[Milsurplus] Chinese 102/139 set - AN/VRC-12

[Mike Morrow]

> On the original statement regarding R-390A and tube equipment
> the last usage of that equipment was at the onset of Desert
> Storm-1, in 1990.

Not quite.  The AN/VRC-12 series (with vacuum-tube PA stage in the RT-246 and RT-524) appeared in 1961 and was still in limited US military service until 2008...57 years!  (One person could have been born, risen to Major General, and retired in that interval.)  See this AN/VRC-12 retirement report:

 http://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article/573638/legacy-radio-system-retired-from-army-guard/

I have a document somewhere indicating that a RT-524A/VRC cost about $18,000 in the late 1960s ($130,000 in 2018).  It's a good thing they lasted a long time!

Mike / KK5F