SINCGARS Display Radio for Contemporary MV: RT1523C Trainer Radio Demil Housing

[Crapgame]

While laying about recovering from back surgery, I found this RT-1523C-type trainer radio demil housing on ebay:

The faceplate is accurate, with 3D molded features instead of laser engraved onto alu plate markings. The 30ohm Antenna Mount is face, easy fix, the HUB battery cover is molded on, OK as is unless I get bored stupid and cut a separate piece. Seller originally thought he had the top covers but turned out not: the replacement top cover avail on ebay is the wrong screw pattern, so it will need a piece of 1/4" or just 3/16" thick aluminum plate with some creative drill press work.

If all you need/want is an accurate looking placeholder in your radio tray, its cheaper than trying to find a real RT-1439-series for $1200+. Especially in the case of my Animal Muthah War Pig commo suite, needs both PRC-117 and PRC-119, plus maybe a LSC-5C SatCom Rig.

 

[BLK HMMWV]

Your going to have to remove all the connectors on the back of it and drill some new clearance holes to fit into the radio tray.
At least I had to.
You must go by another name on the G. Either that or somebody stole the name to your truck.
BH

 

[M813rc]

I have one of those too. I need to put my illustrious manufacturing skills roll to work making a top plate for it

The odd shaped hole in the bottom of mine looks like it had been trimmed up with a dremel tool, probably after getting smacked with a hammer or some such to demil it.

My electronic stuff is mostly just for show, and this one will go on a shelf in my S788 shelter, so it not fitting a proper mount doesn't concern me. If anyone who knows military comm gear gets in that shelter and looks at the stuff, they'll probably have a fit, I'm sure almost none of it should go together! But to an untrained eye, it looks cool and very busy.

I'm going to try to figure out if the panel on the front can be lit up, let me know if you figure that out.
I have an old military "laptop", probably late 90's vintage, I managed to light up the front panel with dime store miniature LED Christmas lights, powered by AAA batteries. The screen has a print of a picture of another computer screen, which I will backlight with a piece of white plastic to diffuse the light (haven't got that done yet). Not high tech, but it pleases the kids (of all ages) at shows, and that's my goal.

Cheers

 

[Crapgame]

I imagine the keypad itself may have its own integrated circuit that tells the LED which Nos to form. It may be possible to run a jumper from the Amphenol power plug socket in back to wherever on the keypad to produce numbers in the keypad screen. If not maybe a cheap calculator guts?

Commo Shelter........frick that would all depend on what year it was used and by whom. I transferred into a newly stood up 78th ARCOM (NJUSAR) 550th MI Bn as a 98G (Electronic Warfare-Communications Intercept) with Russian Linguish identifier. We had brand new Chevy CARC 383 Green pickups with the comm shelters on the back, active component equivalent would have been a TRQ-37 (Turkey 37), but ours incorporated all then state of the art, off the shelf electronic components, Radio Direction Finder, recording equipment, listening equipment, etc. My clearance hadn't come thru yet so I was only allowed to check the engine fluids and tire air, wasn't even allowed to look in the commo shelter itself.

 

[E17]

are you selling that box?

 

[papakb]

I have some 1523 top covers. PM me.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

I have a bunch of those sets as well. There is only a top cover - the rest of it is a homogenous unit. I've dremel tooled out the backs of the ones I wanted to fit in VAAs for static display, and toyed with the idea of making something in Arduino to run the displays. Mine came with all the circuit boards and what-not intact, but I've never had time to do much reverse engineering. It looks as though they were used in a school environment with perhaps one of these at each desk/ workstation, all tied together to a central computer which would set the task and measure the results (i.e. 'Set Frequency', 'Load Variables' etc.) to/ from each station. They were also set up to process audio, so there must've been some station-to-station functionality too, or perhaps just pre-recorded 'orders' sent down from the main CPU as audio available at the audio accessory connectors.

 

[M813rc]

Mine is like Crapgame's, gutted with the floor broken, presumably to demil it. Looks like the guy I got it from cleaned up the ragged edges on the bottom with a Dremel tool.
I have the top cover issue solved, thanks to papkb.

Wile, If you have any pictures of the ones with their internals intact, I'd like to see them. Just out of curiosity, don't go opening one up just for that.

I'll look into a calculator or other number display as suggested above, if hooking power to the existing bits doesn't work.

Cheers

 

[agazza2]

I have a bunch of those sets as well. There is only a top cover - the rest of it is a homogenous unit. I've dremel tooled out the backs of the ones I wanted to fit in VAAs for static display, and toyed with the idea of making something in Arduino to run the displays. Mine came with all the circuit boards and what-not intact, but I've never had time to do much reverse engineering. It looks as though they were used in a school environment with perhaps one of these at each desk/ workstation, all tied together to a central computer which would set the task and measure the results (i.e. 'Set Frequency', 'Load Variables' etc.) to/ from each station. They were also set up to process audio, so there must've been some station-to-station functionality too, or perhaps just pre-recorded 'orders' sent down from the main CPU as audio available at the audio accessory connectors.

Do you still have any of these available? Is the top cover considered the front face? If so I am interested in one for my M1084A1R - RS/V to put in the full digital radio rack. I want my display to represent the way it was in 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery. DM me if they are still available with pricing. Just need one but would consider two so I can put one in the HMMWV.