At the end of the day its all relative to the user. If you are competent and skilled at maintaining  real heavy vacuum tube base radios and you have a T-195 that’s working everything is good. Somehow myself I tend to put the GRC-19 in with things like the GRC-8, RT-70 , PRC-6 and PRC-10

Within the context of the nineteen fifties and early sixties they were great radios and definitely vast improvements over the WW2 generation of radios they replaced but being vacuum tube only devices still tend to be very heavy, have high current requirements and can require special skills and equipment in repair. With series filament strings, The need for jumpers to work on the sub-assemblies outside the frame and just the general issue of tube technology requiring four or five times the space for what can be done with solid state.

Maybe the biggest complaint is that if I want to operate AM or CW only may tend to want to use the older generation of WW2 technology that in many cases is more serviceable and less complex then radios like the GRC-19.

Spent the last several years running GRC-106 sets, lots of them between the ones that I have on the air at events and a bunch more that I have done for others and find that although you can make the same complaint about that set it is smaller, higher power and runs sideband. Like it or not most voice operation today is sideband. Running RTTY have found that the majority of people on Military TTY are using SSB rigs, imagine that if you are just talking with one station “peer to peer” its not an issue but just try checking into the Saturday morning net with a direct FSK transmitter like a T-195 or T-368, not saying it cant be done but nowhere near as easy as using a PRC-47, 106 or more modern SSB radio.

So don’t get me wrong, if you like the T-195 and can deal with its twenty two tubes, one hundred twenty two pounds of weight, and that’s not including the MT-925 that’s also heavy as hell and the forty amperes of current required who am I to disparage you.

Like I said, I have the greatest admiration for anyone who is keeping one on the air, just for me don’t think it will ever be one of my favorite radios.

Ray F/KA3EKH

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of B. Smith
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2022 7:46 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [MRCA] The T-195

The T-195 is a solid AM/CW transmitter. It is easily converted to RTTY by adding a "Hoff" diode keyer (diode, RF choke) to the MO which is conveniently located near the front at the top of the transmitter. Pull the tube, wrap a wire around the cathode pin and you are done.
Z

On 3/31/2022 2:07 PM, Jeep Platt wrote:

Dave,

I have had two GRC-19 rigs in residence, here. One dynamotor powered, the other with the Victoreen supplies. My experience with the servo system seemed to revolve around the discriminator circuits and associated choppers. The diodes apparently are failure items. The TM calls for replacement at regular intervals. My systems would not autorune reliably at voltages below 28.5v. Boosting the PP-4743 up to 29 volts seemed to help. I used mine regularly on the Saturday net on 3885 but, truth told, never QSYed much, if at all.  I may be getting one of my systems back, it appears. Blessing or curse is a TBD.  Of course, the R-392s just soldier on.....

Jeep K3HVG