General Coverage HF/SWL radio for camping

[DesertDutchman]

I am looking for a radio I can use for desert camping in my M105 project.
While it can me a transceiver (I am a Ham, KC7NRY) it could also be just a listening radio.....SSB would be a plus.
WHat's out there that I can find easily and it needs to be working??
Yes, I could buy a radio like this commercially, but I'd like to carry over the military theme as I am an Army Vet working for the DoD, and my wife is a retired Marine.

Ideas? Are there MIL SPEC antenna out there? I'd LOVE to run up a 20-30' vertical or a big sloper or dipole and counterpoise if needed. I'll be throwing down stakes for 3-4 days a month.....

 

[tennmogger]

This is a challenging set of desires: transceiver, military, general listening (would need wide AM for AM broadcast, SSB for ham, maybe narrow bandwidth for CW). All that, and easily tunable. I don't know of such a radio either.

Most any military transceiver available today is channelized, that is, no big knob to tune around with. Just switches to turn or buttons to push to step through the frequencies one decade at a time. And, many of them are USB (upper sideband) only.

I went through this same selection process over the past 6 months. I ended up with a PRC-174 Israeli backpack. It does AM, USB, LSB, CW wide and CW narrow, covers 2 to 30 MHz, and that's a very rare combination in a decently priced transceiver. Note that that goofy band 11 meters is included, but I'd never use it there But, it has push buttons so you really need to know what frequency you want to operate ahead of time because 'cruising the bands' is totally impractical.

Another feature of this transceiver is a built in automatic antenna tuner. For frequencies roughly 10 MHz up, it operates quite well into a simple whip antenna like the military AB-15 base and MS-116 series whip sections. Just follow logic to select number of sections for the frequency you want to tune. For lower frequencies more antenna length is required, like wire antennas strung out in camp.

I just got back from a trip cross country with a PRC-174 temporarily installed in my wife's FJ Cruiser, mil whip on the back, and it worked slick. Then I pulled the radio out in San Diego and packed it around Baja for over a week in the back of a truck.

Here's a picture of a setup "somewhere south of here" in the back of a Unimog.

I'm really curious about what other recommendations you get!

Bob

(trip info here: http://www.billcaid.com/2011/BajaTrip20110226/TripMain.html )

I am looking for a radio I can use for desert camping in my M105 project.
While it can me a transceiver (I am a Ham, KC7NRY) it could also be just a listening radio.....SSB would be a plus.
WHat's out there that I can find easily and it needs to be working??
Yes, I could buy a radio like this commercially, but I'd like to carry over the military theme as I am an Army Vet working for the DoD, and my wife is a retired Marine.

Ideas? Are there MIL SPEC antenna out there? I'd LOVE to run up a 20-30' vertical or a big sloper or dipole and counterpoise if needed. I'll be throwing down stakes for 3-4 days a month.....

 

[Carl_in_NH]

If you can survive with a non-mil radio, then I might recommend something like a FT-817; portable, QRP TX, all mode - HF + 2M and 70cm all mode. Internal battery as well as external 12 VDC power or wall wart.

With a good antenna, you can do a lot with it. A wire antenna and a pole for center support is all you'd need while camping. A fixed whip on the truck would work well for receiving and casual entertainment - but a dipole that's full length on the HF band(s) of interest would work a lot better. With 5W, you're going to be 13 DB down from the same station running 100W; that's only 2 S-units - so when the band isn't marginal and your antenna is reasonable, you'll make plenty of contacts.

2M SSB might be fun, too; a small Yagi in your kit would facilitate it. Simple whip antennas for 2M/70cm FM.

 

[Rustygears]

For a great radio that is true us mil try the prc-104. It is available in a or b version. It is a transceiver with built in tuner and is mountable in vehicle or on backpack. It was built by Hughes and the b version is current issue. It is available as a go kit with Alice pack and all the goodies

Mike Murphy at murphys surplus has them on his web site

The hams love those radios for emergency and field day. They are built to take a beating unlike all my icom, yaesu and other shrink wrap radios

 

[Dodge man]

tennmogger. what's a decent price for the PRC-174 and where is a good place to get one? I see there's one on a certain auction site but they want 850 clams for it!

