Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Radio Telephone and Telegraph Transmitting and Receiving Equipment
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Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by wc56daveyboy » Fri Aug 19, 2022 5:15 am

So I have this question:

I own a ww2 backpack radio, SCR300/BC1000.

I know these were squad level FM radios, usually humped around by a squad radio man

But were they ever used in soft skin trucks and Jeeps?

I own a command car. I simply do NOT wish to clutter the back seat with the massive correct
Radio and table

Thinking I could mount my BC1000 in there and wire it to the antenna.

Was thinking that maybe once the troops were given the command cars after the officers knew they were targets due to the CC vehicles identity, perhaps a squad level might toss in their BC1000?

Or is this a stretch of the imagination?

My questions.

1- if this was a possibility (I.e. a unit was using a command car and had a backpack radio, woukd they somehow hook it up to the vehicles antenna?

2- what antenna would be correct should a unit use the bc1000 in the vehicle?
The MP48?
The AB/15?


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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by YLG80 » Fri Aug 19, 2022 7:25 am

Hi Dave,
I have seen this setup in a reenactment in May 2022. With the man-pack short antenna. Why not?

BC-1000_TRUCK-s.jpg

Much easier than in a jeep.
My SCR-300 is simply laying down on the back seat.

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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by g504 » Fri Aug 19, 2022 11:46 am

Hello.

To my knowledge, the SCR-300 radio mounted on a vehicle or tank takes the name AN/VRC-3.
It is powered by the vibrator power unit PP-114/VRC-3.
It uses the AB-15/GR and the mast sections MS-116, MS-117 and MS-118.
Photo from Technical Manual TM 11-2758.
Image
Below an SCR-300 installed in a jeep.
Image
Best regards.

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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by 66gto » Fri Aug 19, 2022 8:31 pm

If your looking for the bc 1000 mounts , l have re pops FT317 mounts REGARDS 66 gto

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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by YLG80 » Sat Aug 20, 2022 12:02 am

Hi,
I would also simply use the scr-300 in the backpack configuration.
You would need the antenna adapter as used in this setup to connect the radio set to the jeep antenna.
The TM-217 is used to connect the antenna cable to the BC-1000 with a correct matching impedance.


SC_375717.jpg


Antenna adapter 50 ohms TM-217

TM-217_adapter_SO-239.jpg
TM-217_adapter_SO-239.jpg (9.19 KiB) Viewed 1430 times
TM217fr.jpg
s-l1600-1.jpg


The FT317 mount as proposed by 66gto looks like this :

2s-l1600.jpg


This is an easy to use mount.

The next mount was used by the French in a little aircraft in Indochina. The TM-217 adapter is shown in red.

AN-VRC3_mount_in_aircraft-antenna.jpg

Yves
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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by wc56daveyboy » Sat Aug 20, 2022 5:56 am

Thank you all for the in depth explanations!

That pic of the radio mount for the BC1000

Does anyone have one for sale?

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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by wc56daveyboy » Sat Aug 20, 2022 5:59 am

Thank you all for the in-depth info to make this work

Do you or anyone know of one of these mounts for sale?

This one:
Attachments
D8E82BBC-E476-4D94-9305-94CBBA980A8D.jpeg

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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by YLG80 » Sat Aug 20, 2022 7:27 am

wc56daveyboy wrote:
Sat Aug 20, 2022 5:59 am
Thank you all for the in-depth info to make this work

Do you or anyone know of one of these mounts for sale?

This one:
This is the one 66gto proposed a few posts above.(replica) viewtopic.php?p=1925096#p1925096

More info about that mount here :viewtopic.php?t=96380


I forgot to add that the antenna base was described here above in g504 post : AB-15/GR with MS-117-A + MS-118-A antenna elements
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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by Radtech » Sat Aug 20, 2022 9:15 am

There were no vehicle mounts for the BC 1000.A modified PE-120 mount used in M5 tanks only.for the BC1000.There was never an issued vehicle mount for the BC 1000

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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by YLG80 » Sun Aug 21, 2022 7:08 am

Radtech wrote:
Sat Aug 20, 2022 9:15 am
There were no vehicle mounts for the BC 1000.A modified PE-120 mount used in M5 tanks only.for the BC1000.There was never an issued vehicle mount for the BC 1000
.. in the US army :wink:
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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by g504 » Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:51 am

Hello.

