Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!
For the record, I've picked up an RT-1444 for less than $50...working on getting the RT-1209 to go with it. ONTOS66 had offered up a GRC-213 set to me before he left on a trip, but I had to delay for budgetary reasons. He's been dead-silent for over a month past his announced return and I'm really starting to worry if the guy made it home...RT-1444 was really only used with the GRC-206 FAC/ TACP setup along with the AM-7148 amp etc., and there's an ALE version as well made for some foreign government (Mike Murphy had some, but I think they're all gone.) There was also a frequency-hopping controller. Lots of great info on Brooke Clarke's unbeatable page here: http://prc68.com/I/PRC104.shtml
I'm also pretty much a data guy lately - my main area of interest. I wanted a PRC-138 so badly I could taste it, but Availability and Cash on Hand never seem to coexist in the same universe.
Sounds interesting. I've shot you a PM. I'd love to see what you have, just not sure if I can actually pull the trigger on the sale until I hear what you want for them.I happen to have a couple grc-215(from Mike Murphy years ago), and one nice prc-138 for sale. Pm me if interested I can get you details and pics.
Also have a complete harris falcon rf-5000 system with 125w amp, coupler,power supply and mounting platform(with both hop and encryption options).
These are still pretty pricey rigs but very difficult to find nowadays.
Military radios were meant to be used in relatively short range applications (from .25 mile up to about 50 miles) since the frequencies had to be shared with many other units. Operators really only wanted to hear the closest (strongest signals) transmitters because that is who they needed to communicate with. And, they didn't want to have a lot of hostile direction finding locking onto where they were by triangulation. For those looking for 'more power', remember the antenna has more to do with the radiated signal than the final amp. People have 'worked the world' with less than five watts of power, but they were not mobile when they were doing it.I'd like to find something that can do AM/USB/LSB 80-10m. But is there any control of output wattage on anything? They all seem to be low power (20w)? I'm kinda leaning towards a PRC-147. Would be kinda cool to have something I could setup in a radio rack, and pull out and use as a backpack. I was wondering about output power for use with a linear.
Something new to learn every day:Adding the amplifier but still using a military whip adds another complication though, matching the antenna to high power.
Something new to learn every day:
- So the whip has to be "tuned"/ matched to the signal's output power?
- By length, diameter, other specs?
Really good deals are hard to come by. Congratulations WF.Holy smokes, I need to buy a lottery ticket! I didnt have a battery charger until this morning, so when I was doing a visual inspection, I unseated every module, inspected it for an obvious physical defect, and reseated it.
I just got my batteries charged today and tried powering on my PRC-138. First, I did a self-test...no errors. Then, I did a VSWR test...perfect 1:1, 19W transmit. It was sold to me as having A08 FFF, A01 F56, and transmitting at less than 1 W. Unplugging modules and plugging them back in fixed the issue, plus saved me $3000 off the going rate on these! I don't even know what I'm going to do with myself right now!