The 524 is heavy but for the money and availability, it is probably the best bet. You may want to go for a GRC-160 which is the PRC-77 with an amplifier base IF you can find one at a decent price.
The 246's are hard to come by and therefore more expensive normally.
I am in the process of repairing 5 sets of 524's and R442 aux's. It will probably be near the end of May or even end of June before I have them up running and tested if you want to wait that long.
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If you got VIN info, I'm asking for any donations made to be sent to the GENE VANCE FOUNDATION FOR CATASTROPHICALLY WOUNDED VETERANS and mention in the donation form it is part of the SteelSoldiers project. Here's the link:
The range is 30-76MHz which gives 920 channels. You can also tune them in the "red flag" area of the frequency readout area down at 29MHz. Not sure about the area above 76MHz though.
The RT-246 is at least as heavy as the RT-524 and the main differences are that the RT-246 has the ability to have preset frequencies that can be controlled either on the front of the unit or can be controlled remotely with a control box. The 246s were used in vehicles where the operator didn't have easy access to the front panel. They can also be tuned manually just like the 524. Keep in mind though that the 246 lacks the speaker so you'll either have to add an external speaker or use a headset or handset to listen.
I pieced stuff together from ebay and americanmilspec.com. American milspec has the MT-1029 mounts that are NOS at $15 as well as NOS handsets, headsets, etc. The only thing I lack is the CUCV antenna brackets. Someone here offered me some awhile back but I lost the info when I cleaned out my messages without thinking.
Best radio set up for a deuce
