[MRCA] VHF Low Band Listening

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Don't forget also that the definition of Wide Band or Narrow Band depends on 
who's talking about it.  The WW-II and Korean War vintage military sets, plus 
the early AN/PRC-25 and AN/VRC-12 variants have deviations in the +/-15 KC 
range or maybe a little wider.  On the ham bands below 29.0 MC, FM sets are 
limited to theoretically the same bandwidth as DSB AM is, which is legally ~ 6 KC 
total.  So the early military sets are Wide Band in this sense, and the 
commercial ham band sets are Narrow Band.  But the later military sets from I think 
AN/PRC-25B on are something like +/- 100 KC deviation for use with voice 
security equipment such as the TSEC/KY-8.  I haven't played with any of this 
equipment since I came home from an all expenses paid ocean cruise in 1968 but I 
think I recall that the RT-524/VRC had a selector switch for either Wide Band or 
Really Wide Band.  But not the PRC-25 or PRC-77.

In a message dated 7/31/2006 10:05:15 AM Central Daylight Time, al at ar88.net 
writes: 
> Hi Steve,
> 
> There's not a lot of excitement here in New Jersey.  One hardly hears 
> any 6-meter activity, and I'd expect most of the DX would be SSB.  
> There's still some police/fire operations on the 30-50 portion.  I can 
> hear a six meter repeater, but the PRC-77 has no way to split the TX/RX 
> freq's.  50KHz channel spacing and wide deviation is also a nuisance in 
> ham terms.  Best bet is to show up for military radio activities.
> 
> Regards,
> Al
> 
> Steven Daniel Miller wrote:
> 
> >I'm new to the list and new to military radios but I have a PRC-77 being
> >shipped to me as we speak and I'm really looking forward to getting it.
> >I'm slightly more interesting in collecting military items than actually
> >using it but I'm sure I'll do some monitoring.
> >
> >I was just wondering if anyone could relay their experiences of monitoring
> >in the 30-70 MHz area.  I remember in 1988 as we were entering the peak of
> >the solar cycle.  My dad was in the national guard in Wisconsin and they
> >have a vehicle with a working radio.  I spent about 2 hours in there
> >listening (just before I got my amateur radio license).  I remember
> >hearing things like taxis and some Spanish language stuff coming in
> >somewhere betweeen 30-50MHz.  Is that stuff still out there or am I going
> >to be listening to a lot of static on the PRC-77?
> >

Robert Downs - Houston
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