I have been on the PRC68.com site but I am not understanding how it goes together & what can and cannot be used together. There are a lot of "I am going to try" and "this works" type of statements on the page.
Brooke Clarks Website is great he uses it for research, so there is lots of theory there, but still excellent..
OK we need to address this..
First off I know more than most about military radios but I do not understand this stuff like you guys do. I do not get which of these antennas can or cannot go with what radio or this one works with that one better.
no worries we can help..
In the first picture on the PRC68 site
http://www.prc68.com/I/OF185.shtml - I have the radio & the related mount & housing (which I assume is the OF-185). Now the part on top is an amp? and how does it plug into the radio or the OF-185? There are no pictures of the back side.
the top item on the picture on PRC68.com is an amp. The bottom part, is the power supply and Audio amplifier
So I gather a standard LS-454 will not work with this?
not with the default plug
I am familiar with the RT68 series and the RT524 & related but some of the newer stuff I just don't get how it goes together AB15s and MX6707s... Easy stuff. The older "main stream" stuff was very simple. The biggest thing is, I don't want to just buy some of these items when I really do not know if they go together for sure.
Murphy has a "power amp module mousing for the PRC-68 thru 136" I would assume this is the right amp but it does not look like the one in the picture on the PRC68 site. Then cables for interconnection...... HELP!!
no you dont need that, it is essentially what you have without the housing around it.. its just the power supply and Audio amplifier
Anyway..... In recap I assume I need an amp, the correct antenna/matching unit, speaker (since ls454 will not work), and power cables. Any help on part numbers or who has this stuff.
I really appreciate your help on this.
Antenna
You can make this work without the AMP and with a standard AS-1729/VRC antenna, your performance will vary a bit. This is because since you are running lower power output, then the efficiency of the antenna will be critical.. if you were running 100watts (as opposed to 2 watts) you could transmit into a proper, yet inefficient antenna and still do "ok". but with 2 watts, you go from poor to terrible with a inefficient antenna.
I would get it hooked up with the standard military antenna, then see how you do..
Speaker
You will want to rig up a speaker, the power supply and audio amplifier is designed to amplify the audio (not an RF amp) from the radio, but to get that you need to use the speaker output on the back. i havent tried the standard speaker, but it will work, although maybe not the best fidelity.. (but really in a mil vehicle is there any real need?). I have the pinout of the rear connectors, ill put a new page on my Wiki about this at
http://www.radionerds.com
Summary
- you need a power plug
- you need a speaker / plug
- the antenna hooks to the antenna connector on the back
Questions
- What antennas (if any) do you have now?
- what kind of vehicle is this for?
- are you a HAM? if not what do you expect to do?
- got pictures of your OF-185?
- am i making sense at all... i been drinking since 9am..
JK...
Chris
K6RWJ