My latest obsession

[Farside]

... is an old one, resurrected.
Rajos, milltry, for the use of.
Just got one of these...

http://rigreference.com/en/rig/5078-Clansman_PRC_320
Lovely bit of gear, so it is. Oozes quality and just sheer toughness. Mine isn't quite as clean as that one there, as in it's fallen down a cliff or off a truck a couple of times, but maybe that's good, because it's been fixed afterwards
Welding related - the TIGging on the case is lovely, too.
These were reputed to have cost the MoD £6K per set, back in the day. A hundred quid seems like peanuts for it.

 

[ronan]

Loverly, built with no regard to cost. No Lsb ?

 

[Farside]

Loverly, built with no regard to cost. No Lsb ?

There were LSB/USB variants, but few of them, and the Yugoslavian version had both. That probably relates to it being
made as the RT320 with a wider sales base.
No matter, the LSB mod only costs £25 for the kit and there are a couple of ways of doing it.
I'm trying to find out who, if anyone, has a record of what mods were carried out to these, as this one has mods 1-8 and 10 scored off on the record plate. Some of these will be trivial, but a couple of them might be important and nice to know about.

 

[cocker]

Very nice - what is it ?

 

[rockweasel]

My best friend wrote the software to test the encryption algorithm on Clansman radios (If I picked him up correctly.) I think it might have been the hand-held ones??? Anyway, he works for BAE (formerly Marconi Instruments)

 

[Robotstar5]

Nice looking bit of kit, are you licenced to TX?

 

[rikrobson]

Can you get 6 music on it?

 

[Farside]

Nice looking bit of kit, are you licenced to TX?

No, but I'll be on the air regularly, every evening.
Damn these pesky laws.

 

[Farside]

http://www.irts.ie/cgi/st.cgi?licensing

If you want to get legal, site above seems to cover it. When I did my RSGB exam a few years back (about 20 actually) it was a piece of pee...

It was a piece of pee in 1970, too.

 

[ronan]

It were the morse words per minute that scared me off the exam.

 

[Farside]

Ain't changed much then lol
Sorry wasn't aware you'd done the tests like

Glasgow Nautical College RAE course, aged 16. Flew through the exam, hated Morse, never got the ticket. There wasn't a Morse-less option then, or if there was, nobody let on about it. When the RSGB reformed the options and allowed Morse-less ops on VHF, I'd left radio for a few years, so never bothered taking up my lapsed exam result. VHF was of no interest to me, as VHF equipment was expensive and what was the point of chatting to someone just down the road?

When I see / hear the abysmal standard of some of the recent so-called licencees on the bands I get a bit annoyed.

 

[Farside]

Can you get 6 music on it?

It would be a bit scratchy.
I'll see if I can pick up some Lili Marlene.

 

[ronan]

It would be a bit scratchy.
I'll see if I can pick up some Lili Marlene.

Or some Al Bowlly please

 

[Farside]

Just waiting for a power supply converter to enable my bench supply to upscale to 24V, so jury-rigged some lithium cells in holders to give me a nice little battery source for the moment. It receives well enough on the shortwaves, if a bit staticy, and the audio on this one isn't of FM quality, but acceptable enough.
I tried a spot of TX on 11m, and nothing happened. Turns out to be a broken wire in the handset, easily fixed.