[Milsurplus] R-174 & Antenna Sections

[Michael Tauson]

The R-174/GRR-5 done did arrived and I'm in somewhat a quandry.  On
cursory inspection, it appears intact electrically, even down to the
requisite black beauties (well, one of them so far) everyone loves so
much.  The mechanical integrity is another story.  Some dastardly
heathen split the case so the receiver and power supply sections are
no longer joined.  There are a few other changes (the mount replaced
by a pair of wooden blocks, etc) but that's the big nasty one.  So, do
I reject it outright due to the lack of structural integrity therefore
virginal condition or do I soldier on, bearing the shame of owning -
let alone admitting to owning - such a horribly butchered piece of
exquisite equipment?

I'm going the latter route, only less the guilt.  Splitting the case
in two makes it a bit more convenient to use, or it would had the
previous owner had the foresight to do something with the connecting
cable.  Once I take care of the cable problem I'll be adding handles
on the sides of the sections to make carrying easier.  There is still
the problem of a vehicular shock mount arrangement that allows me to
also have rubber feet under the pieces for non-vehicular use and
possibly to restack them if that's preferred.  But, as always, one
misstep at a time.

Several antenna sections have shown up at my door as well - 28
MS-116s, 22 MS-117s and a stowaway tipless AB-24.  Some of the MS
sections are bent, one MS-117 gave its life to an experiment in
restraightening that went horribly wrong (I just HAD to fine tune it!)
and a few have rust showing but, all in all, they don't look all that
bad.  Some I'm keeping for antennae and some I'll be unleashing on an
unsuspecting public.

The keepers are the bent sections, enough sections to complete the
antennas I want aboard the Jeep (or whatever vehicle I wind up using)
and maybe a separate one for the R-174, one extra of all the sections,
and the AB-24 since it's an orphan.  What I don't have is maybe half a
dozen MS-118s ("maybe" because that depends on how many of the other
sections I can recover), a few AB-652 or -1322 bases (the latter with
the neat adapter ring so they attach to the newer mounts), some AB-21s
and a couple more AB-24s - the latter two for some fine tuning
experiments.  When I know what the available body count is and have a
fair market value for them, I'll post the the info so it can be
ignored uniformly.

Otherwise, life is the usual chaos I've come to expect.

BEst regards,

Michael, WH7HG