The AM Forum

Looking to put together a vintage military tube transmitter and receiver set up for 2 meter. Would prefer possible rack combo, but open to suggestions.

Thanks
Kent
Kd8wag

Taller order then you would think, the problem is the Military never went in for VHF FM much beyond tons of military vehicle sets like the VRC-12 family along with backpack sets like the VRC-25 and 77 but they all cover 30 to 70 MHz and not two meters. Almost all military VHF operations are aircraft band radios and they are all AM.
There are some radios like the Motorola URC-110 or 200 that cover 108 to 174 MHz AM and FM but they tend to be pricey. All the old WW2 VHF junk was AM and also by today’s standards very insensitive and low powered for its size and no one plays around with that stuff today. When it came to VHF the best tube radio was only slightly capable compared with solid state radios.
All that being said there is some fun to be found with old military VHF AM radios, a group of us play around with things like URC-4 rescue radios at events on 144.25 and several people I know have been involved with restoring sets like ARC-73 sets that can be used on 144.25
Think if I wanted to play around with restoring a tube type set I would look at the mid to late fifties and sixties GE Progress line or Motorola commercial radio base stations. A GE Progress base station is in many ways like a work of art with its gold plated chassis, the high power base had a meter bridge along with its big blue rack. If you talk with anyone who’s been into Two Way radio for any length of time you may find more of that stuff then you know what to do with and you can do a two channel base station for the local repeater and maybe for 52 simplex too.

I have a BC-640B transmitter. It has two identical power supplies. One is missing, but it's very simple and I believe I have a chassis, panel and some of the iron for it. I also have a spare modulator, which is two 811As.
There's some info here:
https://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=32423.0

50W carrier, AM (200W peak). crystal controlled so it could be FM'd without too much trouble. But it's a proect. Currently standing in my laundry room with everything in the rack except the one power panel, and the spare modulator.

If you want big iron this is it, 600 Lbs I believe. I loaded it all in the van once the rack chassis were pulled. The wiring harness is complete as far as I can tell. I also have the autotransformer for it.

In this mesage is a decent image as it sits pretty much
https://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=32423.msg323647#msg323647

I have manuals for it. electronically. too big to e-mail.
Is it a "good" vintage military 2 meter transmitter? Yes if you don't mind doing some work on it.

Consider a TDQ, if you can find one. Think of it as a mini-T-368. It was my only transmitter for the first ten years of my ham career. Beautifully built and easy on the eyes. Each deck is easily removed from the cabinet without having to disconnect any wiring. Easy to transport (relatively). I'd have kept mine if there was any hint of 2 Meter AM in my area.