[Milsurplus] AN/PRC-59 OTA

[Bruce Gentry]

Good work!   When I was at Keesler Air Force base in 1969, the amatuer 
radio club K5TYP got hold of a batch of Motorola rigs like the PRC-59. 
The most cherished were a version with a considerably larger battery box 
that housed a nicad battery and a booster amplifier that used a 2E24. 
They  made about 8 watts as I recall, and were heavy enough to make one 
think twice about carrying them for any  distance. One thing I recall 
about some of the early Motorola rigs was their use of the same crystal 
for both receive mixers, which required the use of a strange formula for 
calculating the frequency. It also made two frequency operation 
difficult if they were more than a couple hundred KCs different.   In 
1969, a set of crystals for the rig cost about $25.00, often more than 
it cost to buy the rig, and a major expense for us little people at the 
bottom of the ranks. I wasn't licensed at the time, so trying to get a 
set of crystals for the repeater was not a priority, but getting it 
working was. To my surprise, it had crystals in it for the base Air 
Police, so it proved very useful to know if they were checking up on 
parties in the dorms or setting up radar speed traps around the base. 
The lifers found out I had it and wanted to take the crystals away from 
me, but I heard about their quest and immediately shipped the rig home. 
Years later, I got it on the air but quickly found that single 
frequency  rigs were inadequate in those times of unreal 2 meter 
activety when repeaters were in use constantly 20 hours a day.

  Bruce Gentry, KA2IVY

On 2/6/16 3:48 PM, Jack Antonio wrote:
> Just wanted to report that an AN/PRC-59 made it
> back on the air today.
>
> This is basically one of the old hybrid Motorola
> Handie Talkies( AKA Hernia Talkies) that came
> out around 1960. The civvy nomenclature would be
> something like H23BAC-1000. This particular one has
> a Coast Guard nameplate and is painted grey
> with a Coast Guard emblem on the side.
>
> I picked it up at MRCG at SLO last year, and it finally
> made it to the top of the project pile. No real
> issues in firing it up, I was worried that some
> of the electrolytics may be dried up, but the
> ones I checked were OK.
>
> Now to look for an AN/PRC-91, which is the Navy
> version of the later Motorola HT-200 Handie Talkie.
>
> Jack Antonio WA7DIA/4
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