[Milsurplus] PRC-34 or PRC-36 manual?

[Mike Morrow]

>Has anyone ever put one of these funny little critters on the air?

I got AN/PRC-34 (radio in a plastic helmet) and AN/PRC-36 (radio on belt, antenna/earphone on belt around standard metal helmet) sets through US Navy-Marine Corps MARS in 1969.  It is very easy to get the receiver part of the set working, as long as you have the appropriate accessories.  IIRC, all you need is three AA-cells to provide 4.5 vdc for the solid-state receiver circuit.  The transmitter is more difficult.  It uses a CK6051 vacuum tube, so you need a filament and a plate supply.  I recall that 45 vdc worked for the plate, and 1.5 volts worked for the filament.  So add another AA cell for the filament.  But these four AA-cells are now using up about 70 percent of the space allocated for the whole battery pack.  You'll never get a 45 vdc source squeezed in there too!

In 1969, it was still pretty easy to find 22.5 vdc batteries that were just a little larger than a 9 vdc battery.  I used two of them for 45 vdc.  Today you'll be out of luck.  Five 9 vdc batteries would be the closest equivalent.

I was lucky enough to get two units set for 6-meters, though not on the same frequency.  These are hard units to put on a different frequency unless you have the individual transmitter and receiver front end modules for the new channel.

These units do not have squelch of any sort.  

It's surprising how common these sets are today.  Even 40 years ago they had value only as curiosities.  No wonder they didn't make prime time, although the more successful AN/PRT-4 and AN/PRR-9 sets seem pretty ill-conceived too.

Mike / KK5F