Can anyone tell me what radios are in Verlinden's N0198 NATO Radio set?

Jeff

The parts list says RT-524, R-442 and RT-246. The 524 looks suspiciously like a Canadian 106 set, but it's been a while and I'm probably seeing things.

Obviously they say NATO radios, but did the US use them?

Jeff

I definitely recognize the RT-524 and the R-442 as two of the radios we had in our M577 in 1988-1990. I think I've also seen the RT-524 in Humvees. The kit also has external speakers as well.

Our mortar tracks had the mount where the portable PRC-77 slides in but that's not included.

Paul

Absolutely. I'm not exactly when they were introduced, but it was in the late '60s. And we were still using them in the Reserve well into the '90s.

The Verlinden 198 is a very good set, allowing for several configurations. The combination of the RT-524 (a receiver and transmitter), with an R-442 (receiver) was very common, and would be found for example in a battery/company commander's jeep, allowing for talking on one "net" with the RT, while listening to another on the receiver. My M577 in the Fire Direction Center used two RT-524s because our mission required us to be able to quickly respond in two nets, rather than the cumbersome process of manually changing the frequency on the RT to talk back.

As far as the RT-246 goes, you'd usually find that in perhaps a battalion commander's vehicle so he could use the presets to quickly go to several battery/company frequencies as well as higher HQ. And as Paul says, they were definintely in Humvees, because I had one.

I'm pretty sure the 4CMBG in the 70s in Germany used the same radios and probably other NATO countries as well.

Tom