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Military Radio Field Day 2025 FTX

Military Radio Field Day 2025 was another Field Training Exercise that I did on Mt Diablo, CA. As usual, I operated only military radio equipment in this national emergency communications […]

A Communications Forward Operating Base

Updated 4/29/2025: Members of the West Coast Military Radio Collectors Group deployed a Communications Forward Operating Base at MVCC Camp Plymouth for the April 2025 event.  The intent was to […]

Winter Field Day 2025

UPDATE: 3/5/25. The following After Action Report for Winter Field Day 2025 is posted in an effort to encourage grid-down emergency communications exercises with rugged, reliable equipment.. Why? Communications infrastructure […]

Military Radios @ ARRL Field Day 2024

ARRL Field Day 2024: In an effort to encourage more off-grid, portable field radio operation and exercises the following After Action Report is posted: I used some of my usual […]

End Fed Half Wave Wire Antennas

Updated: 6/9/2025 – A work in progress. End Fed Half Wave wire antennas must be great. Everyone is selling them! Meh. The antenna engineer’s axiom: You can have high gain, […]

PRC-174 HF Manpack Radio Set

UPDATE: 3/17/2025 I recently obtained a veteran RT-936/PRC-174 HF manpack radio from a fellow Ham (Thanks!). These were made by Tadiran from a design clearly originating from Hughes Aircraft, makers […]

Mil Radio Ops at FOB COVID 2020

July 2020: The following is a brief After Action Report on Military Radio training operations at Forward Operating Base COVID, July 2020. Scheduling difficulties required delaying from the June 2020 […]

TRC-77A HF CW Transceiver

UPDATED 5/15/2025 A friend recently gave me an RT-654A/TRC-77. Also known as the TRC-77A. The RT-654(*) is the basic component of the “AN/TRC-77 HF CW Transceiver” set. I am pretty […]

Fast Patrol Torpedo Boats / PTF-17

PTF-17, PTF’s in general and Coastal River Division 21 Ops: Updated – 6/20/2025 A Work in Progress First, a little but complex background and some Myth Busting: The PTF boats […]

The PRC-47 HF SSB/CW/RATT Transceiver

Updated 6/12/2024: Some notes regarding the AN/PRC-47.  This radio was designed by Collins and 1423 sets were produced by them (Contract NOm-72362, 15 December 1961).  The Department of the Navy […]