From: military-radio-guy Full-Name: Dennis R Starks To: military radio collectors#1 Fcc: Sent Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 05:59:22 Subject: MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, Oct.5/99 Message-ID: <19991005.055816.7999.2.military-radio-guy@juno.com> X-Status: Sent X-Mailer: Juno 1.49 MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, Oct.5/99 Index: ANNOUNCEMENTS; Mike Kirby Update, SPECIAL EVENT REPORTS, MARYLAND & ILLINOIS; GREECE & JORDAN TO BUY PACER-SPEAK EQUIPMENT; MEMBERS WRITE; More, Two Freqs on Army Radios, PRC-127's In Kosovo, FSE 38/58, Group Project? ON THE COMMERCIAL FRONT; 1980 Production BC-191 TU's NEW MEMBERS; Jack Sullivan Feyssac Jacques HUMOR; *********************************************** ANNOUNCEMENTS; Mike Kirby Update, Yesterday I received a letter from the Florida State Attorney's office to inform me that on September 30, Micheal T. Kirby pled to Organized Scheme to Defraud. He was found guilty and sentenced to a total of 7 1/2 years in prison and to pay $300 in restitution. I don't know who this restitution was to be paid to, but the amount of money he swindled was well in excess of $40,000, and the number of people ripped off was at least a dozen. Please forward this info to all who have been following this story. Dennis Starks; Collector/Historian Midwest Military Communications Museum email: military-radio-guy@juno.com *********************************************** SPECIAL EVENT REPORTS, MARYLAND & ILLINOIS; Thought I will take a couple minutes to talk about the Hamfest we had hear in Maryland last Sunday ( September 26th ), the FAR Fest 99 that use to be known as the Gaithersburg Hamfest, at one time one of the largest in the north east. for reasons unknown to me the Foundation for amateur radio changed their location from the Gaithersburg fairgrounds to their new home at the Bay Sox Stadium, just south of US 50 on US 301 east of Washington , DC in Bowie , Maryland. The new location appears nice, all paved lot, no dust or dirt, but people tell me they thought it is a smaller tailgating area. because of the difference in layout I can not say. old Gaithersburg was a series of a couple long rows that went on for miles and a lot of tailgaters that were always up under the trees ( the ones who got their the day before ), had always been the same ( at least for the twenty years that I have gone ). the new location is five or six rows of tailgaters in the stadium parking lot with the people selling the new crap inside the stadium. I spent most of my time outside. Went with old friend TJ ( WA3JJL ), usual partner Mr. Smith ( AB1) had to work this Sunday. he keeps much better notes and writes a better field report, but I geuse you have to settle for mine. Lots of black and green radios, lets start with the black: saw two BC-348, one R one Q one was a make offer deal ($100.00???) the other one was $150.00 and on a big corner lot that was loaded with stuff. they had a ARR-41 for $200.00 ( sold for $150.00) a whole flock of ARC-5 stuff from beat parts missing units from $10.00 TO $25.00 to complete units (receivers and transmitters ) for $50.00 and a new transmitter in the box for $100.00. also MD-7 for $100.00 ( go figure?) , triple control heads and racks. a big showing for the little black box, about five other people had ARC-5 stuff up for sale. A ARC-2 was for sale for $40.00 and was picked up by Tom Bryan, who helped me finally get my URC-101, a deal that we worked out at the hamfest. that involved money , radios and lots of other things ( but now I am the happy owner of a 101, power supply and battery box ). the same person selling the ARC-2 also had a UGC-74A teletype terminal with all the books (service, field maintenance and operator ) for $25.00 ( he sold it for $20.00 ) I almost bought it just for the books. on the subject of green radios saw a couple pipe mast kits for $90.00, Ontario Surplus was their with their AB-75 mast kits for $300.00, can not think what is more dangerous putting one of them up or taking it down? saw GRC-106 power supplies for $165.00 and a TRC-77A with book for $150.00, and thought what could this possibly be used for, CW only, low power , twelve volt???. lots of camo clothing, bags and stuff , some brought by TJ , who also put out a bunch of UHF black rubber Motorola MX looking things with voice encryption. no one wanted to buy them. and then their was the KG-84 Crypto unit for $75.00 wonder how that escaped the de-mil proses. Well that's what I saw, probley missed all the good deals. Ray Fantini Peoria Illinois, Well it seems you at least had a bunch of neat stuff to look at, and Tom stole an ARC-2(what kinda shape was it in?). Ike & I did not fair so well in Peoria Ill. We arrived a day early as is our custom, & this year I brought a secret weapon, my Harley. After the first couple years of attending this hamfest, and being totally wore out from running back and forth over this twenty acre event before it event started, and Ike's trying to out-run the bicycles, scooters & the like, I decided some speed, and hauling capacity might give us the edge. Well it did help, but the pickins were pretty slim. Ike, true to form, was off at a run before his Trooper and trailer could coast to a