MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, Aug. 11/98 Index: AN/URC-100 SERIES; Part I, by Richard Lacroix SPECIAL EVENTS REPORT; Tobyhanna Military Vehicle Preservation Assn's, Antique Radiofest, Elgin, Illinois, Jackson Mi. MEMBERS WRITE; HUMOR; *********************************************** AN/URC-100 SERIES; Part I, by Richard Lacroix The Motorola AN/URC-100 series of radios evolved from the PT-25A Portable Emergency Transceiver (1978). Prior to nomenclature assignment, the= original AN/URC-100 (NSN 5820-01-112-0176) was known as the PRT-250 (Motorola model number). The design concept of the URC series is to develop a multi-purpose radio system that would accommodate manpack, aircraft, shipboard and vehicular uses in the VHF and UHF air bands. The design is fully solid state and fully synthesized. As a manpack set, the radio is nomenclatured the AN/URC-100. In an LOS/SATCOM configurations, it is known as the AN/URC-101 (NSN 5820-01-112-0177). For SATCOM applications, the URC-101 had both transmitter output power and receiver sensitivity increased. Modes of operation for the URC-100 & URC-101 include AM or FM clear or secure voice and a 300 Hz to 2.5 kHz linear swept baseband beacon signal. Both= sets have a frequency range of 116 to 150 MHz and 225 to 400 MHz in 25 kHz steps. The first variation of the URC-100 appears as the AN/URC-100(V) which replaced the original 116 to 150 MHz VHF band with the tactical 30 to 88 MHz band and saw the addition of the standard 150 Hz squelch tone for compatibility with VRC-12 series and PRC-25, PRC-77 series radio sets. The variations in the URC-101 include a AN/URC-101(V) which is deemed a data transceiver. The changes include 5 kHz channel spacing in the 116 to 150 and 225 to 400 MHz bands. Also, this unit saw the addition of extra RF connectors to the front panel labeled IF, UHF OUT and UHF IN located on the far left of the transceiver between the HANDSET and the UHF ANTENNA connectors. The connectors provide 70 MHz IF baseband compatibility for use with the= Motorola PM-15 Adaptive Tactical Modem. A second variation to the URC-101 includes a VHF band change from the 116 to 150 MHz band to the 100 to174 MHz band in the FM mode only with a 2.5 and 25 kHz spacing and is nomenclatured the AN/URC-101(V)2. The UHF band remains unchanged and the output RF power is 1.5 or 5 Watts. With the progression of time and the requirements for a tactical VHF/UHF transceiver, with nomenclature that would stop all confusions of "which band does this radio operate on?", Motorola released the AN/URC-104 (NSN 5820-01-131-5674) and the AN/URC-111 (NSN 5820-01-152-3185) respectively. Both sets feature operability in the 30 to 88 MHz band with 150 Hz squelch tone and 225 to 400 MHz band. Channel spacing is 25 kHz. The design principals are for a radio set that is suitable for ground-to-air/air-to-ground and tactical point-to-point operations. The units also operate in clear or secure voice or data modes and are compatible with the KY-57, KY-58 cypher equipment. All previous URC features are included in these current version radios. Also introduced at the same time is a specific data transceiver known as the AN/URC-110 (NSN 5820-01-151-4199). The URC-110 operates in the 116 to 150 MHz band and in the 225 to 400 MHz band in 5 kHz steps. The URC-110 is designed with a low noise synthesizer to permit operation with tactical modems such as the Motorola PM-15A and meets satellite architecture requirements. The URC-110 can also function as a repeater/frequency translator. For LOS/SATCOM use, the AN/URC-112 (NSN 5820-01-151-4198) was introduced and is labeled as an "LOS/SATCOM transceiver". Frequency coverage includes 160 to 172 MHz with 2.5 kHz channel spacing and 225 to 416 MHz with 25 kHz channel spacing. The URC-112 can be made compatible with the AN/UYA-7 & AN/GYC-8 transceivers and the AN/UGC-129 and AN/UGC-74 message devices. The URC-112 will operate in the appropriate mode with the AN/ARC-164, AN/ARC-171 and the AN/WSC-3 transceivers. Some accessories for the above radio sets includes various AC, DC, AC/DC power supplies and battery boxes, antennae, modems etc... The most varied accessory appears to be the battery box. For the most part the "box" or enclosure appears to be common but the inserts vary from a PRC-25 battery insert, a Lithium battery insert PL-1500/URC (PTL-110A) which uses 2 BA-5590/U Lithium batteries, a NiCad battery insert (PP-7962/URC (PTMG-120)) with build-in multi-voltage charger which uses 2 BB-590/U batteries and a rechargeable NiCad "D" cell box complete with built-in 120/240 VAC charger. Further= power sources include a 28 VDC adapter box which employs standard VRC series DC connectors and a universal power supply, the PP-7961/URC (Motorola number PTAD-101A) which includes input voltages from 120/240 VAC and 24 VDC. The modem, PM-15, is an Adaptive Tactical Modem operating at 300, 1200 and 2400 bits/s. This unit requires a 70 MHz RF interface and 1 BA-5590/U or BB-590/U battery to operate. Modulation formats are differentially encoded bi-phase shift keying (dbpsk) for the 200 and 1200 bits/s modes and, differentially encoded quadraphase shift keying (dqpsk) in the 2400 bits/s mode. Also available is a UHF, 200 Watts RF linear power amplifier nomenclatured the AM-7175/URC (NSN 5895-01-175-9853). The AM-7175/URC is a variable, 50 to 200 Watts, (by a rotary knob on the front panel) output RF power amplifier that operates in the AM, FM and CW mode and will deliver 50 Watts in AM (200 Watts peek) and 200 Watts in FM mode, requires a 2 to 25 Watt input RF power drive. Richard Lacroix *********************************************** SPECIAL EVENTS REPORT; Tobyhanna Military Vehicle Preservation Assn's, Just got back from the Military Vehicle Preservation Assn's annual convention and show at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in NEPA. Lots and lots of neat toys. Not much in the way of MIL-BA gear that I saw. I trolled the flea market and about the only bargin that I came across was a R-174 with power supply, nice shape and in working condx for $75. A Frostback (Canadian) bought it. One old gomer had a couple of PRC-6s for $150 each! He'll be OK when he gets his medication adjusted. This guy also had some nice "reprints" of the BC-611 manuals for $20/ea (which I thought was expensive). Lots of non-working BC-611s and BC-1000s (thankfully none I saw were converted over to CB) in the seats/on the backs of GPWs and MBs. One guy from NJ had a M-151 with the MRC-107 radio suite in it. It worked...but he was having trouble with the HF set. Nice looking set up. He was needing the manuals on the MRC-107 gear, so if anyone has these for sale, please e-mail me and I will pass along the info. Finally: one guy I had run into at a hamfest a couple years ago with a PRC-68 was there. We talked a while and he told me that the PRC-68s were going for about $500 with the PRC-77s going for around $400. This seems quite high to me...then again, maybe I have led a sheltered existance. Somebody from Aberdeen Provinground brought up a Pkw-IV (Panzer-IV) from the armour museum (alas, no kraut radio gear inside). They are trying to get up the money (abt 10 mil) to build a huge building to house the pieces once they are restored. I made some contacts with the local chapter of the MVPA, so I may have a source of gear in the future. If I should run across anything I think might interest the group, I will post it with Dennis. My wife and I (along with our Alaskan malamute, Oki, and our minature dachshound, Buddy) spent 5 hours walking around having fun. Now my wife wants to get a Jeep! It just never ends! 73 Rich K7SZ ed) I'm very happy to see that the Aberdeen Proving ground museum is going to do something with their most impressive collection. For years now such things as their Tiger Tank have been withering away out in the weather due to lack of founds. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Antique Radiofest, Elgin, Illinois, Aug. 5-8, 1998 This is a very good show if your interested in radio. I attended three days and it rained off and on everyday. The forecast in this area was for locally heavy rain all week which could account for the lack of participation. Being an outdoor event with numbered spaces it was obvious by the amount of empty ones that many did not show up. I was surprised by the automobile license plates as some vendors traveled a considerable distance. Oregon, Washington, New Hampshire, Texas and Florida, just a few of the 26 states I noted. This is the place if you're looking for that Atwater Kent, Stewart Warner or Crosley. Not much in military stuff. R392/URR @ $200, R390/URR @ $500 both for sale by a guy from Pennsylvania. I saw the R392 being carried off and the R390 disappeared on Thursday morning so it too must have gone to a happy shopper! AN/SRR-13A @ $230 was sold. Wireless #19 spare valves kit @ $55 disappeared. Loads of keys with many J38 priced from $25 to $55. Pair of RT-159/URC-4 @ $30 sold. G307 chest mic in open box @ $35 sold. A really nice almost NOS condition BC-659 with PE-120 sply $400. The last time I asked $300 was lowest he would go, sold Friday. TV-7A/U for $50, RBC-1 @ $150. PRC-6 with missing knob and broken antenna @ $55, BC-654 @ $50. I'm sure there were other things which I overlooked. About 10 AM Friday morning it started to rain again and many packed up for the last time and cleared out. Don't expect anyone will be there on Saturday? Ed Guzick ed) for those that don't know, Elgin is like the Dayton of antique radios(not communications types, but all radios). Am surprised to see a BC-654 show up there for $50.00 as that reasonable, also $50.00 TV-7's. I'm familiar with the #19 set that was there, the guy's been trying to sell it to me for a couple weeks, looks like he took my suggestion and came down from $100(it's power supply had been converted to 110vac). