Military Collector Group Post, Nov.4/97 Index: Desert Storm Trophies,& JCMEC: By Bill Howard,& Dennis Starks Part III, JCMEC Today; Part IV, Some Specific Examples; From England PRC-47, Germanium Versus Silicon; Nick Broline Nick's Inverter Transformer Input, & PRC-10A Needs; Darwin Award; 1997 Winner ************************************************************** --------------------------------- Part III, JCMEC Today; --------------------------------- Once in Saudia Arabia, the unit established a JCMEC, a new acrynom for Joint Captured Material Expolitation Center and had three field teams operating in each Corps area. The JCMEC also had liasion teams from other services and countries with-in its sphere of operation. All the material that was captured passed through this units view and many exploitation reports were prepared. Many of the important national intelligence requirements concerning foreign equipment were satisfied through the efforts of this unit. The conflict in the desert, which was first called Desert Shield became Desert Storm when hostilities were begun. Two important factors of this war became apparent to those of us who watched in unfold across our television screens. The use of SCUD missiles which were latter day WW II V 2 rockets which were detected by sophiscated radars and shot down by Patriot Missiles, themselves latter day German WW II rockets and the ever increasing sophiscitation of electronic warfare. From TV cameras that allowed us to ride the bomb into the target to the communication equipment that was used to command the troops on the ground. My own personal opinion has been that the U.S. has led the world in the development of electronic equipment for the military. Other nations have been catching up and in some areas may well be ahead of us. Let us take a brief look at some of the foreign radio eqipment that was captured during this conflict and has now begun to show up as surplus and collectors items. In the days since Desert Storm took place many of the Iraqi radios(& other technical equipment) liberated by U.S. Forces & brought home as war trophies have found their way to our hands via such avenues as gun shows, hamfest, pawn shops bordering our country's military bases, & even auctioned off via sealed bid by our government. To our advantage was the restriction that for the first time in our military's history, prevented our troops from bringing home items of small arms & various weaponry. Who knows the reasoning behind this restriction, but because of it instead of collecting weapons, we are now able to collect, inspect & display one of the few items that our troops where allowed to bring home, The Enemy's Communications Equipment. Several things become apparent as we gather up & inspect this equipment. #1) Though Iraq boasted the largest military organization in the world for a country twice it's size, it did not spend it's money on communications equipment. #2)The Iraqi's were woefully lacking in their technical expertise, preventative maintenance, or general maintenace of their equipment. #3) they had absolutely no eyes for future supply or logistics problems, which is the single most important consideration for any item of front line combat inventory. #1) With all the money this country had to spend on their equipment, that radio equipment which has been available for our inspection does not reflect a respect for communications ability or need. Equipment found is never of the latest design, or even of the same generation as that used by other nations military's. Instead it appears that the price tag was the determing factor in the acquisition of signals equipment for the Iraqi military. Radios found will fall into two catagories,A) obsolete equipment discarded,or replaced in the inventory of the country of origin.B) second class equipment, that though was intended for military/police/commercial sales, & did reflect some state of the art technolgy, & was physically ill suited for combat service. #2)After the inspection of numorous peices of radio equipment,it is apparant that if a radio should fail, & couldn't be fixed buy a role of electrical tape, it was pitched. In the event it wasn't, & repairs were attempted, it should have been pitched & later was. I think this technical failing can be seen also in every other item of Iraqi equipment that was more complicated than a belt buckle. Especialy if that belt buckle did not include some insignia of rank. #3)The diversity found in the radio equipment used is astounding. Recovered radios show the country of origin as Russia, England, France, Italy & Germany to name just a few. It would have been impossible to maintain any kind of logistic support for such a diversity of equipment types. Thus, the Iraqi army must have considered this equipment as disposable, I/E if it quit, throw it away & get another one, this observation is further supported by item #2. Before we begin to examine this equipment, we must keep in mind that we don't know the origin or time frame in which the Iraqi's aquired it. Radios could have been purchased from the manufacture/country of origin, or the seven year war with Iran could have supplied numerous captured examples, as well as their blitz of Kuwait. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Part IV, Some Specific Examples; From England ---------------------------------------------------------------- Racal Syncal 30, This radio system of Brtitish origin seems to have been the most common of it's type used. Roughly equivelant in it's deployment to the US PRC-104, there is no comparison in the technology, or quality of design & manufacture it uses. Unlike most European post WW-II designs, the Syncal 30 does not include any commonalities with US equipment, such as basic configuration, audio, antenna, power,or carry accessories. Nor do any of the others in this line of equipment. The basic radio(TRA931X) is of all solid state design, mid 70's technology & could be combined with varoius ancillary equipment to allow use as a backpack set, vehicular installation, & as a semi fixed station. Indeed, this radio system was used in all these capacities by Iraq. My own example was removed from an Iraqi bunker, it's operator killed(several times),his blood all over the thing. It included all the accessories to allow it to be used in the various capacities listed above. The radio features 1.6-30mc operation in 1kc steps, frequency selection is via five rotory dials & a provision for fine tune with the "search" control for continuous coverage. Modes of operation include AM/LSB/USB, & a high/low power output option(20 watts/high). Other features include a built in manual antenna tuner that will allow the use of a top mounted whip antenna, or any wire or dipole type. The basic R/T unit requires 24vdc, & as a pack set this is supplied by a sealed nicad battery attached to the bottom of the radio. Other accesory equipment was avaible to allow the radio to be operated from 12-32vdc, or AC mains. A 100 watt amplifiar is also known to have been available for semi fixed or vehicular instalations. Accessories include,MA.913 hand crank generator for the charging of the MA.913 nicad battery. MA 985 allows the complete remote user control of the radio via hanset or 2 wire line. MA 937 power supply/charger, for radio operation from a vehicular source of 10-32vdc. MA 988, vehicular amplified loud speaker. 8ft sectional whip antenna with fold over & chock absorbing base for packpack operation. TRA 4044 100 watt amplifiar. BCC 540 vehicular antenna tuner. The the Syncal 30 is reported to be in use in "many third would counties". Field servicing is impossible, requireing the removal of 16 screws to gain access to the radio's interior. Once inside, little can be done, and the service manual for this radio is almost completely useless, and the schematics it contains are totally unreadable. Ref;#1,#2,#3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Squad Call, Another very low end radio has also shown up here. It would appear to be a even cheeper alternate to the Syncal 30. Introduced in the 1960's, the Squadcal (TRA-906) would seem to have directed towards the most inexperanced of operators. Similar in consept to the Southcom SC-120, but even more basic than that radio. Below are some comments from one of the sets owners. [The Racal "Squadcal" units I have are xtal controlled 2 to 7Mhz AM CW USB on something like 29 channels, with a single xtal per channel. The case is injection molded plastic, with a battery compartment for 3ea 6V lantern type batteries. All circuitry is on a single PC board. Construction quality is about the same as found on mid 1970's marine radios,Glass-epoxy PC board- no plugins. There are no sealed modules or exotic integrated circuits. Definitely a bargain basement type of radio design, but not flimsy.] Reported to have been originally designed & built in Australia by Racal Australia, the following is taken from their promotional literature. Ops 2-7mc on any of 29 xtal control channels with unlimited spacings. Modes include AME/SSB/CW, with an RF output power of 5watts PEP/CW. Primarily designed for backpack operation with the standard MA 948 nicad battery, other battery options included an adapter for the use of 14 "D" cells, or alternately 3ea 6v lantern type batteries. Power could also be supplied by optional equipment from AC mains or a DC vehicle source. Features & controls include, a built in antenna tuner for use of a top mounted whip antenna, or 50 ohm output connections. A Clarifier control for fine tuning SSB or CW pitch. And an RF gain control, strangely, there's no volume control. The radio is also said to be completely seal, dust & water tight. For a radio set of the 60's-70's,the Squadcal would offer some features that would appeal to the purchaser of equipment for a POOR & BACKWARD country. These would include it's simple operation & construction. The discrete component, single board design would allow for a minimum of logistics problems, & simple servicing, similar to a CB radio. However a more skilled technician would be required & field servicing would be impossible. As we know that Iraq was neither Poor, nor Backward, & they had no skilled technicians. Again a common fact remains, It Was Cheep! Ref;#2,#3,#6,#7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Racal BCC-349, Also known as the UK/PRC-349, this radio unlike many of those used by the Iraqi army, is a full blown quality military design. But like many others,it was an obsolete type, discarded by the the military in it's country of origin, England. Slightly larger than a walkie talkie, the BCC-349 has no provision for local control & must use external audio accessories. It should be noted too, that the audio accessories for this & other radios of this family built by Racal, are of very sorry design, fragile in construction, sloppy in mechanical design, & built of the most unsuited materials. It seems the Iraqi's also noticed this defeciancy, as "home brew" audio accessories utilizing US type handsets have been encountered(note, the solder job on these examples is such that if they'd left the iron alone & used Super Glue, they would have been better off). The radio set is an all solid state design, of mid 70's technology. It would be deployed in much the same capacities as the US PRC-68, & in some ways is a more attractive radio than it's US counterpart. It is carried in a nylon harness under the arm in much the same manor as a pistol sholder holster. This method of carry is a very attractive & practical one, first envisioned by the US in the early 50's during the development of the PRT-4 & PRR-9. But sorrily, utililized only on various later model European equipment. The controls of the BCC-349 are oreinted down the side of the radio , thus allowing easy access by it's operator. This "under the arm" carry configuration offers many advantages that cannot be incorperated in other carry methods. These include protection from damage, the radio is hidden from general view, extreme ease of user operation & access to controls, & this location is most un-incombering to the operator. The one in my collection was removed from an Iraqi storage bunker by elements of the Marine Second Low Altitude Air Defense Battalian, attached to the Second Marine Division. Also contained in this huge complex were hundreds of items of radio & ordnance, all showing signs of extreme neglect & disrepair, further evidence of the Iraqi's lack of expertise,& maintenance abilities. Two portable antenna configurations were supplied with the radio. The first and most attractive is a "Rubber Duckie" type,approximately 14" long. The second, used for longer range, is a long outdated sectional type reminiscent of WW-II British sets, & barrowed for use on the Canadian/Dutch CPRC-26, & the U.S. SCR-300/BC-1000. When assembled, it is about 3' long. Below is an extract from the book Military Radio Data; PRC Designated Radio Equipment, it should be noted that those returning here from Iraq covered a 30-47mc frequency spread. UK/PRC-349;Hand-held VHF,FM transceiver.Built in England by Racal(BCC-349), the PRC-349 is part of the "Clansman" series of radio equipment. Intended for platoon level personal communications under combat conditions. The set can be slung from the shoulder,worn on the back or chest with it's adjustable quik-release holster.Alternately it is small enough to be carried in a belt worn holster or in the pocket of a combat jacket. Features include operation over any 10mc segment of the band with 400 possible channels spaced 25kc apart.A transmitted 1kc alert tone, protection from open or shorted antenna circuit,& receiver overload. And a battery save function that is in automatic operation during no- signal conditions.Lastly,the PRC-349 can be supplied with numerous battery,& charger combinations. Ops 30-76mc(any 10mc segment).RF power output is a selectable .25/ .5/or 1 watt.Requires 12vdc as supplied by various rechargeable or dry batteries,vehicle adapter cord etc.Size 244mmH x 90mmW x 40.5mmD(with manganese alkaline battery),1.5kg(with antenna). Known accessories include rubber-helical short antenna,whip or trailing wire antennas,light-weight headset with boom mic,throat mic, standard Clansman headsets or handsets,special PTT box for tone signal & various holsters and carry straps. Production started for the British Army in 1978.In 1979 a production license was granted to Spain.It is most likely that both countries are or were exporting PRC-349's.Quantities of BCC349's have been brought to the U.S.as war trophies from recent "Desert Storm" activities. Ref;#1,#2,#4 Racal is a very highly respected name in communications electronics, & builds some of the most advanced equipment in the world. Most communications equipment of British design & origins are of the highest quality, many