complete stop. Rather than try to outrun him, I decided it would be smarter to just wait and see what he'd come hauling back, then shame him into letting me have it. This plan worked several times, but was far more difficult than I might have preferred. The 7.5 hour drive in the Power Wagon, pulling an 18 foot tandem axle trailer had me exhausted before we even arrived. Ike, Driving a Trooper for the first time to a hamfest, and pulling his brand new little box trailer for the first time(in fact, he had never pulled a trailer before) had energy to spare. The first thing I did was to unload the Harley, and gathered up Charley(Ike's buddy, came too, much to my delight as he was able to stand Ike's constant rambling in route to & from, so I didn't hafta listen to him) and we went for a leisurely ride to see what could be found on the way to the head(always my first stop).. I outfitted the Harley with Ralph's SEM-35(still running on the same batteries after all this time), kept a CPRC-510, & a PRC-25 in operation at base camp, and carried around a PRC-68 or PRC-126 whenever afoot. Ike too had a PRC-25 at his corner of camp but was seldom there long enough to use it. Well, I didn't find nothin, Ike found everything, and as I had planned, I just waited for him to drag it in, or summon me with the Harley to haul his booty home for him. Right off the bat he grabbed some Hallicrafters OPS stuff, a couple HT-1's, and HT-2's(those factory returns that have been coming out of Florida for the last couple years), neither bothered me much as I have multiples of each. But there was another, a TR-5(bigger brother to the HT-1), I've been frantically searching for one of these for years and never seen, nor heard of one available. In fact, I didn't even know what one looked like, just that they once existed. It had no guts in it, but what the hell, it was still something to look at. It took the rest of the weekend for me to talk Ike out of it. Now I need only to find a TR-9, TR-20, TR-35, FM-10, and FM-20 to have a full set(or the ones I know about anyway). You never saw so many Gonsets in all your life, little alone in one place at the same time. All pristine, yellow Civil Defense versions. Most on 6 mtrs but a couple on 2. Ike got five of um from one guy and that wasn't all of them there were at the fest. All had their yellow canvas bags(something I had never seen before), and all their accessories(mics, power cables, headphones etc). Ike let me have one example with a minimum of whining(a 6 mtr Communicator III). If your interested, I'm sure he has a couple left in 6 & 2 mtrs he plans to use as trading fodder. The only other item worth mentioning was a legendary, almost mythical, Jefferson Travis 350AT. I had never even seen a likeness of one before, and it had all the original goodies. Power supply, cables, and the big lolly pop desk mic with PTT(never seen one of these either). The asking price was $100. As I wasn't much afraid of somebody pouncing on this 300 lbs treasure, I took my time, made several trips back, and finally got him down to $80. His wife was so happy to see it go that she took several pictures of me, him, and it, in various combinations to document it's departure. Apparently, the mini-pickup truck that it was setting in had been it's dedicated home for a couple years, and because of this the truck could be used for very little else. Well, we loaded it in the back of the Harley, and off I went, happy as a lark. But it was a real chore to keep the Harley's front wheel on the ground(and absolutely no brakes could be used while backing up!). Now home, to figure out where to put it! I should note, that I normally take a 3/4 ton military trailer to these events, but the year before(at this same hamfest) I bought a mint BC-669 in it's wood cabinet/mount. It's still in that trailer my having yet to find a place to put IT! Dennis Starks; Collector/Historian Midwest Military Communications Museum email: military-radio-guy@juno.com *********************************************** GREECE & JORDAN TO BUY PACER-SPEAK EQUIPMENT; Greece and Jordan to Buy More Raytheon Radio Systems FT WAYNE, Ind., Sept. 30, 1999 -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTNA, RTNB) has received orders worth $25 million for Pacer Speak Communication Systems for the Greek and Jordanian governments. Under the Foreign Military Sales program, the contract enables the U.S. Air Force to procure 46 GRC-206(V) radio communication systems, 200 VRC-83 radios sets, and 22 mobile radio relay sets for Greece. It also allows the acquisition of 4 VRC-83 Radio Sets for Jordan. Both countries have purchased Raytheon radios and communication systems in the past. Pacer Speak GRC-206(V) is a multi-band, multi-waveform communications suite that provides tactical anti-jam connectivity from high frequency through ultra high frequency. Tested in combat, the system assures direct communication between ground troops and tactical aircraft. In addition it is used extensively in the U.S. and abroad to provide forward air control and remote air control for military operations. The highly versatile Pacer Speak system can be installed in a variety of vehicles including the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle and the M113 Armed