MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, JUNE 5/98 Index: ANNOUNCEMENTS; CPRC-26 Manuals, Toroid Coils, Loaning Manuals, UNIVERSAL INVERTER POWER SUPPLY, PART III; Applications (PRC-6 & CPRC-26), by Dennis Starks MEMBERS WRITE; Texas Ham Com Reminder, More 6 meter Net Input, Granada/MX-300R/Rangers, HUMOR; *********************************************** ANNOUNCEMENTS; It's Friday again, have your enteries ready for tomorrows "Paper Trail" in by tonight(in the proper format Dave), and for Sunday's "Group Want's/Trade's" by Saturday night. CPRC-26 Manuals, I plan to shortly loan my CPRC-26 manuals to Ralph to copy. To my knowledge, this is the most complete set known to exist in the US. They are however copies of very poorly printed Canadian originals, thus some pictures are not very good. Should you wish a copy made at the same time, let Ralph know and he'll make you a set at cost(this is my fee for his borrowing them). ONE COPY PER MEMBER ONLY! Loaning Manuals, Generally I do not like loaning manuals from my library to people I know little about without some form of collateral, especially as many of these manuals are very rare, or otherwise irreplaceable. Even when I have been very familiar with the person borrowing the manual, there has been several times that it took over a year to get the manual back. Even at that, I've already spent over $100 this year in postage alone, just loaning manuals to people so they could have them copied. I'll make a deal with you. In future, I will post a list of the manuals in my library. If there is one contained therein that you need, and it is not otherwise available from any other manual source, commercial or otherwise,. I will loan you the manual provided you agree to make copies for all other group members that need them, at cost. Any other members willing to do the same are invited to do so. Toroid Coils, I've created a demand for 88mh toroid coils, in the olden days these were extensively used in TTY and telephone equipment, and were available in great quantity. Some of you that have not been as actively engaged in stocking your 3 acre junk box as I have, may not have or be able to find any. Ralph has a possible source for having them made by a local guy with a part time business in their production, but time may be limited. I suppose I should send him an example so he can see what we'd need. In the mean time, if you know of a source for any such coils, please let us know. They can also be wound by hand, but you'd need to have your head examined first. Another possibility is to use ferrite potting forms which can be purchased from numerous sources, and are fairly easy to hand wind. But I'm not a design engineer(though we do have several members who are) so do not have the time nor expertise to design them. Hint! HINT! Down the road, inverters will be described that use off the shelf(or out of the junk) low voltage or filament transformers. But these will not have near the application versatility as the toroid types. Dennis *********************************************** UNIVERSAL INVERTER POWER SUPPLY, PART III; Applications (PRC-6 & CPRC-26), by Dennis Starks As with most of the power supplies in this series, you will need to construct 2ea voltage regulator boards, and the basic inverter power supply. The basic difference then in any of our power supplies will be as follows; #1)is in the way these boards are connected to the radio. #2)the primary and bias power supplies. #3)adapting all the above to the available space, and the radio's original power on/off switching method. Of these, #3 is usually the most difficult. Particularly if no modifications to the original radio are to be allowed. VOLTAGE REGULATORS; As can be seen on the block diagram, the inputs to both regulators are connected directly to the positive terminal of your battery pack(or alternate power source). Referring to the universal regulator schematic, you will see that D-1 is connected directly across the input of the regulator. It's optional presents is to provide for reverse voltage polarity protection, and as such should be preceded by a fuse of about 1.5-2amps. There is no need to duplicate this circuit on both regulator boards, if indeed you use it at all. In the event you plan to use your radio only with internal batteries, and these batteries are either hard wired, or provided with a polarized connection, there will be no need for D-1 on either of the regulator boards, or a fuse. PRIMARY POWER SOURCE, With the PRC-6 we have the unusual luxury of having ample room inside the radio for both the power supply, and batteries. So long as you don't string your power supply out all over the place! Just about any battery combination that will produce 5-10 volts, with a minimum of a 5 amp hour capacity will work. Even 4 to 6 "D" sized