 

[tennmogger]

tennmogger. what's a decent price for the PRC-174 and where is a good place to get one? I see there's one on a certain auction site but they want 850 clams for it!

That's not too bad a price. I have seen lower, and got one for lower, then had to spend 2 months working on it! But, I have also seen these priced (not sold??maybe) at up to $1400 for a complete kit. Sources include direct from vendors in Israel, and from US people who have brought them in, checked them out (supposedly) and then resell them at considerable markup. Shipping is probably $100 from Israel, too. That low end price compares to price of brand new ham radio FT-817, FT-857, etc, but gets you military spec and full spectrum coverage. And they are green!

If you don't mind shopping for your own mikes, speakers, and headsets, there are better deals on the transceiver itself. The PRC-174 uses the same connectors as NATO and USA stuff, the 'small' U-229/U, so audio accessories are available at swap meets, hamfests, etc.

The supply out of Israel has dried up just in the last month or two. If you can hold off, and if more become available, price should be better.

Your ideas for antennas are really good. The original whip antenna and side mounts are very expensive usually. I don't have originals of those for my radio either. I use a 10 ft version of a PRC-77/25 whip with a home made thread adapter.

Probably the best deal out there now is the British Clansman PRC-320, but that radio doesn't have the AM or automatic tuner (has manual tuner). You can find them in USB only, most commonly, or in LSB only. Several of us have had power supply problems with those.

[edit] The audio accessories for the Clansman series are NOT standard....and are a real PIA IMHO

I agree that if you can skip the 'military' part, there are some great commercial radios available for the ham these days. If you don't want to become totally committed to military radios, like the green vehicle disease, and don't want to tear them apart in case of a problem, then the commercial stuff is a good idea.

Those PRC-104's are great, too!!! just pricey. I'd like to have one.

Oh, another option, for your SWL'ing, take a look at the C Crane CCRadio SW. C. Crane Company - CCRadio-SW - Toll Free (800) 522-8863 . This is a nicely made shortwave receiver, has AM (very sensitive) and FM, but does not do SSB or CW. Then have a real SSB transceiver like a PRC-320 to get on the air with. Price for the CCRadio-SW plus a '320 would be less than a PRC-174 or any other mil transceiver I'm aware of.

Bob WB4ETT

 

[DesertDutchman]

Was looking at an older IC-706 or an Alinco DX-70th for commercial. I wish Yaesu would put general coverage in the 8900r, I could live with 10m/6/2/70cm if I could listen to DW, BBC and Radio New Zealand...
WHo else has a good direction for me? I am liking the Israeli radio if I can read the instructions......I could even live without a mic for a while.....

 

[Carl_in_NH]

Well, you could also go the GRC-106 route; large, heavy, and about as noisy as you can get with the AM-3349 amplifier section powered up. The exciter is USB/CW/USB+Carrier for AM (and the BFO is always on for receive in AM mode). You can run the exciter by itself (RT-834/RT-662) as a receiver (or even a 100 mW transmitter). With the amplifier, it packs a wallop using a pair of 4CX350 tubes in the final.

I gathered the pieces and got a complete GRC-106A system up and running with visions of mounting it in my M35; the reality is it's just too darn big and noisy a rig to carry around - but would be real nice inside an S-250 or S-280 shelter. Mine sits on the bench in the basement and each blue moon when I'm awake before Sunrise on Satruday morning I'll get it on the Old Military Radio Net on 75M.

I like the idea of the Clansman PRC-320 - but you see its limitations mentioned above by tenmogger. I've been considering one for some time - but I've got so darn many radios from the commercial Amateur vendors that it's really difficult to justify spending the money on one. I'll probably break down some day and spring for one, however.

 

[tennmogger]

Here's a link to the PRC-174 Israeli transceiver:

http://www.w2hx.com/x/PRC-174/PRC-174-maint.pdf

And, it's in English!

Bob

Was looking at an older IC-706 or an Alinco DX-70th for commercial. I wish Yaesu would put general coverage in the 8900r, I could live with 10m/6/2/70cm if I could listen to DW, BBC and Radio New Zealand...
WHo else has a good direction for me? I am liking the Israeli radio if I can read the instructions......I could even live without a mic for a while.....