Harris Falcon III RF-7800 Radios on Ebay

[blantonl]

So, anyone know what the story is with these radios that have shown up on Ebay? Quite a few surplus sellers I've not seen before all the sudden have these bad boys available. There's got to be a catch here. Thoughts?

Harris Falcon III RF-7800H-MP048 Wideband HF/VHF Manpack Radio PN 12097-1000-11 | eBay

Item is in good used condition. SKU: A-69548. Functionality Code: F4 Hardware Functional. Data Sanitization Status: Non-data device.

www.ebay.com

Harris Falcon iii Radio RF-7800H-MP048 Manpack MINT CONDITION! Very Hard To Find | eBay

These units were purchased from RTX Surplus! Genuine Radios that are ready to use! These are impossible to find on the open market. These were purchased to be used in a large project that was not followed through with. You will not find more of these out there. The king of all radios, $30k+...

www.ebay.com

Harris RF-7800H-MP048 Falcon III Wideband Radio w PA Adapter & Shock Mount Tan 1 | eBay

These components were installed in a communications shelter that was never deployed (the project was canceled). We are working on pulling the appropriate cables from the communications shelter and expect these to be available in the near future.

www.ebay.com

 

[prcguy]

I believe those were surplussed by Raytheon and probably left over from a project. Others are believed to have come from Afghanistan or Ukraine.

 

[blantonl]

I’d love to snag one of these but there are so many unknowns here with these - no cables, suspect descriptions about them being in perfect working condition, and probably something screwy with their firmware or backgrounds that will make them a massive PITA or unusable.

plus, there’s no manuals and software available for them either - and somehow Harris is probably going to tell anyone who asks to pound sand.

i guess I could snag one, fly out to Greenville and pound on the fence and see if they would help me.

 

[prcguy]

I’d love to snag one of these but there are so many unknowns here with these - no cables, suspect descriptions about them being in perfect working condition, and probably something screwy with their firmware or backgrounds that will make them a massive PITA or unusable.

plus, there’s no manuals and software available for them either - and somehow Harris is probably going to tell anyone who asks to pound sand.

i guess I could snag one, fly out to Greenville and pound on the fence and see if they would help me.

If you join HarrisRadio @ groups.io there are lots of people familiar with these radios and any firmware or quirks. There are also a lot of collector to collector sales much cheaper than you find on fleabay.

 

[WB5UOM]

Unless something has changed since I was there a time ago, theres no fence just taxi right into the L3 tarmac and ignore the commands from the GA tower, the guys with the uniforms and guns will likely help you find the right electronics shop to pull up to.
You might get to park beside a RC-135 if you are lucky

 

[prcguy]

Unless something has changed since I was there a time ago, theres no fence just taxi right into the L3 tarmac and ignore the commands from the GA tower, the guys with the uniforms and guns will likely help you find the right electronics shop to pull up to.
You might get to park beside a RC-135 if you are lucky

Uhh, I'll be videoing that from a safe distance to post here.

 

[WB5UOM]

I cant say much about my visit, but it was interesting.

 

[prcguy]

I cant say much about my visit, but it was interesting.

Last time I worked at an AFB I came into possession of material above my security clearance and that created some interesting problems. Like stop what your doing, lock up, fly back home and don't let the material out of your actual hands until its handed off at the vault.

 

[blantonl]

Unless something has changed since I was there a time ago, theres no fence just taxi right into the L3 tarmac and ignore the commands from the GA tower, the guys with the uniforms and guns will likely help you find the right electronics shop to pull up to.
You might get to park beside a RC-135 if you are lucky

I’ve flown out there a zillion times. It’s a great airfield.

The tower is closed usually on the weekends unless there is some stuff coming in that weekend. Last time I did a full stop taxi back security was watching closely….there were a few C-32s on the ramp.

that place is a radio nerds wet dream.

 

[gtaman]

They came from an RTX auction.

They are from the Algeria spy plane project.

Some of them have some older hardware/software versions.

 

[TDR-94]

I’ve flown out there a zillion times. It’s a great airfield.

The tower is closed usually on the weekends unless there is some stuff coming in that weekend. Last time I did a full stop taxi back security was watching closely….there were a few C-32s on the ramp.

that place is a radio nerds wet dream.

L3H won't do sh*t for you without a Premiere account and usually special project radios, like those, won't even show up in the Premiere portal to purchase anything for anyway, including any documentation. Those are usually special order customer specific radios and anything for them was only available to that specific customer.

 

[prcguy]

They are from the Algeria spy plane project.

Dohhh! Now you done it, the sedans with little hub caps and blackwall tires will be in your hood soon!

 

[TDR-94]

On 2nd inspection, those radios aren't a special order contract item. They are normal production units just ordered in the CARC TAN color option. One listing also pretty much includes everything you would need for the radio.

Weird that they have a HUB, since they only contain TYPE-3 and TYPE-4 crypto algo's for securing communications. Provided the HUB isn't already dead.

 

[DeoVindice]

I’ve flown out there a zillion times. It’s a great airfield.

The tower is closed usually on the weekends unless there is some stuff coming in that weekend. Last time I did a full stop taxi back security was watching closely….there were a few C-32s on the ramp.

that place is a radio nerds wet dream.

One of my buddies has done a bunch of work there for L3H. Even the sanitized stuff I've seen is extremely neat.

 

[blantonl]

The EW facility on the east end of the field is amazing.

I would give my left testical to get a tour of that facility. If anyone from Harris / L3 is reading this, take note, I'd love a tour and my left testical is yours. I'll fly up over there in a heartbeat, park on the ramp, you guys can take me over in a golf cart. I'll even leave my cell phone in the airplane.

I'll bring a stack of purchase orders too....

 

[gtaman]

Heritage Global Partners | Raytheon: Surplus SATCOM Communications & Field Equipment

bid.hgpauction.com

Link to auction.

As someone reported they are running ancient firmware and are not newer OMAP based radios.

 

[gtaman]

L3H won't do sh*t for you without a Premiere account and usually special project radios, like those, won't even show up in the Premiere portal to purchase anything for anyway, including any documentation. Those are usually special order customer specific radios and anything for them was only available to that specific customer.

Thales on the other hand is very easy to work with 😁.

 

[vagrant]

Perhaps a Codan 2110 manpack would be a reliable solution. A buddy has one he enjoys. 30 MHz and 25W max and it is 12v +/-. I don’t need as rugged, so amateur rigs work for me. The new Yaesu QRP/100W rig will probably be $2k and available by summer. There may be a third party mil handset already out there. Anyways, it covers HF to 70cm, but I doubt it has syllabic squelch.

https://cdn.codancomms.com/general-downloads/Products/Datasheets/Codan_12-20173-ENG-11_2110-Manpack.pdf