[Milsurplus] Fresh topic on military surplus I HOPE !!??

[MillerKE6F at aol.com]

Some years back I found out that Uncle Sam was shredding perfectly good  
AN/GRC-102 HF rigs.  Since I've been a big fan of surplus radio stuff for  
well over 50 years and the owner of a complete AN/GRC-142 Ratt Van bought  
through the now  privatized DMRS system, I was somewhat taken back by this  
decision.  Many tons of crunched units from the Viet Nam era were turning  up at 
a local metal scrap yard.  And I mean demilled to the point that  there was 
nothing left to use.
 
    I wrote a letter to my Senator (Bob Matsui at that  time) who punched 
my ticket by passing the letter to some minion in the  government.  That 
person referred me to a CFR number saying that the  GRC-102 and allied equipment 
had been newly categorized as part of a weapons  system and therefore could 
not be sold to the civilian market.  In other  words these 30 year old 
relics were too valuable to a foreign power to be sold  off to we hams who would 
love to put them to good use.  I corresponded with  the fellow hoping to 
see if there was some way a ham could get some kind of  waiver, but no chance 
even though less than a year before they were selling  these radios in 
complete tty systems at public auction for under 300  dollars,  GRC-142 systems 
complete with everything but the KW7 Crypto Box.  They even had the three 
GRA-50 antenna pole systems and an office chair.
 
    A year after the first Gulf War  the now  defunct Sacramento Army Depot 
sold in excess of 500 GRC-142 Ratt vans with  everything in the hootch but 
the radios.  I would hope the RF stuff  was transplanted to Humvvees or 
APCs.  The driving force to get rid of the  RATT vans was point to point TTY 
comm was no longer a vital part of  the Army communications picture (too big an 
RF target in a combat zone and too  slow for modern record traffic I was 
told).  As a retired Commo  Chief in an Army National Guard Engineering Bn, I 
missed the convenience our  RATT vans afforded our National Guard units 
during peace time training.   Even the MOSs for the TTY stuff fell out of the 
equation.  Go  figure.  The gist of this missive is to see how folks on the 
list are  acquiring their more current military surplus radio gear.  I know 
the  military vehicle nuts love this stuff for their MUTTS and other wheeled 
military  toys. 
 
    73
 
    Bob, KE6F