Everyone of us, despite the age, has weak points. One of mines, if we talk about radio, is low VHF manpacks. So, it didn’t surprise me, this morning, when we got downstairs to check if Santa had been here, and found – among other presents – a huge dark green pack. It revealed a Tesla RF-10 trasnsceiver. Santa well know kids all around the world, and what they have a crush on! Read more →

I'll try to explain, in a few lines, why, although admiring the bulk of engineering and electronics in them, I'm not a diehard of modern radios. It has mainly to do with the fact everything, using one of those (I'll avoid models, but I'm referring to the ones people struggle to look at in Friedrischafen and Dayton), becomes too easy. You pay big bucks, and then it's a matter of pushing buttons. You'll forgive me the vaguely rude comparaison (in Italy, however, it's a popular topic), but it's like going out with an Escort: you get what you paid for. Nothing more, nothing less. Sadly, or luckily (it's a matter of points of view), yours truly is minded like Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman". I need to feel my radio, to interact with it, to plug pins, to tune it before transmitting, to learn something by its use, and to "cuddle" it when it doesn't seem to react as it should. Most of all, I don't like to think every QSO is given. Otherwise, the answer to my communication deeds would have been called "Skype", and not "Ham radio". Military decommissioned radios are the perfect answer to your expectations, if you share this view. They're solid, have an intriguing feeling when you operate them, and they have a scent! It's the scent of the people who have used them on the field, proudly serving their Countries. In a word, the scent of life and history. The readers of this blog probably have get acquainted to the PRC-320, but also other models, even not in the HF range, can offer their interesting services to the ham community, even if they ended their duty. Remaining in the Clansman serie, 6 meters with the PRC-351 (Italy hasn't 4 meters available!) is great fun. Er… I hear someone mumble it doesn't feature SSB? It's not a problem at all. Local QSOs in FM on 50 MHz are really pleasant, and it's a ground to explorate deeply. In recent experimentations with others colleagues, I obtained interesting results with half the power used in 144 (but with the same signal reported). Witness below – even if it's in Italian – one of the recent experiments (the "GSA" aerial kit, even if not pictured, was used):
 

And here is the bunch of guys at the other end (some couple kilometers far from me), answering with a SEM-52 (which was in use to German forces) and a tripod (which was sold for bike maintenance in a hard discount down at the corner!):
 

Experiments will go on, trying to increase the distance (so far, with around 1 Watt and the "GSA" a distance of 20 kilometers has been covered succesfully), and you'll read of the future results. If you like this way of operating, using those radios is a way to give them more life, after they gave much to the ones who used them professionally.

73,
Chris