SCR-610 Radio Set Project

[SGM (ret.)]

Been a pretty long time since I posted up any new stuff from my collection, so I thought I'd do a little catch up.

This is an SCR-610 radio set that I'm putting together for display.  I still have some bits and pieces to track down (and these photos are not quite up to date).  However, I wanted to share it anyway.

The basic parts of the set are the BC-659 R/T unit and the PE-117 Power Supply.  The SCR-610 was used for tactical voice coms and was either vehicle mounted (jeeps and tank destroyers mostly) or used as a man-portable system with the dry-cell battery case CS-79 in place of the PE-117.

One thing that I have done on my radio is add an MP-3 player inside of it.  The player can hold up to 8GB of audio files.  So as to not make any permanent changes to the set, I carefully unbolted the speaker and signal strength meter without disconnecting or unsoldering any wires and moved the speaker out of the way.  I then designed a simple rotary on-off switch and 3D printed it.  I added the metal terminals from thin brass shim material.  This switch is mounted on the shaft of the radio's channel A-B selector switch with hot glue (which can be peeled away later).  The modern speaker was put into a simple box that bolted into the original speaker's location. (The speakers had to be switched because the amplifier in the MP3 player was an ohm mismatch for the original.)

I also wired the MP3 player into the original analog signal strength meter on the radio case front.  This meter animates and the needle moves back and forth in time with the audio.  Not totally correct since the actual meter only indicated the radio's transmission signal strength and not the received signal strength, but it adds a nice visual touch when the sound is playing.

The MP3 player is switched on and off using the original external channel selector switch with no other external indicators that anything has been changed on the radio set.  I have a few minutes of tactical radio chatter and a couple of period "moral" songs that will now play.

I'll post up some newer photos of the display in a day or two once I have a chance to take them.

[SGM (ret.)]

So, it's been a while since I posted up anything on this project.  It's still active.  These things do take some time, though.

 

Here's a quick happy snap, though.  I have managed to find the AN-29-C antenna and the brackets and straps for storing it on the top of the radio.  I also found a set of the front straps that hold the power cable and connector.

Coming soon (I hope!), is the FT-250 vehicle mount.  I have some plans for this and building a proper display stand for the entire set, so more to follow with that in the not too far distant future.

Finally, I have also acquired a BA-39 which was one of the two dry-cell batteries used with the ground-mount CS-79 battery case.  Still looking for a BA-40 (the other battery used to power the set), so if anyone out there in USMF land happens to have one that they'd be willing to part with, let me know.  Maybe we can do "a deal-deal..."

Happy collecting!

[SGM (ret.)]

A little update on this collection project.  I finally got the FT-250 vehicle mount to go with the set. (Actually, it's a very, very nice repro from FT-250.com.)

I'm not a military vehicle collector, but I still wanted to come up with some display method to show off the set and mount.  So, I built this display stand to go with it.  I'm pretty pleased at how the stand turned out, so it will form the basis for the design that I'm working on to display the MP-48 antenna mount and antenna mast sections that this set will be eventually connected to.  I'm also planning on adding the CS-79 battery case when I can find a nice, complete example that hasn't been gutted and used for a toolbox or some such.

I painted the stand in an OD green color to give the impression of a stand that might have been locally made and used in a wartime classroom radio operator kind of setting.

Anyway...  Comment, observations or ideas are always welcome.