Ok this may have been covered elsewhere but I saw the thread on NATO radios and it jogged my memory that I have this nagging question in my head (well 3 actually).

1. What radios did Canada use during the 80s? I can't the the life of me remember the designations nor the US designations of those radios (I think they were US in origin). I think the man portable one was the PRC-25 but thats about all I can dredge out of these 42 year old brain cells.

2. Does anyone make these in resin/plastic?

3. Does anyone know of a good source of pictures of them?

I am planning to model a Canadian Recce jeep from the early to mid 80s and the radios are a very prominent feature I have no pictures of. I don't have any good shots of the location of them either (driver or crew commander side of the rear inside fender).

Anyone able to shed any light on this?

Thanks!

Hi Rob. Well, the man portables we had in the Corps were PRC-77's and the Command radios in the HMMWV's werePR-269's. These monsters sounded like they would melt down or explode whenever used...

All I remember are the Canadian Designations

VHF Back pack was the PRC 77 Set
HF Back Pack was the 515 set ( that could be vehicle mounted as well in a docking station type of model)

Vehicle VHF was the 524 Set

Can't remember the uhf set I think it was the 66 set. Sorry it's been a long time. I do know Verlinden has a Nato Radio set that has some of those Radios in it though

Cheers

Ray

If my rusty old memory serves me correctly wasnt it the 46 we had, not a 66 set? And don't forget the ancient but venerable 125 set, which was the 25 on a vehicle mount amp tray. Trying to remember what I used 25 years ago makes my brain hurt. Ouch.


Cheers
Keith

Hey Rob,

The PEIR used 46 sets, they were done actually quite nicely in the verlinden Nato Radio sets. I will find a picture and if not I can take some pics on thursday night of the real thing. Another option is the radio found in Maple leaf models 113 upgrade set it is the one you plugged the 77 or 25 set into. I am pretty sure our rides always used the 46 set though. As well some of the Tamiya M151sets come with a 46 set and they have the VHS set (name escapes me)beside it.

Mark

Your right it's coming back to me now. 46 set was the vehicle radio and we had 25 sets as the portable ones with a vehicle mount that we did use sometimes.

So the NATO radio set has the 46 set in it? Thanks for the tip on the 151s I think I can probably steal a radio from one of those kits. I am basing my build on the old Skybow jeep since it at least looks identical to a Canadian 69 pattern. Now if I could only find a decent picture of the MG mount we used.

Wasn't the only difference between a 25 set and a 77 set the drain hole in the battery tray?

Welcome to the wonderful world of Commo nomenclature!!! :-) :-) :-)

Those guys had massive strings of designation for EVERYTHING. And if you added a different microphone, the whole designation changed! It's nuts!

I seem to remember that we went from the PRC 25 to the PRC 77 sometime in the early 70's. (P stands for portable) And if I remember correctly you'd probably NOT be able to tell any external differences in 1/35 scale between the two.

There was a vehicle mounting kit that allowed that radio to be operated by the vehicle's electrical system and use a build in speaker. THAT system was designated a VRC something ( And it may be that the PRC-25 in a vehicle was a VRC-125 and a PRC-77 in a vehicle was a VRC-160?) with the "V" obviously standing for vehicle. But the "radio" was still the same, and could be removed and backpacked well away from the vehicle if required.

The old Tamiya M151A1 kit included a radio that appears to be intended to be such an installation, at least by the size and shape, becuase it's clearly NOT intended to be the larger RT-524 the Verlinden kit includes. But that Tamiya radio is not very well done IMHO. (BTW, when the RT-524 goes into a vehicle, THAT installation is called a VRC-46. Confused yet?)

I don't know of any good source for pictures of that installation, but with the vehicle mount from the Verlinden kit (a separate piece), a good PRC-25/77, and some decent photos, that installation shouldn't be too hard to do.

Tom

On my RadOp course in Petawawa, we were using 106 sets in the back of 5/4 ton gin palaces. 25 and 77 sets were man carried and there was another one (can't remember the number) we used talking to the Hams in Egypt and other places

When I first starting serving with the LdSH(RC) in the mid 80's we used the 125 set and the 524 set in the 74 Pattern Jeeps(M151A2).

The jeeps were used as Reece vehicles only in the RHQ Recce Troop. They had both type of radios mounted, the 125 for the Squadron net, and the 524 for the Regimental net.

The Sabre Squadrons used them only as liaison vehicles.

The difference between a 25 and a 77 set was internal, the latter having more integrated circuits. You can't go wrong on most 1980's Canadian vehicles with a 77 in a tray maount and a 46 set. Most Engineer vehicles had to be on two nets so that what they had.