dry cells would have their advantages. If four "D" sized batteries were used, we could have the field option of changing from nicads to standby dry cells if needed. Where the advantage lay here is in the limited shelf life of nicad batteries, the way they were intended to be used, combined with the way we will actually use the radio. For instance, I use 4ea "D" cell nicads in both my PRC-6, and CPRC-26. This relieves logistic problems by only needing one type battery pack for two different radios. While this works very well, a problem arises in the way these radios are used. I/E usually at hamfest or other special event, sometimes days, weeks, or months apart. Thus the nicads with their limited shelf life are often dead when I go to use them. Hence dry cells can be taken along just in case, or to be used once the nicads are depleted. Admittedly I must do the same thing with my 2 meter HT because I don't use it enough to keep the batteries cycled, or charged up. You should also consider other radios that your PRC-6 might be used with like I did with the CPRC-26. Should for instance you would like to have an operable PRC-10, it would be nice to be able to use the same battery in it that you use in your PRC-6. Again, relieving logistic problems. Once you've completed a power supply for your PRC-10, it will require approximately 8 volts to operate. So you should have a battery capable of around 10 volts to feed it. A 10 volt battery at 5 amp hours can still be fit into a PRC-6! If the "D" cell format is adhered to, that would be 8ea nicads. True 8ea dry cells will produce 12 volts, so what, our power supplies are REGULATED! Also we'll need a few more volts than necessary to compensate for the discharge rate of the dry cell. On the other hand, you could make up two, three, or four identical battery packs, each of 5-6 volts. One pack at a time could be used in your PRC-6, or two of the same packs in series on your PRC-10. Our interest is in interchangeability and the advantages should be obvious. Gel cell battery types can also be used, and they will not exhibit the short shelf life characteristics of nicads. But we are limited by their larger size versas amp our rating, and the fact that several more volts will be needed to compensate for their linear discharge curve. BIAS BATTERIES, Any type of small dry cell battery can be used for the bias batteries. Use whatever you want, that will fit. Suitable types include "N", "AA", or "AAA" sizes. No matter what the size, you will not be changing them enough to even warrant using any type of a battery holder. I personally just solder them together, and stick them down with a hot glue gun. (CPRC-26) A special note, the power supply used with the CPRC-26 is almost identical to the one used with the PRC-6. The only difference is in the bias voltage, available space, and the fact that there is no chassis ground because a separate battery box is used. Because of the latter, an aluminum frame must be made that will just fit inside the battery box. If all is done correctly, you will not need to make an holes in the battery box. Cut a piece of sheet aluminum 2.75" wide x 12.75" long, bend it to fit inside the battery box, or so that it's sides measure 4, 4.5, 4, and 4.5 inches. Leave the sides open. You will then need to cut out the area occupied by the radio's power connector. Acquire an spring from an old plastic "AA" battery holder, you find a lot of them that the plastic is broken on anyway. Screw, or pop rivet this spring to the top of your chassis. Then grind the paint off the mating underside of the radio. This spring will now make your needed chassis ground. The rest of the chassis can be used to mount your power supply boards negating any need to drill holes in the battery box. The power connector might be a problem, refer to the already listed references for ideas on what to do. Should you be good with your hands, and tools, you may be able to closely approximate the original connector as I did. In this event, the connector should be mounted to the sub frame you've constructed. The completed assembly can then be installed, and removed exactly as the original battery was. It would be nice if we could find a ready source for these connectors, but that's unlikely, especially as I have never even seen an original battery before. Some parting thoughts on the PRC-6, and the CPRC-26. I really like both radios with a little imbalance towards the CPRC-26. Anybody can walk around a hamfest, or other special event with a PRT-4/PRR-9, or PRC-68 hanging from them. But it's a real trooper who go's to all the trouble to make one of these old war horse work, then actually use it. The biggest failing that I can see with both radios is the fact that neither government saw fit to include a squelch circuit of any kind. If they had, battery