[Milsurplus] Avco GRC-9

[Robert Downs]

Tim,

 

The (apparently) first Signal Corps Order Number is 53906-Phila-45, found on a transmitter that belongs to a friend of mine here in Houston.  The case and receiver serial numbers are both French.  Finding matched serial numbers generally means no Depot (they always mixed them up) and probably little lower echelon work.  I have or have had several units with FY 46 orders and then 49, 51, 52 and 55.  Replacement cases were ordered sometime during or after 1966 when the Signal Corps quit ordering things.  But the last order number that I know of for the complete set was 10560-Phila-55.

 

And as I wrote elsewhere today, if you are looking at change notices for components or component values, note that they always give both Order Number and Serial Number.  The implication being that Serial Numbers are not unique..  The Signal Depots appear to have always ignored this when doing overhauls because they not only didn’t attempt to keep major components together (receiver, transmitter and case for BC-1306 and RT-77), they made new nameplates and issued their own serial numbers that are meaningless from then on.

 

Robert Downs

 

From: Tim [mailto:timsamm at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2018 14:56
To: Robert Downs
Cc: Military Surplus Mail List (milsurplus at mailman.qth.net)
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Avco GRC-9

 

I bought one of those $50 RT-77/GRC-9's from FAIR about 30 years ago.  It had some obvious service wear....It had Hoffman data plates but the TX, RX and Case all had different serial numbers; it worked fine right out of the box.  It's the "mobile" set.

 

I have another AVCO set that I got NIB at a swap meet about 20 years ago, all matching serial numbers, works great.  That one is my "campsite" set..

 

Robert:  I think you said you had seen evidence of a 1949 contract number/date so I have assumed delivered radios appeared some time after that.  But do you have any info indicating the last production dates??  The Sacramento Army Depot was overhauling them (or preparing them for re-issue as VRC-34's) as recently as April 1974,

 

Thanks all, Tim

N6CC

 

On Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 11:55 PM, Robert Downs via Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

I don’t know.  We would have to have one of them to examine to maybe determine that.  If the receiver and transmitter nameplates say Avco, then it would take a careful examination of the innards to determine.  Remember all of the BC-659’s with post-war LSD nameplates, when we know that no new radios were actually built from scratch after the War.

 

Robert Downs

 

From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Hubert Miller
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2018 00:00
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Milsurplus] Avco GRC-9

 

The Avco GRC-9s that Fair was selling ( for $50 each, remember that ?), are those rebuilds of earlier sets, or new production ?

-Hue 


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