[Milsurplus] VRC-19, thumbs up or down?

[aGEnuine Ham]

Back in about 1957±, The Air Force decided to "lease-Purchase" commercial
2-way gear in their local motor pool, fire-crash and administrative nets.
 The "Taj-Majal" tower at Randolph Air Force Base, which contains the
base water tank, also had the base stations for these nets.  I helped
install the new commercial equipment, and the "VRC-19 type" base stations
which they had been using were then removed.  I never heard the correct
nomenclature for the AC versions, everyone just called them VRC-19s. 
Anyway, IIRC, the radio was a cube about 18" each way, sitting on a base
cabinet of about the same dimensions.  There were three of these there,
and all 3 support boxes were full to overflowing with the subminiature
tubes.  One of the GIs in attendance told me that the radios ate tubes
like popcorn, and were a constant maintenance nightmare, and they were
happy to see them go.  As they appeared in the local MARS warehouses, the
hams grabbed them up, but I never recall hearing more than one or two on
the local repeaters, and then not for very long.    The then surplus
commercial equipment was easier to get going, and more reliable, and held
sway until the Japanese solid state radios came along.  I heard that many
of the units ended up on the MARS repeater frequencies, which may explain
the apparent necessity of initiating MARS contacts on the ham repeaters
first. 

73,
George
W5VPQ

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