough to be able to cover a wide range of frequencies, self-powered and able to operate in motion or at fixed locations. The

HT-4 transmitter was chosen from units available from various U.S. radio manufacturers. The HT-4 was designed for

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

use and had been commercially available for several years at a price of approximately $700, rivaling the cost of a car. It was considered compact and stable for its era and could deliver in excess of 300

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s of power for voice or MCW communications and 400 watts during

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

operation. As was typical in physically large vacuum tube equipment, the manual cautions power output is less at higher frequencies. It was

quartz crystal Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

controlled, but could be used over a wide range of frequencies through use of the master-oscillator power amplifier. Modifications requested by the Signal Corps were performed by Hallicrafters' engineers working with

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

technicians at

Fort Monmouth Fort Monmouth is a former installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The post is surrounded by the communities of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey, and is located about from the Atlantic Ocean. Th ...

. They made a new version of the HT-4, which was known as the BC-610 transmitter, a part of the

SCR-299 The SCR-299 was a U.S. Signal Corps mobile military communications unit used during World War II. History The SCR-299 "mobile communications unit" was developed to provide long-range communications during World War II. The US Military sought im ...

mobile communications unit, and production began in 1942. General

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

credited the SCR-299 in the reorganization of U.S. forces, which led to their victory against the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s at Kasserine Pass. The SCR-299 was also used in the

Invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It bega ...

and later, Italy. A BC-610 transmitter was used by

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

Juan Pujol García Juan Pujol García (; 14 February 1912 – 10 October 1988), also known as Joan Pujol i García (), was a Spanish spy who acted as a double agent loyal to Great Britain against Nazi Germany during World War II, when he relocated to Britain ...

during

WWII 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as part of

Operation Fortitude Operation Fortitude was the code name for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations as part of an overall deception strategy (code named ''Bodyguard'') during the build-up to the 1944 Normandy landings. Fortitude was di ...

. Clear reception by the Germans of messages transmitted by García, code name GARBO, were so crucial to the Allied deception that use of the relatively high-powered transmitter was deemed necessary.
British Intelligence in the Second World War: Volume 4, Security and Counter-Intelligence
'. Cambridge University Press; 31 August 1990. . p. 312–. Over 25,000 units were produced by Hallicrafters and other allied companies. In 1944, a

short subject A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

film was produced by the Jam Handy Organization and sponsored by the Hallicrafters Company detailing how the HT-4 transmitter was adapted for military service and dramatizing its use by the U.S. military during World War II.

Specifications

* Frequency coverage: 2 to 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 he ...

* Mode: AM, CW * RF power Output: <400

s CW, <300 watts AM, MCW *

Vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...

Eimac Eimac is a trade mark of Eimac Products, part of the Microwave Power Products Division of Communications & Power Industries. It produces power vacuum tubes for radio frequency applications such as broadcast and radar transmitters. The company name ...

250TH final, pair 100TH modulator, various rectifier and low level tubes * Operating frequency determined by plug-in tuning units and final coils (up to three at once) in addition to FT-171B crystals *

Signal Corps Radio Signal Corps Radios were U.S. Army military communications components that comprised "sets". Under the Army Nomenclature System, the abbreviation SCR initially designated "Set, Complete Radio", but was later misinterpreted as "Signal Corps Radio." ...

sets: SCR-299, SCR-399, SCR-499, or GRC-38, AM requires BC-614 (or Hallicrafters HT-5) speech amplifier * Weight: 390 lb (177 kg) (without BC-614) * Manual: TM 11-280 The "A" through "I" models are the same basic unit with relatively minor component and cosmetic differences.{{cite web, title=HT-4 / BC-610, url=http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/hallicraft_ht_4_ht4.html, website=Radio Museum, publisher=radiomuseum.org, accessdate=29 June 2017

References

External links

''Hallicrafters, The Voice Of Victory'' (1944)
Internet Archive, Part 1
''Hallicrafters, The Voice Of Victory'' (1944)
Internet Archive, Part 2

Military radio systems of the United States World War II American electronics Military equipment introduced from 1940 to 1944

History

Specifications

See also

References

External links