Just a dream: the PRC-74 transceiver
When I was a new ham I remember reading an article in the surplus column of CQ Magazine (December 1972) which dealt with the PRC-74, a synthesized solid state radio used in Vietnam by the Army.
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| from the manual |
The radio was built by Hughes Aircraft Co. in California. As I recall the author didn't mention where he got the rig from, of course no Ebay back then but there were a lot more surplus dealers.
Not sure why but I was fascinated by this radio machine. In addition to being fully solid state (still a novelty in the 1970s) it was also synthesized. Just set your frequency on the 4 switches and the clarifier gave you wiggle room in between the 1 kHz settings. The synthesizer used 46 crystals in 4 switched banks to generate a 3.75 to 19.749 MHz carrier.
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| from the synthesizer schematic |
The single conversion IF frequency was 1.75 MHz. Depending on the version the radio covered from 2 to 12 MHz or 2 to 18 Mhz continuously. The rig was basically a USB radio but it could receive and send CW using a 2000 Hz note (yuck).
I've never seen a PRC-74 in person but I do own an old computer built by Hughes Aircraft. That computer was probably the best built S-100 box ever - who else used silver plated Teflon wiring in a computer (Hughes called it a PDEC, it was an off-line editor to be used with a Fairchild Sentry IC tester). So I assume that the PRC-74 was impeccably manufactured.
But even though they are offered on Ebay, I'll never own one. It was purpose designed and built for use by soldiers in a jungle far from base - not meant for an old ham fooling around - I think a PRC-74 would compare poorly to almost any recent ham gear.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/185576489672
I've got that CQ issue around here somewhere - anyway there is plenty of info on this wonderful page on the PRC-74:
https://www.radionerds.com/index.php/AN~PRC-74#:~:text=Employment
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm