Military Transceivers

I have a number of Military radios that I use. I use these during amateur radio activities as well as during some of my airsoft activities while proving communications for various airsoft teams and event organisers (I hold a couple of different ofcom licences that cover these commercial activities).

Racal Panther V-2000 (BCC-67). This is another current in service radio used by various military forces around the world. It is capable of voice and data, both clear and encrypted between 30Mhz and 108Mhz. It is an ECCM radio featuring frequency hoping to make detection and interception harder. It outputs 4w at 12V DC and 20W at 24V DC.

Racal TRA-3900 VHF transceiver.

Racal TRA-3900 “Yeoman” VHF radio. These radios were produced by Racal as part of their bid for the British Army’s replacement for the Clansman series of radios. It is very similar both internally and externally to the Racal Panter (BCC-67)  and the Canadian armies AN/PRC-522, sharing many of the same modules. However it has very different software/firmware and to date I have not discovered a way to program this radio for anything other than entering simplex frequencies.  In addition if you remove the power supply or battery when you turn on the radio for the first time you have to initialize the radio before you can use it (any programmed frequencies are retained). If anyone has any manuals, other literature or knowledge on this radio I would be very happy to hear from you.

I have also had a chance to play with an AN/PRC522:

AN/PRC-522 Canadian military VHF transceiver.

AN/PRC-522 also known as RT-5121/U. This is one of the current manpack VHF radios used by the Canadian army. It is capable of voice, text and data communications between 30Mhz and 108Mhz. It is also a ECCM radio featuring frequency hoping to make detection and interception harder. It outputs 4w at 12V DC and 20W at 24V DC. It has high security encryption including Vinson encryption. This radio is one of many versions of the Racal Panther series radios. It has many common modules with many of the other Racal and Thales radios. In Canada these radios are currently being upgraded to provide a higher data throughput by replacing a couple of the processing modules.

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