Phil Kane wrote:
On Wed, 7 May 2008 00:10:29 EDT, AF6AY wrote:

The AN/PRC-25 was solid-state except for the single vacuum tube
in the PA. AN/PRC-77 was its fully solid-state version. Both
were VHF with channelized tuning (considered abhorent by a few
hams) but turned out to be mainstays for Vietnam field radio use.
Both are now obsolete.

And we will never see them on the commercial surplus market available
to hams, like the WW-II stuff was decades earlier.

If I had been asked to make a choice of whether they _should_ be
available, I'd probably have shaken my head sadly and said "No". Given
that the PRC-25 covered not only the Low-VHF public safety bands and
some TV frequencies, but also the aircraft marker-beacon channel, as
well as six meters, I'd have to (reluctantly) agree with whomever else
said "No" in this case.

It's a shame, but it's also easy to understand: the FCC was _very_ badly
burned by the Citizen's Band fiasco, and I'd bet other government
bureaucrats in and out of the military had that fresh in their minds as
Vietnam was winding down and the PRC-25's were filling up warehouses.

73, Bill W1AC

--
Bill Horne

(Remove QRM from my address for direct replies.)