[Milsurplus] morale receivers in Vietnam

[David Ross]

   Did someone ask about Vietnam-era morale receivers?  Like:
> And on the subject of moral receivers, was their a
 > military purchased radio available in Vietnam for troop use?



   There is a R-1289()/PRR which probably qualifies as a Vietnam-era 
morale receiver, but I don't know anything about it's history or where 
it was used or to whom it was available.

   A bunch of these receivers showed up on egad several years ago and 
seemed to go begging.  The receiver itself is a garden-variety 
transistor radio and carries nothing labeling it as a military item. 
The R-1289 was built by General Electric and comes their commercial 
cardboard box.  Stamped over the commercial artwork is:

7730-763-0329
R-1289()/PRR RECEIVER, RADIO (FTP)
1 EACH
DA 44-196-AMC-00079 (E)
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
RADIO RECEIVER DEPARTMENT
UTICA, NEW YORK, USA
(MFG/CONTR)
GE REF P925G
1A-8X 9/64

   Inside the commercial box, the radio itself is sealed in a waterproof 
vaporproof bag.  Stamped on that vaporproof bag is the same info as is 
stamped on the box.

   The one I opened didn't work, and it took lots of soldering to make 
it play.  The radio has the crudest PC board I have ever seen, and had 
many cold solder joints.  It was filthy with old hard flux.

   Now it plays OK, but is really nothing special at all.  It covers the 
AM broadcast band and 4-12 MCs (no BFO).  Runs from internal batteries. 
  The case is injection molded plastic, beige -  sheesh, the least they 
could have done is mold it in a nice O.D.

   The P925G number may be GE's commercial number for the, but a search 
yields nothing.  R-1289 shows up in some of Dennis Stark's "Military 
Collector Group Post" pages.

   OK so that's more than you wanted to know...

Dave Ross    N7EPI