Personnel Carrier. The VRC-83 vehicular radio sets can be used at fixed-sites as well as in vehicles. Two VRC-83 multi-band radios are included in the mobile radio relay system for Greece. "Over the years, we've worked with Greece and Jordan to upgrade their tactical communications capabilities," said Raytheon Systems Company's Communication Systems Division business development director John Oglesby. "Both are satisfied customers now using Pacer Speak radios, and both continue to identify new areas where the products can make their forces more effective." Raytheon Company, based in Lexington, Mass., is a global technology leader that provides products and services in the areas of commercial and defense electronics, engineering and construction, and business and special mission aircraft. Raytheon has operations throughout the United States and serves customers in more than 80 countries around the world. # # # NOTES TO EDITORS: Engineering work will be conducted at Raytheon Systems Company's Communication Systems Division headquarters in Ft. Wayne, Ind. Production will occur at the company's manufacturing center in Largo, Fla. The world leader in tactical communication terminals, Raytheon supplies a range of products for use in the air, on land and at sea. Its ground/cosite communication products range from the most advanced manpacks to mobile and fixed systems. Submitted by George Humphrey KC5WBV *********************************************** MEMBERS WRITE; More, Two Freqs on Army Radios. I receintly bought some Motorola radio equipment from Steve Haney. One of the pieces was a MCX1000--a VHF FM mobile radio used in a rack "fixed configuration. When I powered it up, it had at least 2 ham frequencie pairs in it. I Asked Steve where he got the radios and he said from FEMA in Denton, Texas. FEMA likes to monitor the hams during a catastrophe--maybe the same scenario for Ralph's MX300-R's. -- Jim Hopper/W5EBQ Pres., Megahertz Technology, Inc. Dallas TX. ed) True, Emergency management maintains communications capabilities with the amateur community from the Federal level(FEMA) down to the state(SEMA), and county level. In my business, I've sold equipment to state emergency management for the purpose of building 2 mtr repeaters(at least in one case, the equipment was theirs to begin with, and was purchased surplus only to be sold back to them). As I was our county emergency management director for a couple years, and was involved in the writing of our emergency plan twice(VERY thick book even for a county of our size), I know that the Ham community plays a great part in this planning. BTW FEMA, or Federal Emergency Management Agency, is the fancy new name for the old Civil Defense(CD) system. The name was changed in the early 80's as Carter's Salt II came into effect. This because treaty with Russia outlawed any federally funded civil defense program which was to guarantee mutual annihilation in the event of a nuclear war. Very little was actually changed. For instance, before Salt II, local county CD directors could approach any military base and ask for surplus equipment that might be laying around. Said base would gladly hand over any equipment that had been declared excess. We where able to obtain all kinds of neat stuff this way, like towers, vehicles, radios, generators etc. We even had the chance once to get a couple UH-1 Huey's, but our county commissioners aced that. After Salt II, this all changed. We were no longer able to directly approach any federal agency to obtain equipment. Instead, federal property was handed over to various State Agencies(usually conservation, or forestry), they in turn would pass the equipment out to the lower county agencies. This isolated Emergency Management agencies from the Federal level. Thus it could be claimed that there was no federally supported Civil Defense. ----------------------------------------------------------------- PRC-127's In Kosovo, Dennis- the other evening on one of the night time news programs (may have been Nightline, really can't recall) there was an extended story on US Army units in Kosovo. There were repeated shots of US infantry units on patrol with radio antennas visable over their shoulders. I assumed that when I saw the close up it would be a 30-80 mhz radio with the short rubber duck antenna. Well, I was wrong. The antenna on closer observation was the 140 mhz quarter wave whip (thick base, narrower tip section) used with the King PRC127s. Then I saw a few shots of the speaker mic and sure enough, King! On the MX question below. I think that in other regions of the world the two meter band is limited to 144-146 mhz. I know when I went to the UK 10 years ago that the London Met Police were using channels in the 146-150 range for their repeater outputs (as well as UHF). I think asia may follow a similar band plan. So its probably safe to assume that these radios DID NOT come from the 'Americas' since the whole 144-148 range is ham in North and South America. Spencer Bahner N7UMO ed) It is very true that the range of the 2 mtr Ham band differs greatly from country-to-country as do all other allocations above 30mc as they are not subject to international guide lines. I should have mentioned this in the beginning of this string. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FSE 38/58, Group Project? Dennis, Do you think there would be a few group members interested in the FSE 38/58 for $50 plus postage? I can get about ten used ones at this price delivered to me, complete with canvas bag and antenna, but no handset (H-33, same as for PRC-6, 10, etc.) and no battery. The guy says the FSE replaced the PRC-6 in the (West)German Army back when. Alan ed) I think it would be a great idea, just hope that there's enough to go around. These are a nice little radio(I conned Ralph out of his when he visited). This example had it's canvas bag, head-strap tape antenna, and some other misc stuff, including a set of auxiliary channel xtals inside the radio. They are solid state, operate from 6vdc, about 47-54mc. Should anybody be interested, contact both me, & Alan. Given there is enough interest, I might write up a little more on them. I schematic/manual has been promised, and should be on it's way. *********************************************** ON THE COMMERCIAL FRONT; 1980 Production BC-191 TU's Tuning Unit TU-54 for BC-610 transmitter. 12 to 18 MC. Unused Gov't surplus, made in 1980. Includes a laminated copy of the tuning chart for this frequency range. I dont have very many, $20 each plus $5 shipping. It might be interesting reasearch to find out why the gov't was still buying these things in 1980? STEVE HANEY HANEY ELECTRONIC CO email: tc0654@mesh.net *********************************************** NEW MEMBERS; Jack Sullivan I have been interested in military surplus since growing up in a house filled with surplus stuff that my ham father, N2JS, brought back from WWII. I spent a good portion of the early 60s inhabiting G&G & the other surplus outlets located in what is now the World Trade Center in NYC. My early interests were radar & IFF. I missed the Vietnam War experience but feel nostalgia over a lot of the commo gear that was employed there. I collect green radios of post-vacuum tube vintage and use them in the way they were originally designed. I currently operate a Retrans between a PRC-25 and a -77 on 51.00/53.95 and simplex on 51.60. My other principal interest is military comms, both local and VHF skip. I have been busy getting my radio shack set up for the upswing in activity over the next year or so as Cycle 23 peaks. (I operate a Uniden Bearcat BC895XLT with 300 military channels programmed in with 151.4 Hz PL decode & an additional 100 channels programmed into an ICOM R-7000. Antennas for this op incluide an AS-3886/TRC-191 discone, 2 OE-254/GRC bicones and an Austin 1/2-wave 52.5 MHz vertical. I work at home and also spend a lot of time SWLing DX on 10 meters (SSB & FM) as part of a continuing study of improving skip conditions. In my spare time I moderate COMMO@Onelist.com, a list devoted to VHF/UHF communications & related topics. Most of the postings are my intercept loggings. Current wants include non-rechargeable batteries for the PRC-68B (BB-1588, BB-388, BB-3588) and web accessories for carrying that radio. -- Jack Sullivan WA1TEJ Central NJ, USA Grid FN20xx ------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Sir, Following the receipt of your "invitation message",I read carefully your message and fully agreed with the terms 1 to 7 Concerning myself, here is a short description . 1BO I'm still in activity for at less two more years (i'm 58) that does not permit to spend all the time I would like for my hobbies. Professional activity :electronic engineer involve in aeronautical communications system and civil navigation system,since 1962.Working in a consultancy group named : SOFREAVIA. 3B0 I start my career by working 5 years for the US Army,US ARMY GENERAL DE POT SAUMUR (USAGDS), then after the 313th Signal Corps and the 532nd. (what a marvellous time! I was young also!!!) Then when DE GAULLE decide to quit NATO,i decide to see the world and spend15 years in third world countries mostly in Africa (always in aviation activities) plus 5 years for the CNES (french equivalent to NASA) tracking satellites. Then around 80; I return to the headquarter of the company in paris and since travelling a lot around the world in places where we have contracts. 4B0 At the beginning of my career I start to work on the ground equipment of the US army then latter I switch to navionics and ground navigation systems. Twelve years ago , a friend of mine ,Colonel of the French Army and Director of the French Cavalry School Tank Museum ask me to take in charge the Signal part of the Museum .I promply realize that it was more necessary to have muscles than brain (as you known the weight of tank radio equipment !) Since that time I did organise that part of the Museum, equipment, library, collecting missing parts, exchanging parts. 5B0 To be able to understand the chronology of equipment,I was force to put my nose in the historical part of the equipment;I must said that in France the army does not have a good memory neither good papers archives! And many times we have to relly on the old timers. 6B0 Concerning the swap list, I fully agreed on your philosophy, at the muse um I do have now equipment available but they are very common SCR-528 units completes with all accessories; and the problem is the weight and cost of transportation for abroad! We will see latter on. 7B0 As you can understand I'm interrested by your historical publications, and I will also bring my contribution. 