consumption would have been greatly reduced, not to mention user comfort enhancement. It would be nice if someone could come up with a simple solid state squelch circuit that could easily be added to these radios without the need of modification, and using power supply voltages the radios already have. Additionally, it's a simple task to add a inexpensive commercial tone generator for compatibility with PRC-25/77 type radios. If you have any questions or suggestions please contact; Dennis Starks Box 95 Cross Timbers Mo. 65634 (USA) ph.1-417-998-6517 (voice or fax) Email; military-radio-guy@juno.com *********************************************** MEMBERS WRITE; Texas Ham Com Reminder,(Dallas?) Just a reminder that boatanchor people are invited to a bring-your-own picnic lunch at noon Saturday. Food is available in the flea market area. We eat under a large tree at the bottom of the ramp to the large door at the Southwest corner of the indoor flea market. All are invited and encouraged to come meet the rest of us and put a face with the name and call sign. There will also be a boatanchor forum at 10:00 am Saturday. Your participation would help make it a success. See you there. Lenox Carruth, Jr. carruth@swbell.net Dallas, Texas Collector of WW-II Communications Equipment and Memorabilia ed) I expect an "after action report"! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dennis, I would very much like for us to help establish a mil radio FM 'Calling Freguency.' It could really help our usage of these sets. Have done a little research looking at the ARRL band plan for 6 meters. My suggestion would be 50.50 with alternates at 50.45 and 50.55. These are in the section for all mode usage and would give us one primary and two secondary spots. 73 Joseph W Pinner ed) I'm all for it. And the use of 51mc as a special event freq keeping with the same tradition and practicality of the 3.885mc freq. I would think the primary monitor freq should be 50.5 as it's operable with all these old radios, keeping the second two as alternates. I've had a scanner, and an RT-68 fired up for the last couple days, but haven't really heard any activity yet, this primarily on 51, and 52.525. BTW 50.4 is listed as an AM calling freq & my old Polytronics need the dust burnt out of it. I'll poke 50.5 into the scanner today, and listen up for whatever happins. Granada/MX-300R/Rangers, Dennis, the MX radios used in Grenada were low split, UHF 300-R series. Don't know if they were DES or not. Used by Rangers from Ft. Lewis. There were some photos in newsweek as well as I recall. Spencer Bahner ed) thanks for pinning that down for us. *********************************************** HUMOR; There was a perfect man who met a perfect woman. After a perfect courtship, they had a perfect wedding. Their life together was, of course, perfect. One snowy, stormy Christmas Eve this perfect couple was driving a perfect car (a Lamborghini) along a winding road when they noticed someone at the roadside in distress. Being the perfect couple, they stopped to help. There stood Santa Claus with a huge bundle of toys. Not wanting to disappoint any children on the eve of Christmas, the perfect couple loaded Santa and his toys into their vehicle (it was a 2+2!). Soon they were driving along delivering the toys. Unfortunately, the driving conditions deteriorated and the perfect couple and Santa Claus had an accident. Only one of them survived the accident. Who was the survivor? (scroll down for the answer) The perfect woman. She's the only one that really existed in the first place. Everyone knows there is no Santa Claus and there is no such thing as a perfect man. =================================== * A male's response * (Scroll Down ) So, if there is no perfect man and no Santa Claus, the perfect woman was driving. This explains why there was a car accident. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E M O S T T O Y S Capitalism - He who dies with the most toys, wins. Hari Krishna - He who plays with the most toys, wins. Catholicism - He who denies himself the most toys, wins. Anglican - They were our toys first. Eastern Orthodox - No, they were OURS first. Atheism - There is no toy maker. Polytheism - There are many toy makers. Evolutionism - The toys made themselves. Church of Christ Scientist - We are the toys. Communism - Everyone gets the same number of toys, and you are in big trouble if we catch you selling yours. B'Hai - All toys are just fine with us. Amish - Toys with batteries are surely a sin. Taoism - The doll is as important as the dump truck. Mormonism - Every boy can have as many toys as he wants. Voodoo - Let me borrow that doll for a second. Hinduism - He who plays with bags of plastic farm animals, loses. 