The BC-1000 was also used in Italy post war.
There is a person who made a backup copy from an original.
But I never saw him.

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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by Radtech » Sun Aug 21, 2022 10:44 am

Please tell me what foreign army created a vehicle mount for the BC 1000?Without the US Army and American radios all of Europe would still be speaking German today.Every country except Britain and Russia surendered to the Germans.BC1000 sets were made in France Italy and Japan under license from Motorola.1956-1963 in France and a few in Italy and only in 1952 in Japan around 100 by Nippon Electric Corp.

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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by W. Winget » Sun Aug 21, 2022 8:35 pm

My WC-56 was converted to a radio truck by adding a table with holes drilled in the floor sometime in its service life up into the 60's.
In my 'opinion' no unit would send a Command Car downward to a lower unit for use, it's not done by Tables of Equipment (TOE) and the unit is not authorized items that are not assigned. Yes, they can end up with something through the back door or appropriating it but getting the repair parts isn't authorized by the system and parts/labor are $$.
So what I am saying is when the Command Car mission was replaced by a more efficient and available jeep, it was usually reassigned to carry heavier items at higher echelons, No more need for Commanders ride ?, then put a FULL radio set to talk further distances.

Bottom line it's efficiency, a heavier truck takes more fuel, heavier parts, etc.

I continually hear the 'story' about the Command Cars being a sniper magnet, but then we also hear how the 'jeep didn't have a hand crank' by another Veteran, so... statistically, what were the number of sniper shots taken at CC's? I personally think it's a gas and maintenance hog, so they were dumped for jeeps as soon as possible up front. My Father recalled parking his units WC63's and M59 personnel carriers in Vicenza Italy as they had not enough fuel allowance for them in the 50's, Dodges drink the stuff like an addict.

I personally installed a 60's era (surplus) VRC series base mount and 1780amp control box /speaker setup in my trunk so I could receive orders to roll via modern FM frequencies on a VRC 46 set. (The radio could receive on 12V, but not transmit.) This setup allowed me to tie in a cassette player for period music as well during pass and reviews we did on occasion.

Never say Never....somewhere there's bound to be a photo of a a guy with a manpack radio in a Command Car, but by design the Army would not have supported this as an approved method.
IMHO
V/R W Winget
Looking for 1918 Standard B 'Liberty' truck parts

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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by YLG80 » Mon Aug 22, 2022 5:37 am

Radtech wrote:
Sun Aug 21, 2022 10:44 am
Please tell me what foreign army created a vehicle mount for the BC 1000?Without the US Army and American radios all of Europe would still be speaking German today.Every country except Britain and Russia surendered to the Germans.BC1000 sets were made in France Italy and Japan under license from Motorola.1956-1963 in France and a few in Italy and only in 1952 in Japan around 100 by Nippon Electric Corp.
The question is not related to the great country, i.e the U.S.A, who definitely was the main liberator in Europe and in the Pacific.
Whatever Stalin said, USSR was also supplied by the U.S.A. for many equipment.
I have already mentioned in another post that, to me, the WWII US radio were by far superior to the others.

My remark was to remind that other armies had decided to use the scr-300 or AN/VRC3 embarked in jeeps, half-tracks or aircraft as shown here above.
I have here a nice BC-1000 mounting for helicopters and aircraft (DC-3) used by the French ALAT.
This is the aircraft mount for 28.5V power supply:

s-l16001.jpg

Not to mention the equivalent model used in Serbia, the Radista RUP1 or the British WS-31 declined from a BC-1000.
They could have been mounted in military vehicles by several foreign armies.

But I agree that most of the time the scr-300 was not attached to a WWII jeep.
In fact it's almost impossible to find a place to attach the FT-317 mount.
The ones I have seen in a jeep were attached like that (restored jeep):

jeep_adhoc_mount_passenger_side.jpg

That "ad hoc" mounting is not bad.
Yves
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Re: Setting up a BC1000 in a ww2 truck?

Post by Radtech » Mon Aug 22, 2022 7:00 am

Much of the US small arms and their ammunition sent to Russia was given to Mao directly from warehouses in Murmansk,Archangle and Vladivostok. Radios given to the USSR were American made WS-18&19 British sets.The Russian WWII veterans I have met in Russia told me about the great Studebaker trucks the Willys (in Russia that is what the MB and GPW are called)and the great American canned stew and corn beef hash.


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