[MRCA] Type 884 pack radio

[D. Platt]

As they say, been there, done that.  I bought a pair of these radios 
from Red Star about 7 years ago.  They were brand new and in the 
box(es).  I did get mine on the air and wrote them up in /Electric 
Radio/, December 2006 issue.  The bottom line is that, yes they do work 
but with some caveats.  The rig, as is , won't go high enough to use the 
MIL FM calling frequency.  Close but no cigar. The radios are rife with 
birdies and images from anything within about 20 MHz.  They do drift 
quite a bit and will bump off frequency, easily.  The connectors are 
unobtanium, so hopefully you have the requisite audio accessories.  The 
article will detail the battery situation.  I used a single 12v gel-cell 
that will fit nicely in the battery box and obviate the requirement for 
a truck-load of D-cells.  I also unobtrusively added a small DC charging 
plug that will come in handy.  The antennas are interesting.  Mine were 
new and it took a vise-grip and channel-loks to get the "knees" to 
extend and lock-up.  Testing these radios, I appear to have gotten 3-4 
blocks of range in a suburban environment.  I was always plagued with TV 
images, here.  The change over to UHF may help that situation, though.  
Let me know if you need more info that I might have.  I also might still 
have one of the tech manuals?

Jeep - K3HVG

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