examples can even be found in current U.S. inventory. However, the systems represented here, with the possible exception of the BCC-349, do not reflect this reputation, & were specificaly designed to appeal to a low budget government for it's military need. Indeed, the company's own promotional material reads,"was designed for high quality low cost military or civil communications". Their mechanical construction is at best marginal for a full blown combat field radio, having a cabinet designs of soft aluminum stampings, with spot welded seems, & little if any water tight integrity. Without exception the audio & antenna accessories are of the most ill suited & fragile designs, with no thought towards ergonomics, practicality, or serviceability. Absolutely nowhere is there a commonality with these radios & that of any other type other than, in some cases, those also built by Racal of the same generation or series. I/E the enter-changeability & compatibility between equipment types, accessoies & generations both old, current, & future is of major importance in every item of military equipment. This basic requirement is not reflected here. There could have been only one attractive feature here, as has been touched on already, The Price Tag! The next instalment on, "Desert Storm Trophies,& JCMEC" will include some more equipment of British origin before we move on to some other countries, & then, our conclusion. Again, if you have any input at all, we'd like to hear from you. Dennis Starks Bill Howard miliary-radio-guy@juno.com wlhoward@gte.net Referanses; #1) the Authors personal collection #2) Janes Military Communications #3) Associated equipments manuals #4) Military Radio Data;Vol.1,PRC Designated Equipment, By Dennis Starks #5) From the Collection of Pat Lumbarti #6) From the Collection of Mark Gluch #7) a source that prefers to remain anonymous **************************************************************** PRC-47 Germanium Versus Silicone; Nick Broline I put silicon replacements in for Q1 and Q2(replaced with MJ4502s), but they don't osillate properly. Assume that they aren't biased properly but don't know how to fix this. Steve H. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Steve, What you are suffering from, and correctly concluded, is the difference in leakage current and bias turn-on threshold between the germanium and silicon power devices. Fortunately, the means to determine the correct bias is most probably done using experimental means rather than analytical. What I would suggest doing is the following: 1) Apply power to the inverter and measure the collector currents (like, for the center-tap of the power transformer). (Mind you, I do not have a schematic of the '47, so I'm making a lot of assumptions.) 2) Let us assume that the current drain is very low....say less than 0.1 A....I suspect that it will be zero. 3) Locate the resistor that connects the base winding with the same voltage as the collector supply (minus). Slowly decrease this value by inserting larger values in parallel with it. Note that if you place a resistor that is about 10 times the resistor's value, that will decrease the total resistance by about 10%. At some point the inverter will start, and will continue to run, probably no matter what you do to the resistor. You can use a resistor that is much lower wattage than the one in the circuit, as it will be supplying a small portion of the load. 4) The resistor that you are looking for is the one that will allow the inverter to start reliably every time, but not a lot less resistance than that. 5) Things to look out for................ Should the transistor pair draw collector current but not oscillate, then you have either a short on the inverter (it is self-protecting in that regard) or you have a bad transistor in the pair. The supply draws an inordinate amount of current in the "no-load" state. This indicates that the feedback winding driving the switches is delivering too much drive current, and a lot of power is being dissipated in the base circuit. Increase the resistor between the base winding center tap and the emitter side of the power supply. In general: The larger of the resistors in the base bias circuit supplies the turn-on bias. Once the supply is oscillating, it is not terribly critical. The lower resistor limits the base drive. The larger the switcher gain, the larger it can be. Don't short the collector supply to the bases unless you just like replacing transistors! Maybe this'l help?????? 73 Nick Broline W5FUA ************************************************************** Nick's Inverter Transformer Input, & PRC-10A Needs; Dennis, My favorite power transformer is the tape wound toroid for quick and dirty switching power supplies. As someone correctly pointed out, however, the supply really needs some linear regulation following it for control of filament voltages. The benefit of the tape wound toroid is that it operates with good efficiency, is small, operates at about 1-2 Kc., requires a small number of turns per volt for each winding, is easily wound with your hands, does not require low ESR capacitors in the output filters, does not require big caps either, and it is easy to clean up the EMI. Additionally, the tape wound core inverters have simple switcher circuits (two resistors, two transistors), and are intrinsically short-circuit proof. The problem with the tape-wound circuit is that it does not have the intrinsic capability of delivering regulated output values over a wide input voltage range (like 4.5 to 16 volts) like a high-freq switcher will. I think that it is always prudent to INDEPENDENTLY regulate the filaments of my little ol' radios, so that way I know I'll never get a set of filaments opened up when I'm temporarily overcome with rectal/cranial inversion (which seems to happen more these days). Wants/Needs. I found me an ultra-primo PRC-10A that some dumb-dumb robbed parts out of. What I am missing is: 1) 5A6 output tube and shield 2) Cal crystal 3) Retainer plate that holds in cal crystal and adjacent tubes 4) The tuning drum!!! 5) A manual or copy of the maintenance manual for the PRC-10 (not the "A" version). 6) A chance to kick the butt of the guy that got into the thing in the first place. 73, Nick W5FUA enb@eng1.tracor.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------- Nick, Thanks for the the PRC-47 help & the inverter transformer input. In regard your needs; 1) your in a world of shit!(Fair may have the tube,I might have the sheild) 2) another world of shit! 3) well, maybe. 4) get you another radio! Is this the numbered dial? Is it the same as a PRC-10? If so, I got! 5) I can loan you this, send me your address. 6) wish I could help here! I too have a super slick PRC-10A with no gut's in it, also a PRC-28. Been looking for replacement guts for the PRC-10A for ten years now, but nothin. Got lotsa stuff for the PRC-10 but not the "A". Dennis ************************************************************* Darwin Award; 1997 Winner As you may already know, THE DARWIN AWARDS are bestowed every year upon (the remains of) that individual, who through single-minded self-sacrifice, has done the most to remove undesirable elements from the human gene pool. Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed when he attached a JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off) unit to his Chevy Impala and promptly shot himself at 300 mph into the side of a desert cliff. And now, for this year's illustrious winner(s): ... drum roll John Pernicky and friend Sal Hawkins, of the great state of Washington, decided to attend a local Metallica concert at the Amphitheater at Gorge, Washington. Having no tickets (but 18 beers among them) they sat in the parking lot, and after finishing the beer, decided that it would be easy enough to hop over the nine-foot high fence and sneak into the show. The two friends pulled their pickup truck over to the fence and the plan was for John --100 pounds heavier than Sal-to hop over, and then assist his friend over the fence. Unfortunately for John, there was a 30 foot drop on the other side of the fence. Having heaved himself over, he found himself crashing through a tree. His fall was abruptly halted by a large branch which snagged him by his shorts. Dangling from the tree, with one arm broken, John looked down and saw a group of bushes below him. Figuring the bushes would break his fall, John removed his pocket knife and proceeded to cut away his shorts to free himself from the tree. When finally free, John crashed below into Holly bushes. The sharp leaves scratched his entire body and now being without his shorts, he was the unwilling victim of a holly branch penetrating his rectal cavity. To make matters worse, his pocket knife proceeded to fall with him and landed three inches into his left thigh. Seeing his friend in considerable pain and agony, Sal decided to throw him a rope and pull him to safety. However, weighing about 100 pounds less, he decided the best course of action would be to tie the rope to the pickup truck. This is when things went from bad to worse. In his drunken state, Sal put the truck into the wrong gear, pressed on the gas, and crashed through the fence, landing on and killing his friend. Sal was thrown from the truck, suffered massive internal injuries and also died at the scene. Police arrived to find a pickup truck with its driver thrown 100 feet from the vehicle and upon moving the truck, a half naked man, with numerous scratches, a holly stick up his rectum, a knife in his thigh, and a pair of shorts dangling from the tree branches 25 feet in the air. THE WILLIAM L. HOWARD ORDNANCE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE MUSEUM e-mail wlhoward@gte.net Telephone AC 813 585-7756 --------- End forwarded message ---------- When finished reading use browser back button or go to http://www.prc68.com/MCGP/MCGP.html