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Help me dating this PRC-77


pawtwo
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Hello,

 

I found this little nice radio in NOS/overhauled condition.

 

It says "Associated Industries" on the plate and has no typical US government contract number. Inside cover on the frame it has another manufacturer name "CINCIN ELECT 80045". Paint color looks quite modern to me. All internals look original and not changed but some parts still have FSN number what dates them back to early 1970's.

What do you think? Is it in original condition form 70s or early 80s including paint and manufacturers plate or was it overhauled at sometime, even for another country's army?

Does PRC-77's had their own unique serial numbers (independent form manufacturer) or there is any possibility to say when it was made?

post-162935-0-93547600-1496176837.jpg

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Crystal discriminator with NSN. Pre 1975 part.

 

Inside of casing has the same shade of paint as exterior. I doesn't have any accesories for it yet so I cannot tell if it's working or not.

post-162935-0-38682700-1496177053_thumb.jpg

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  • 6 months later...

Cinncinatti Electronics was the original manufacturer. Associated industries would have been the overhaul contractor. I believe that company also took older radios such as the PRC-6 and upgraded them from tubes to solid state. The green color paint used seems to be the same color used by the US Army Depot at Tobyanna during overhauls; I have a couple of PRC-77 cases that came from there in newly overhauled condition.

 

Take a look at Radionerds.com. I have an article there on how to build an adapter to use the nearly identical earlier PRC-10 antennas, which are more easily available and much cheaper than the PRC-77 antennas are now. I built rechargeable Li-Ion battery packs for my PRC-77's and PRC-25. They use the H-250 handset which you can find on ebay for maybe $15-$20.

Good luck!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I tried radio with D-cell batteries adapter from Bundeswehr but it doesn't receive any signal. There is no sound in handset, but dial light works ;) Also when you depress button on handset you can hear a relay working inside radio.

Got an '91 contract antenna in the same shade as radio and one 80's and one newer handset ;)

Still a great piece of equipment in collection ;)

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  • 10 months later...

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