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jackson Mi. Dennis - On Sunday I had the chance to go to the Cascade ARS hamfest in Jackson, MI. Almost no Mil Radio eauipmenst showed up except for A PRC-25 short whip (blade) antenna. I brought a PRC-70 and a URC-110 for demonstrations, sold some junk and got my license upgraged to Advanced. No takers for my URC-68's so back home they went. A couple of interesting points, Many guys stopped by to watch the '70 work. I had my Mark Gluch built 12-24 volt convertor (I painted it CARC green Krylon to match the radio. We worked some 40 and 20 meter phone. Several of the Guys were from the Local Army/MARS group and said that they had seen some of the PRC-70's in the local DRMO. As they were impressed with my demo, they indicated that they would make arrangements with the DRMO to have them transferred to their MARS group. What a neat way of avoiding demil policies !!!!!!!!!!! There is a 6 meter net that operates simplex at 52.525 MHz on Sunday Evenings at 9 PM in Lansing, MI. that I also heard about. Lansing is a little bit far so I will have to set up a 6 meter beam from my place in Milford to check in. All the best, Jim Karlow KA8TUR/AA *********************************************** MEMBERS WRITE; If anybody is interested, I have a jpeg picture of the SEM 25, SEM 35, and FSE foreign equipments. I also have an Excel chart with some of the salient characteristics. Let me know if you'd like these sent to you. Alan --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have an RT-524 with a numb receiver (and no manuals). The receiver is about 2 uV instead of 0.5 uV. Can anyone point me to which modules to swap first? Thanks, Jay Coote W6CJ jcoote@aol.com w6cj@k6ve.#sca.ca.usa.noam --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Groupites: I haven't noticed any hamfests being held here in Seattle. Can anybody tell me if there are any good places/times to hunt green radios on the West coast, preferably close to an air terminal? I'd like to be able to bring more stuff into our circle, and meet you guys in person, too. Thanks guys, Sean Kelly, sean_k@hotmail.com *********************************************** HUMOR; At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon. "In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating (by Mr Welch himself): If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics: 1.For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day. 2.Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car. 3.Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on. 4.Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine. 5.Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT." But then you would have to buy more seats. 6.Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five per cent of the roads. 7.The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light. 8.New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt. 9.The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off. 10.Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna. 11.GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department. 12.Everytime GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car. 13.You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A lady bought a new $100,000 Mercedes and proudly drove it off the showroom floor to take home. Halfway home, she attempted to change radio stations and saw there appeared to be only one station. She immediately turned around and headed back to the dealer. Once at the dealer, she found her salesman and began to excitedly explain her radio was not working, and they must replace it since she only had one radio station. The salesman calmed her down and told her the car radio was voice-activated, and she would only need to state aloud the type of music she wanted and the car would find it. She got into the car and started the engine and then said the word "country," and the radio changed to a station playing a George Strait song. She was satisfied and started home. After a while she decided to try out the radio and said "rock n roll;" the radio station changed and a song by Van Halen came from the speakers. Quite pleased, the woman continued driving. A few blocks from her house, another driver ran a light causing her to slam on her brakes to avoid a collision. The woman angrily exclaimed "Asshole !" ....... the radio cut over to Bill Clinton's press conference. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Redneck Medical Glossary. Benign...........................what you be after you be eight Artery............................the study of paintings Bacteria........................ back door to cafeteria Barium........................ what doctors do when patients die Cesarean Section...........a neighborhood in Rome CTscan......................... searching for kitty Cauterize...................... made eye contact with her Colic............................. a sheep dog Coma........................... a punctuation mark D & C.............................where Washington is Dilate..............................to live long Enema............................not a friend Fester.............................quicker than someone else Fibula..............................a small lie G. I. Series.......................world series of military baseball Hangnail...........................what you hang your coat on Impotent...........................distinguished, well known Labor Pain........................getting hurt at work Medical Staff.....................a doctor's cane Morbid..............................a higher offer than I bid Nitrates.............................cheaper than day rates Node.................................I knew it Outpatient.........................a person who has fainted Pap Smear........................a fatherhood test Post Operative...................a letter carrier Recovery Room..................place to do upholstery Rectum.............................darn near killed him Secretion...........................hiding something Seizure..............................Roman Emperor Tablet................................a small table Terminal Illness..................getting sick at the airport Tumor................................more than one Urine.................................opposite of you're out Varicose............................near by/close by Viagra...............................Phizer Riser.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quotes from actual Federal Employee performance evaluations: "Since my last report, he has reached rock bottom and has started to dig." "His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity." "This employee is not so much of a has-been, but more of a definite won't be." "When she opens her mouth, it seems that this is only to change whichever foot was previously in there." "He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle." "This young lady has delusions of adequacy." "She sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them." "This employee should go far-- and the sooner he starts, the better." "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot." "Not the sharpest knife in the drawer." "Got into the gene pool when the lifeguard wasn't looking." "Got a full six-pack, but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together." "A photographic memory but with the lens cover glued on." "Fell out of his family tree." "Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming." "Has two brains; one is lost and the other is out looking for it." "If brains were taxed, he'd get a rebate." "If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean." "It's hard to believe that he beat out 1,000,000 other sperm." "Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; he only gargled." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A DICTIONARY FOR WOMEN Argument (ar*gyou*ment) n. A discussion that occurs when you're right, but he just hasn't realized it yet. Airhead (er*hed) n. What a woman intentionally becomes when pulled over by a policeman. Bar-be-que (bar*bi*q) n You bought the groceries, washed the lettuce, chopped the tomatoes, diced the onions, marinated the meat and cleaned everything up, but, he, "made the dinner." Blonde jokes (blond joks) n. Jokes that are short so men can understand them. Cantaloupe (kant*e*lope) n Gotta get married in a church. Clothes dryer (kloze dri*yer) n. An appliance designed to eat socks. Diet Soda (dy*it so*da) n. A drink you buy at a convenience store to go with a half pound bag of peanut M&Ms. Eternity (e*ter*ni*tee) n. The last two minutes of a football game. Exercise (ex*er*siz) v To walk up and down a mall, occasionally resting to make a purchase. Grocery List (grow*ser*ee list) n. What you spend half an hour writing, then forget to take with you to the store. Hair Dresser (hare dres*er) n. Someone who is able to create a style you will never be able to duplicate again. See "Magician." Hardware Store (hard*war stor) n Similar to a black hole in space-if he goes in, he isn't coming out anytime soon. Childbirth (child*brth) n. You get to go through 36 hours of contractions; he gets to hold your hand and say "focus,...breath...push..." Lipstick (lip*stik) n On your lips, coloring to enhance the beauty of your mouth. On his collar, coloring only a tramp would wear...! Park (park) v./n. Before children, a verb meaning, "to go somewhere and neck." After children, a noun meaning a place with a swing set and slide. Patience (pa*shens) n. The most important ingredient for dating, marriage and children. See also "tranquilizers." Waterproof Mascara (wah*tr*pruf mas*kar*ah) n. Comes off if you cry, shower, or swim, but will not come off if you try to remove it. Valentine's Day (val*en*tinez dae) n A day when you have dreams of a candlelight dinner, diamonds, and romance, but consider yourself lucky to get a card. *********************************************** (The preceding was a product of the"Military Collector Group Post", an international email magazine dedicated to the preservation of history and the equipment that made it. Unlimited circulation of this material is authorized so long as the proper credits to the original authors, and publisher or this group are included. For more information conserning this group contact Dennis Starks at, military-radio-guy@juno.com) ***********************************************