----- Original Message -----
From: <MVTrucker@aol.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 4:17 AM
Subject: [MV] military radio(s) for sale
> Joe Young
> mvtrucker@aol.com
> I don't know a whole lot about radios, therefore, I don't
> know if the Harris 3090 is military. The PRC 117 is out
> in my shop. I'm sure it works because Chuck is a HAM.
> I bought his PRC 77 a while back. It's comfortable riding
> around in my M1009 Blazer waiting for me to get my
> Amateur Radio License.
Ah, yes, PRC-117's! Five of 'em were pitched in the dump complete with
vehicle power supplies and that Harris 50W RF amplifier several years ago
after trials with 9th US Inf. Div. (who got to try out the PRC-113's as well
way-back-when), and out of the five, I managed to get three working after
hours spent swapping subassemblies hither and thither and staring at my
Marconi 2955 for far too many hours.
The big problem with them is the A04 board - specifically the DC-to-DC
converter - and Harris passed on at the time that the failure rate was
something like 100 percent due to what they described as "RF feeding back
into the circuitry" causing the DC-to-DC converter to overload and bake
quite spectacularly. The last two radios were irreparable due to that
(spares from Harris are dear, and every other radio I've seen on the open
market at Hamfests described as 'repairable' has the same disease as mine),
and replacing the power transistors just got really expensive after awhile.
But, having said all that, the other three radios are still going strong in
our club, so I imagine that if you get one that works - and has been
working - there's no reason to imagine it won't continue to do so. I quite
like them myself, and mine's going to wind its way into my 1009 once I get
back to tinkering. The ones we got freq. hopped amongst eachother
perfectly, will work 'in the clear' using the 150 hz. 'New Squelch' of the
VRC-12 family, and can even be configured via jumpers on the A04 board to
work with carrier squelch ('Old Squelch') instead of the tone type. You can
also preprogram a bunch of channels in them as well, and set the radio to
scan through all the presets continuously until it finds something to listen
to. The 50W amp is fun too!
I've found exactly one backpack carrying harness for the 117 in my travels
(which I now own), though I see some outfit had them for sale in Military
Vehicles not too far back (last issue?) The physical vehicle mounting plate
(VRC-83's equivalent of the MT-1029 - though far more basic) is a damn sight
harder to find though, as I've only ever seen one, and the individual
holding it wasn't about to part with it for anything.
Andy Hill
MVPA 9211
Vancouver, B.C.
VE7 MVC (What a call, eh? <M>ilitary <V>ehicle <C>collector)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Mar 05 2001 - 07:58:30 PST