BC-683 VHF FM “Artillery Band” Receiver
A famous combat set is the WW2 BC-683 vehicular radio receiver which worked in the 27 – 38.9 mc Artillery Band. It is a Basic Component of the SCR-628 system […]
Winter Field Day 2026
In an effort to encourage more ham radio field operations the following After Action Report for Winter Field Day 2026 is posted. We operated “off grid” on Mt. Diablo (CA) […]
Heathkit HW-8 CW Transceiver
Here is a quick post regarding my Heathkit HW-8 CW Transceiver at N6CC. They were first sold in 1976 for around $140. I built this kit about 50 years ago […]
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 […]
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 […]
Portable Field Antenna Kit
UPDATED 12/18/2025 “Executive Summary” The Question: What do you want your portable field antenna to DO? Validate a Model? Impress a Professor? Increase your experience? Make contacts? Have fun? The […]
AN/GRC-109 “Special Forces” Radio Set
UPDATED 5/15/2026: My favorite “Black Radio”. The AN/GRC-109 Special Forces Radio Set, AKA the “GRC-109” and “ANGRY 109”. Probably the ultimate “SHTF Radio” for trained (or trainable) personnel. The GRC-109 […]
End Fed Half Wave Wire Antennas
Updated: 3/13/2026 – 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: 7/31/2025 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 […]