PRC-F1

Built by AWA in the seventies, this set has just been released by the Australian Army. It is state of the art technology for its day, and is pretty impressive today. It is a HF fully synthesized transceiver, operating from 2 to 12MHz. It operates CW or USB, with an AM compatibility mode. A whisper function is provided for speech modes. A 12 pole crystal filter and Collins mechanical filters allow variable bandwidth on receive. The design is fully silicon solid state. The set can be used as a manpack, ground station or vehicular installation. The photograph shows the rig in the vehicle mount, with the antenna tuner at top left and power supply at top right. The transceiver has an internal NICAD battery, which is charged by the power supply. Alternatively a 10 channel battery charger can be used. When used as a manpack, whip antennas with a spring base are used, and are tuned by the tuner in the radio set. In ground station or vehicular applications the external ATU can be used to tune a whip, balanced or wire antennas. My example has an 8ft whip for manpack use and a 15ft whip with mounting bracket for vehicular use, as well as wire antennas and a dipole. Output power is either 1 Watt or 10 Watts PEP.

The accessories for the PRC-F1

MX-F3 field test set for the PRC-F1

PRC-F1 in the manpack configuration
 

RADIO SET COMPONENTS

AS-F1 8 section 8ft whip
AS-F2  longwire/dipole antenna
70 ohm antenna feeder
CW-F2 accessory bag
BB-F1 Nicad battery
CY-F1 transit case
Aerial cord, weighted
CU-F1 8 ft whip coupler
Counterpoise
H-F2 handset
ST-F1 harness
H-F1 headset
KY-F1A1 telegraph key
M-F1 dynamic microphone
RT-F1/PRC Receiver Transmitter

The following components are used in the GRC-F2 ground radio configuration

AS-F4 end fed wire antenna
CG-F1 coaxial cable assembly
CG-F2 coaxial cable assembly
CX-F15 telegraph/headset adaptor cable
CU-F2 antenna coupler for balanced and unbalanced antennae
CY-F2 transit case
Canvas Field Pack
H-233/PRC headset
KY-116/U Telegraph key
15ft whip and vehicular mount
AB652/VR mast base
MT-F2, MT-F3, MT-F4 mounting equipment
PP-F1 power supply

MX-F1 ten channel battery charger/discharger

COMMENTARY 

The F1 is beautifully built set, which is extremely rugged and versatile. I think the Australian Government well and truly got its money's worth on this set.It has everything you could ever want in a radio for the roles it was designed for.

For ham use it is a little limited due to the low power output, but is great for bush bashing. You can just throw it all in the transit case and take it with you. You can set it up on a table in the field, or use it in the manpack configuration. It is a lot of fun! The 12MHz upper frequency is a little limiting for ham use, especially as it is USB only, however most commercial and military equipment is USB only. It can be modified to LSB operation by changing a mechanical filter.

The receiver can be a little limited due to lack of flexibility, but this is to be expected as the military are great fans of chanellised radios. It is meant to communicate with other chanellised radios.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

PRC-F1

Frequency    1000 to 11999kHz in 1kHz steps
Stability +/- 25Hz
Modes of operation:
    SSB     Upper Side Band
    CW1    2kHz tone on SSB channel
    CWN    425Hz receive bandwidth
    CW2    6kHz bandwidth with variable BFO
    AM      6kHz bandwidth, AM compatible transmission, AM receive
Power Output    10W PEP (High), 1W PEP(low).
Sensitivity    0.5uV

CU-F2 antenna coupler

match antenna impedance between 5 and 7000ohms to 50 ohms

PP-F1 power supply

Input 20V to 40V. Powers transceiver and simultaneously charges battery

MX-F1

Input 20 to 40V DC or rectified AC 45-55Hz with peak voltage 32-60V
8 outputs switched in pairs to provide full charge rate of 100mA or trickle charge of 20mA
2 outputs switched simultaneously to provide full charge rate of 100mA or discharge rate of 250mA

CONSTRUCTION

The construction standard of the PRC-F1 is extremely high. It is one of the best examples I have ever seen. Shielding is gold plated.

Top View

Bottom View

CU-F2 antenna coupler

OVERALL RATINGS

    Engineering rating (taking into time of design).

             Extremely well engineered. Easily a 9.5/10

    Fitness for purpose rating

             What can I say. I can only give 10/10

    Usefulness as ham equipment rating

             Limited frequency range and lack of receiver flexibility, I can only give 6.5/10

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