[Milsurplus] Re:VRC-19

[Bob Camp]

Hi

As far as I can see this is simply a repackage job on an early 1950's 
Motorola commercial FM radio. I can't find a picture of one but I doubt 
they changed things much to put it into military service. The three 
strip approach (power supply in the middle, receiver and transmitter 
strips to either side) was the normal setup on the commercial gear.

When the world converted to solid state and narrow channel spacing 
these radios showed up on the surplus market by the boat load. Last one 
I bought was back in the early 1970's and if I remember correctly it 
was about $25 or so. By modern standards they are pretty wide band and 
don't have a lot of sensitivity. Not a lot of reason to put one on the 
air and use it.

A couple of options:

1) The receiver in the radio is known as a R-394 - sell it to somebody 
who is collecting all the R-39x radios.

2) The receiver schematic diagrams were a plastic laminated item. A lot 
of them survived. Maybe somebody wants a receiver to go with the 
schematic.

3) The radios must have been in just about any kind of specialized 
utility truck or jeep you could find on a military base in the 1950's. 
A lot of these get restored. If you also got the control head and 
antenna I'd bet that one of the restoration projects needs one. I 
turned up a couple of old hits on the net from groups restoring crash 
trucks and the like.

Of course you could find somebody with a boat .....

	Take Care!
	
		Bob Camp
		KB8TQ


On Jun 20, 2004, at 10:11 AM, Alan Tasker wrote:

> At 08:51 AM 6/20/2004, you wrote:
>> I came home with a HEAVY, VRC-19 radio. ( I think that's the
>> nomclat, without going to look.)  2-channel FM radio built
>> by Motorola, lots of submin tubes, 3 pullout units in a large
>> case. Pretty much uselss as well as big / heavy - not an
>> endearing formula.  So, is there any reason it should not
>> cease to exist? Even tho there won't be much to harvest off
>> it.
>> Tnx, Hue Miller
>
> I do not know about reasons to exist or not, but this sounds like one 
> of the "guard duty" sets that the Army procured from Motorola back in 
> the early to mid 50's. The three plug in pieces ought to be a Tx, an 
> Rx, and a dyno for the Tx. Came in low band and high band. Rx had a 
> vibrator supply that plugged into it in the back. There were vib and 
> dyno supplies for 6, 12, and 24 Volts, and even 110 V AC I think, for 
> base station use. In the overall pix, there was also a 250 Watt amp 
> for base station use (many of which ended up in amateur repeater use 
> when surplused in the 70's), and the PRC-21 high band portable. 
> Motorola must have made a fortune on this program. Maybe there are 
> collectors of MP stuff out there?
>
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