RF-10 Czech military manpack

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OK2BCK

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While visiting Czech Republic I bought two of these military radios. They were very cheap and both in pristine condition even with maintenance logbook.
I paid about USD $37 for each; if you like military radios or 6m QRP, I suggest you to check this blog by IX1CKN.
I've just made 1st QSO and have to say the audio quality is out there.

b_rf10e.jpg
 

OK2BCK

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Cool Rig!
Can you say a bit more about the 'out there' audio?

I'm not used to those military 'handsets', I've expected classic speaker or headphone to be superior in sound reproduction.
I was wrong. When talking to local ham (that I know personally) on 52.525, he sounded just great. The readability and 's/n' ratio was just perfect even when I was holding the handset about a foot away from my ear.
The radio does not have SQ or AF control, which I thought it would be a pain but it really doesn't need it.
When I got it, I thought I'll need to modify it to take classic headset or a speaker, now I'm happy that I can leave it just the way it is.

My girlfriend says I'm not allowed to be seen in public using that thing..
Oh boy.
 

OK2BCK

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mikewazowski

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Gentlemen, let's remember that all Buy, Trade and Sell must be done within the Classifieds forums. I just deleted a post that violated this rule.
 

com501

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There are some of these on eBay UK right now in NEW condition, in the foam packing for $120 US, buy it now, plus shipping. This looks to be a fairly nice radio, from what I can find of the company, they have been in the business awhile and also make HF railroad FM radios for the Russian railroad industry.
 

com501

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(1watt) - (antenna coupling loss) - (antenna loss) - (free loss in space) = about somewhere under 1 watt ERP's worth.

Not far if you are standing next to a power substation, you won't hear a thing. A few thousand miles if atmospherics are right. Most of the time, just far enough to be heard.
 

WB4CS

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Sitting here chuk'ling......Thats the best non-answer answer Ive heard in a while..

Depends on the antenna. Looks like that radio has a rubber duck antenna on it, so at 1W it's probably only going 1-5 miles AT BEST with optimal terrain. If you connected a high gain beam up 50+ feet, during normal band conditions on SSB you could probably get 50 - 100 miles +/-. If the band is open (Sporadic E or Tropo Ducting) with the beam antenna that 1W could easily get 1000 miles.

So, while some of the answers sound like "non-answers" it's because propagation on 6 Meters is very hard to predict and propagation is not an exact science. :)
 

com501

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Besides, the question itself leads to potentially all kinds of answers. It's like asking how tall is tall.
 

prcguy

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I've played with similar US radios like the PRC-68B, PRC-126 and PRC-126 which run about 1.5w in the 30 to 90MHz range. Using a pair of 68Bs on 6m with stock 20" long antennas over flat terrain with one unit elevated on a small hill (maybe 75ft) I've gone about 10mi. From the top of a 5,000 ft mountain I've gone 60mi to another unit at ground level.

From my back yard at 350ft altitude I occasionally talk to a guy about 60mi away to his base station 6m antenna using a stock PRC-68B. These radios were not intended to talk reliably these distances but hams like to push things a bit.
prcguy

Edit:
I forgot about a local 6m AM net I check into occasionally and I have used a current military issue 30-512MHz AM-FM handheld on 6m AM (about 1.5w AM carrier) with its stock 3ft antenna from a 500ft hill in LA, CA to a guy on the CA/Mexico boarder with a good 6m base antenna, which is about 120mi. He said I was very loud and clear.


Depends on the antenna. Looks like that radio has a rubber duck antenna on it, so at 1W it's probably only going 1-5 miles AT BEST with optimal terrain. If you connected a high gain beam up 50+ feet, during normal band conditions on SSB you could probably get 50 - 100 miles +/-. If the band is open (Sporadic E or Tropo Ducting) with the beam antenna that 1W could easily get 1000 miles.

So, while some of the answers sound like "non-answers" it's because propagation on 6 Meters is very hard to predict and propagation is not an exact science. :)
 
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OK2BCK

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I think the radio is 5 to 7 Watts, not sure where 1W is from.. although I did not clock it yet.

I'm getting quote for shipping to USA and New Zealand in next couple of hours so will respond to all private messages.

Would be fair to say that I've been using one of those radios for few weeks and it has failed. Won't transmit and won't receive, although it is alive. I'm not sure what is going on at this stage - the radio has a trophy space assigned in my shack.
The batteries might need to be removed for shipping, classic D size cells with solder/welded terminals.

Thanks folks, have a good day.
 
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