7th Day Adventist - He who plays with his toys on Saturday, loses. Southern Baptist - If your toy is a Disney product, you have a one-way ticket to Hell. Jehovah's Witnesses - He who sells the most toys door-to-door, wins. Pentecostalism - He whose toys can talk in the most tongues, wins. Presbyterianism - Those toys are mine because they were meant to be! Existentialism - Toys are a figment of your imagination. Confucianism - Once a toy is dipped in the water, it is no longer dry. Non-denominationalism - We don't care where the toys came from, let's just play with them. Agnosticism - It is not possible to know whether toys make a bit of difference. But, in the final analysis, He who dies with the most toys... still dies! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At Disney, it's a wild, wild world Good morning, bwanas! Today's the day we finally open Disney's new Animal Kingdom theme park for the world. As tour guides, it's your job to make sure all visitors have fun. Many of you have never worked with real live critters, so let's go over the guidelines again. Number one: If your safari bus should encounter our wild animals acting like, well, wild animals, do not under any circumstances attempt to disconnect them, deprogram them or try to locate the ''off'' button. Remember, these are not the dancing country bears -- and they're probably not just dancing, anyway. I know it's a big adjustment for all of us here at Walt Disney World. In the old days, when a jungle beast went haywire we'd just replace a transistor. Not anymore. The wildlife here at Animal Kingdom sometimes will engage in public behavior that our guests might find puzzling or even disturbing -- behavior for which (I'm ashamed to say) a few of our human ''cast members'' have been occasionally reprimanded. As tour guides, it's your duty not to let our visitors be distracted. Turning to page 17 of the manual, you'll find a detailed list of embarrassing animal antics, next to the officially scripted Disney explanations. Scratching, for instance. As you've undoubtedly noticed, our primates can be indiscreet in their personal scratching habits. Please try not to bring this to the attention of your safari guests. If, however, a guest observes this behavior and inquires, always refer to it as ''grooming.'' Same goes for the licking -- those lions, I swear, they never give it a rest. . . . Just remember: ''Grooming'' is the operative word. Several of you asked about the poop issue. I passed along your concerns directly to Mr. Eisner's office, and I've been told there's not a darn thing to be done. We've got 1,000 animals roaming here and unless the folks in Imagineering come up with some amazing new gadget, there's going to be lots of poop. Hey, I'm on your side. Sixteen years I worked the Main Street Parade and we never had this problem, except for that one really obnoxious Pluto. And, yes, I'm well aware how much a full-grown elephant eats -- but try to deal with it, OK? ''Droppings.'' That's the approved Disney term, whether it's from a hippo or a hummingbird. The next item is, sadly, animal mortality. As you know, we've already lost two rhinos, some rare birds, four cheetah cubs. It's made for a few unpleasant headlines, to be sure. But this is straight from the lawyers: Never use the terms ''die'' or ''dead'' on your Disney safari. If the tour bus passes an animal that appears not to be breathing, you may describe it as ''lethargic,'' ''inactive,'' ''dormant'' or (for the youngsters) ''napping.'' Finally, let's review the rules on animal sex. I don't know what genius decided to open this park in the springtime, but our animals are in quite the mood. Some of you heard what happened on Media Day -- a little problem with the Barbara Walters crew and that horny pair of wildebeests in quadrant seven. Without going into gory details, let's just say that ABC eventually was ''persuaded'' to give up the videotape. As safari guides, it's imperative to remember that this is a family attraction. Animals do not mate here. They ''wrestle.'' They ''clench.'' They ''frolic.'' They ''romp.'' They ''nuzzle.'' And of course they ''groom'' each other, sometimes intimately. But they don't mate. They don't hump. They don't ''do the nasty.'' Is that understood? Good. Now go out there and give these wonderful folks an authentic true-life jungle adventure, droppings and all! *********************************************** (The preceding was a product of the"Military Collector Group Post", an international email magazine dedicated to the preservation of history and the equipment that made it. Unlimited circulation of this material is authorized so long as the proper credits to the original authors, and publisher or this group are included. For more information conserning this group contact Dennis Starks at, military-radio-guy@juno.com) ***********************************************