You cant make this up...

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Saal

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We come across quit a bit of mil surplus due to our mission. This week I inherited a RF-382 Series Fast Tune Automatic 500 Watt Antenna Coupler, SB-V32: 32-foot whip with the RF1980F-AT001 base (2-30Mhz), a pile of misc amplifiers, and what appears to be all the mil spec cables for connectivity - kind of.

Radio equipment is not my job but with all this stuff we get from time to time. I'd like to use some of it. If we can't, it gets de-mil'd(destroyed) and sent to recycle. I was wondering if anyone has augmented mil spec surplus items like mentioned above for use with a CB or other civilian FM radios? Yes, we have military radio equipment that is plug and play, but what's the fun in that? Right?

Matt
 

mmckenna

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A co-worker of mine (recently retired) had one of those tuners at his house connected to a Harbor Freight flag pole. Since he was in a trailer park, they had really tight rules about antennas, but none agains flying the US flag...

Anyway, he used that tuner to load up the flag pole and it's worked pretty well on the HF bands. Would work on CB and probably a bit above 30MHz if you had the right antenna.

If you've got the whole setup, that's a pretty good find.
 

N2AL

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A co-worker of mine (recently retired) had one of those tuners at his house connected to a Harbor Freight flag pole. Since he was in a trailer park, they had really tight rules about antennas, but none agains flying the US flag...

Anyway, he used that tuner to load up the flag pole and it's worked pretty well on the HF bands. Would work on CB and probably a bit above 30MHz if you had the right antenna.

If you've got the whole setup, that's a pretty good find.
A flag pole antenna is an EXCELLENT idea to suggest to the much better half! Wives may not like antennas in the trees, or antennas on towers, but if they are like my better half, they are patriotic and would probably entertain the idea of a flag pole in the front yard. From there just protect the coax and bury it back to the ham shack.
 

Saal

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Flag pole....nice. I'm working nights right now, but will dive into some modding when I'm back on days. I appreciate any tips and tricks concerning mil surplus. Like I said earlier, We send a lot of this stuff to recycle without knowing it's re-purposing capability.
 

Saal

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KE5MC

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Flag pole....nice. I'm working nights right now, but will dive into some modding when I'm back on days. I appreciate any tips and tricks concerning mil surplus. Like I said earlier, We send a lot of this stuff to recycle without knowing it's re-purposing capability.

Often DC power requirements are 24 and 48 volts. One piece of equipment I had on the ship was re-purposed from airborne to surface ship. We had to have a 400 cycle converter in the engineering spaces to operate it. Only piece of 400 cycle on the entire ship. Go figure.

Mike
 
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