8B0 Final point:as you understand I have tons of signal equipment at the Museum,my own collection is not too important and based more on my "coup de coeur" Receive my best Regards Feyssac Jacques (please excuse the faults, I' French!!!!) *********************************************** HUMOR; A Navy Chief and an Admiral were sitting in the barbershop. They were both just getting finished with their shaves. The barbers were reaching for some after-shave to slap on their faces when the Admiral shouted, "Hey, don't put that crap on me! My wife will think I've been in a whorehouse!" The Chief turned to his barber and said with a grin, "Go ahead and put it on me. My wife doesn't know what the inside of a whorehouse smells like." ------------------------------------------------------------------ Try saying this every morning, it helps. Have a great day. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill today because they pissed me off. And also, help me to be careful of the toes I step on today, as they may be connected to the ass that I may have to kiss tomorrow. Help me to always give 100% at work.... 12% on Monday, 23% on Tuesday, 40% on Wednesday, 20% on Thursday, 5% on Fridays. And help me to remember...when I am having a really bad day, and it seems that people are trying to piss me off, that it takes 42 muscles to frown and only 4 to extend my middle finger and tell them to bite me. Amen ------------------------------------------------------------------ Blonde and Public Works A blonde woman who had been unemployed for several months finally got a job with Public Works. This was a little old town, so her job was to paint lines down the center of a rural road using a paint brush. The Supervisor told her that she was on probation and that she must stay at or above the set minimum of 2 miles per day of lines. The blonde agrees and starts right away. The Supervisor checked at the end of day one and found that the blonde had completed 4 miles, double the required average. The next day, however, he was disappointed to find that the blonde only accomplished 2 miles. The Supervisor thought, "Well, she's at the average and I don't want to discourage her, so I'll just keep quiet." The third day, the blonde only did one mile and the boss thought, "I need to talk to her before this gets worse." The boss called the blonde in and said, "The first day you did 4 miles, the second day 2 miles and yesterday only 1 mile. Why? Is there an injury? A problem? Equipment failure? What's keeping you from meeting the minimum 2 miles per day?" The blonde replied, "Well, each day I keep getting farther and farther away from the paint bucket!" ------------------------------------------------------------------ One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night. "Could you possibly give us a room here?" the husband asked. The clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in town. "All of our rooms are taken," the clerk said. "But I can't send a nice couple like you out into the rain at one o'clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It's not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night." When the couple declined, the young man pressed on. "Don't worry about me; I'll make out just fine," the clerk told them. So the couple agreed. As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, "You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I'll build one for you." The clerk looked at them and smiled. The three of them had a good laugh. As they drove away, the elderly couple agreed that the helpful clerk was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both friendly and helpful isn't easy. Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten the incident when he received a letter from the old man. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to New York, asking the young man to pay them a visit. The old man met him in New York, and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. He then pointed to a great new building there, a palace of reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky. "That," said the older man, "is the hotel I have just built for you to manage." "You must be joking," the young man said. "I can assure you I am not," said the older man, a sly smile playing around his mouth. The older man's name was William Waldorf Astor, and the magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt. This young clerk never foresaw the turn of events that would lead him to become the manager of one of the world's most glamorous hotels. The Bible says that we are not to turn our backs on those who are in need, for we might be entertaining angels. Life is more accurately measured by the lives you touch than the things you acquire... Look for those angels. *********************************************** 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 concerning this group or membership contact Dennis Starks at, . A list of selected articles of interest to members can be seen at: http://www.softcom.net/users/buzz/backmail.html ***********************************************