[Milsurplus] WTB: PRC-1099A Channel Switch
Al Klase
al at ar88.net
Tue Jul 28 19:31:08 EDT 2009
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the response. I emailed an RFQ to Datron last night, but
haven't yet had a reply. The 85 bucks is kinda what I expected. I'm
glad you confirmed that it was a custom part. That will save me beating
the bushes further.
It appears that a standard 12-detent switch will match up with the front
panel artwork. So I'm going to look into using a single pole switch and
a diode matrix (15 diodes) to produce BCD. The switch feeds CMOS inputs
with pull-up resistors, so it should work. I'm assuming it's straight
low-active BCD. My switch is sufficiently messed up that it's hard to
be positive. (The manual is available for download from American
Milspec for 10 bucks. Instant gratification is a cool thing.)
The "A" version has an entirely different synthesizer, based on DSS. So
I hope it's an improvement. By the way, this set is labeled PRC1099 on
the outside, but I found another tag inside after I bought the wrong
manual. The give away is extra indicators below the numbers on the LCD
that say things like "SCAN", "OPT", and "DATA"
Does anyone know how to identify what options are installed in these
things? I'd especially like to have AME, which doesn't seem to be the case.
Regards,
Al
Mark wrote:
Howdy Al,
It seems every mil radio has some sort of drawback, wart, pain in the
backside, whatever. The 1099 is not immune.
It's really not a question of whether the original Grigsby (now
Electroswitch) channel switch will fail, but when.
To be slightly fair to Transworld/Datron, I doubt if they thought their
original switch would still be in operation after 20+ years. That's a
lotta cycles. It's still annoying when they fail.
After the switch on my original set began to get ragged, I searched for
a LONG time for a replacement. It has direct BCD readout and was
custom-made for Transworld. Electroswitch was still honoring their
agreement with Transworld and would not sell me a replacement directly;
they said I had to go through Datron.
Datron had since replaced the enclosed switch with an open-frame unit,
and the cost was something on the order of $85.00. Ridiculous, I said
and continued my search. Came up with zilch, zero, nada.
I even worked up a decoder circuit that would convert the outputs of a
standard 10-position switch to BCD. When I realized how much time and
trouble it would take to do that, I just bit the bullet and ordered the
blasted thing from Datron. Chalked it up as one of things I just have
to do to maintain availability of a radio I really like. Ended up
getting about half a dozen in the same order (five for various other
people; they've been distributed).
So that's your choice I'm afraid: NO choice, order from Datron. But at
least the current switch looks like something that will hold up, and can
be cleaned with De-Oxit if necessary.
My old Grigsby switch has very rough detents, but still works for the
most part. So I'm keeping it for a last-ditch spare instead of drilling
it to see what went wrong.
--Mark Francis
KI0PF
> Message: 5
> Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:14:28 -0400
> From: Al Klase <al at ar88.net>
> Subject: [Milsurplus] WTB: PRC-1099A Channel Switch
> To: milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
> Message-ID: <4A6E7B24.7030003 at ar88.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> I find myself in need of a channel select switch for a Transworld/Datron
> PRC-1099A, Part number: 510028. Same part is used in the PRC-1099.
>
> Any help appreciated,
> Al
>
--
Al Klase - N3FRQ
Jersey City, NJ
http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/
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