About this website

Why am I dedicating a website to GREEN RADIOS?

Because these older radios, some of which can be considered to be boatanchors, are very fascinating. Both the appearance and the technical aspects are very interesting. One must keep in mind that, especially in the former communist block countries, these items were often produced with no regard for cost, so they represent the state-of-the-art in their respective timeframe. Today, on the surplus market, one can obtain these wonderful pieces of equipment at reasonable prices. I have been interested in this kind of communications equipment for a long time, but unfortunately, information of any kind is very hard to find, not to mention the equipment itself. On the one hand, there are exotic items that are expensive, hard to find and mostly in non-working-condition, and then there are widespread workhorses that one can obtain quite easily at reasonable prices in working condition. I myself own some of the sets shown here, but there are many sets I only know from pictures or collector's tales. With this online "exhibition", I am attempting to provide as much information as possible, especially that which can not be found on the web. An example of this is pictures (especially from the inside), as well as designation charts and connector pinouts. Last but not least, a brief review of the history of the German Signal Corps will be included to document the continuous development of communications equipment.

How did I get started in this?

When I obtained my amateur radio license back in 1998, I was looking for an inexpensive way to become QRV on the short-wave bands. Via a want ad, I found "something" that met my financial and operational requirements. When I went to pick up the gear, it turned out to be huge and heavy commercial Rohde & Schwarz equipment from the early 1960's. To be honest, I expected some compact and lightweight desktop items, but that was not what it turned out to be. What I found was some equipment from a former RTTY unit operating with a power output of 100 Watts. Anyway, I was affected by the fascination of military communications equipment, and with the help of two friends and my dad, I brought it all home. Everything worked well except the transmitter, which does not work even today because of the need for some spare parts. But, apart from this, I needed a unit for portable use. Although a surplus military unit wasn't exactly in the plan, Singer Electronics in famous Aachen had for sale an AN/GRC-9 unit that met my requirements. Did anybody ever try to get this heavy and bulky radio set (weight: more than 30kg) home (over a distance of about 100 km) using just trains, busses and your feet..?! I was mad enough to do so... After reading the manual, I finally succumbed the fascination of military radio gear. Because the GRC-9 radio set isn't capable of SSB transmitting, I obtained an East German made SEG-15 radio set at reasonable costs (tnx DJ5TG). At the same time, I discovered the Internet as a source of information about Green Radios as well as a platform for contacts with similarly orientated collectors. My interest has changed lately to VHF FM gear. Within a short period of time, I was able to obtain a SEM-35, an AN/PRC-9, and an FSE-38/58. Of course, considering my location, some East European gear such as an R-126 and an R-157 followed in time. By now, I have accumulated a fair amount of information and knowledge about many aspects of military communication. After some years of item-orientated collecting, now the documentation takes precedence. Even so, now I am also on the 2m amateur radio band using a non-tactical military radio AN/PRC-127 (tnx WA1NYR!), and I hope that one day I will be capable of all amateur radio bands up to 23cm using former military gear.

Pictures, illustrations and copyright aspects

A picture says more than thousand words, and you will agree with me that an online museum does not make sense without pictures and scans. Many of them were taken from the TMs. I assume that there will be no copyright conflicts due to their age, and the fact that they are generally considered to be public property. I took the photos that can be found on this website myself, if possible. The basic reason for this is that there aren't many pictures on the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, no one can own all sets and radio setups, so if there are pictures, articles and so on from other collectors, they are used by honest permission of their respective owner and marked as their material in an adequate way. I invite everybody to spread my pictures and articles on the web, as long as they are used for private (non-commercial) and/or collecting purposes. In any event, I would appreciate it if you passed me the URL where this material is used, because I am always curious about other webpages. The use of my material for commercial purposes (i.e. eBay auctions and so on) is prohibited. If you find any commercial activities using pictures and articles of this webpage, please report it to me. Furthermore, you should be aware that the condition shown in the pictures would not be exactly the same as that of the actual offered item.

The historical ballast...

The display of gear, emblems or equipment of National Socialist, Communist or other countries must not be interpreted as condoning, glorification, support, approval and/or toleration of their ideologies, methods, results and "prominent" people. I explicitly keep distance from any kind of extremism, nationalism or any other kind of national or proletarian politics. This website has no political ambition. The only thing in which I am interested is Green Radios with lots of buttons and meters :-) The only reason for the display of national emblems is to place the items into the correct technical and time context.

Disclaimer

The German court "Landgericht Hamburg" judged on May 12th 1998, that if you link other Internet pages on your web page, you might be responsible for the content of those pages as well. This can only be avoided if you explicitly distance yourself from the content in those links. I, and any co-authors of these web pages in their entirety, have established links to other pages on the net. The following terms apply to all these links: "I explicitly emphasize that I have no influence in the layout and content of any linked page. I explicitly keep distance from all content of all linked pages on this webpage, including subpages. This statement applies to all links and all contents of linked pages to which I have established links or banners." Last but not least, I want you to enjoy viewing this website. It was a lot of work, and I hope that many people will share my interests and benefit from this work, even if it is just that you discover a radio set with which you had to crawl through the mud when you joined the army of your choice years ago. Martin Wiesner, DH3MW, May 2001