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Military radio's. Tell me more!

Sarge

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Okay guys, in the field of military radio's, I am a dunce. That bears repeating, I am a dunce. So, recently I bought an M561 Gama Goat with an S250 in the back. The inside of the S250 contained some radio equipment. I have attached a photo, there appears to be two pieces of US equipment and one piece of German. Yes, I can read the data plates, no, they don't mean anything to me. The only time I used radio's in the military was to key the mike and scream for help. That's it. The seller of the goat assured me that all of the equipment is 100% operational. I powered up the S250 and so far everything seems to hum nicely. I do know enough to not power up the radio's without the antenna's attached and I also think it's illegal for me to transmit without the correct licence. I also know that when you key the mike in an M151 and the engine isn't idling fast, it kills the engine. The last thing I know about military radio's is stay the hell away from the antenna's when transmitting.
That's the sum of my military radio knowledge.
Please ed-u- micate me on anything you think relevant.
 

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maddawg308

Well-known member
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RE: Military radio

Since you seem to say that you are unknowledgable when it comes to military radios, I'd be happy to take those green hunks of iron off your hands. :)
 

Sarge

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Radio dunce

Nice try Maddawg! Truth is, I'll be hanging on to them, trying to find TM's on them, and eventually, using them.
 

OPCOM

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RE: Military radio

Oh yeah, that is dangerous junk and has a PCB capacitor, and radioactive meters in it. I'll help too. Wouldn't want anyone hurt.

The big 'un is a GRC-106A, capable of 400 watts from 2 to 30 MHz which is the HF ham bands. It draws about 40 amps when keyed at full power. It is a very nice radio and what you have there assuming it works will burn the crap out of anyone touching the antenna, but then people get what they deserve! The other is a low-band VHF set, FM, and I believe it will cover the 50-54MHz ham band as well as other freq's. Very nice setup. PM me for my opinion on the GRC-106A if you want but what you have there as an installation is worth a few hundred dollars. I have owned several and repaired many. Please consider getting a ham radio license. The one for the VHF set (Technician license) is real easy, and the lowest-level one for the big radio (General license) is not too hard. No morese code is required any more. Take the practice tests at QRZ.com.

About killing the engine, you may wish to add a set of two 90 amp-hour 12V AGM batteries under that rack and that will help reduce the drain on the vehicle battery. Idling power during receive on the GRC-106 (amplifier and RT unit both on) is about 15 amps. Mine are set up so that I can leave them connected to the vehicle batteries when the vehicle is running if I wish so they stay charged. (not to be used with solargizer!). A set of them will let you run the GRC-106 and the German rig at full power for at least an hour. The main point is I am suggesting a valve-regulated non-spillable, mostly non-venting type of battery for inside the shelter.
 

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598
0
16
Location
Karlsruhe, Germany
That german thing is a SEM-25. I was trained on that thing back in my army-days. I remember hours of coding speech-messages which had to be transmitted over the radio, which was strangly boring and challenging at the same time.
It was installed in radio-shelter on a Unimog 404s. Great vehicle (chime in, Bunkerratte :)

One good thing is about the radio set is that the SEM goes down to 27 MHz, which can be useful to annoy CB-Users. Oooops. I didn't say that.


Cheers,
Mark
 

OPCOM

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The SEM will also talk to PRC-25, PRC-68, PRC-77, RT246, RT524, RT68, Racal TRA-967, etc. What is the top freq. on it?
 
598
0
16
Location
Karlsruhe, Germany
Freq is 26.0 to 69.95 MHz devided in 880 channels, 10 are mechanically programmable. Mod is FM, 1 / 15 watts lo/hi.
Historically it replaced the RT-66 to 70 units, and receivers R108 to R110.
It also can communicate to PRC6/6 (german Version of PRC6), PRC-8 to 10, FSE38/58 and SEM35.

The SEM-25 is fully transistorized, except for three valves in the xmit.
 
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