Navy DAV HF AM Transceiver

Apparently these radios were intended for Marine Paratroopers. They possess both transceive and direction finding capability. The radio’s case is made of plywood because the DF antenna is located inside. It has a three position switch to select the mode, DF local, DF DX, and 2-way. It transmits and receives on one crystal channel, making .2W.

I put out a WTB request for a Navy/Marine DAV or MAB transceiver on the Milsurplus email reflector. I have wanted to add one or both of these radios to my collection for a long time. Not because I get a lot of HF AM contacts, because I’ve never had even one. There were several replies, but only one person who had them to sell. I bought the DAV because it’s the one I wanted more.

This radio came with the solid state inverter from Italy. I bought a 6VDC SLA battery from Amazon, charged it up and fired up the radio. It worked pretty good right off the bat, so I ordered the crystals necessary to put it on 3.885 MHz AM. When they arrived, I decided to verify that the radio worked correctly before I switched them. I made one transmission with the radio and the audio went out after the first couple of syllables. So I read the manual one more time, swapped VT 107 as it advised and tested it. Still nothing. So I tested the transformers, T-101B and T101C. 101C was fine, but on 101B there appeared to be an open, as there was no continuity on the primary. I’ll add more as I progress, but it seems I am going to have to go in.