Produced by different U.S. manufacturers.

As a successor to the famous first „walkie talkie“ BC-611 and the „NATO banana“ AN/PRC-6, the American manpack radio AN/PRC-8 - 10 was also introduced to the newly formed German armed forces in 1956.

Three different versions of the transceiver operating with subminiature tubes were developed for three frequency ranges.

• Principle: transceiver, IF 4300 kHz
• Operation modes: FM (F3)
• Frequency range: SW resp. VHF 20 - 20.7 MHz
• Frequency display: Analogue dial
• Frequency memory: none
• Signal strength indicator:
• Transmit power: 1 W
• Features:
• Sensitivity: AM (A3) / Selectivity: kHz (-6/-60 dB)

• Batteries: Combined battery BA-279 with four voltages, heater voltage 1.5 V, transmitter final tube heater 6 V, plate voltages 67.5 and 135 V.

• 265 x 77 x 470 mm, weight 8.4 kg (with antennas and battery 11.8 kg)

• Handset H-33*/PT
• Battery Case CY-744 for the BA-279 combi-battery
• Carrying straps ST-120
• Antennas AT-272 (steel band antenna, approx. 1 m) or AT-271 ()
• Accessory bag CW-21

The AN/PRC-8 - 10 backpack radio was manufactured in three different versions:

The battery box with the combined heater/plate battery is attached to the bottom of the receiver; one battery lasts for at least 20 hours. A vertical rod antenna AT-271 with a height of 3 m is available instead of the steel band antenna AT-272. The RC-292 ground plane can be connected to a BNC connector to be used as a long distance antenna; the radiating antenna and counterweights are made up of four to six elements depending on the frequency range; the antenna reaches a height of 12.5 m; with the ground plane antenna, the effective range is 19 km.

In the receiver part, the signal from the antenna first passes through two RF amplifier stages (1AD4,5678) and is converted to the intermediate frequency of 4.3 MHz in the mixer stage (5678) with the signal from the free-running oscillator (1AD4). Four IF amplifier stages (four 5678) are followed by the limiter stage (5678). The FM discriminator is made from two semiconductor diodes, the demodulated signal is fed to the AF amplifier (5672). The receiver can be calibrated with a 1 MHz calibration oscillator (5676), and a 4.3 MHz oscillator (5678) is connected to the IF output at the same time. The receiver is tuned to zero beat and the line of the frequency dial is mechanically adjusted to this scale position. A squelch (5678) blocks the receiver output if no RF signal is present.

On the transmitter side, the transmitter oscillator (working as a Hartley oscillator, 5A6) oscillates at the transmitter frequency; it is modulated directly by the AF signal of the microphone preamplifier (5676). The transmit frequency is determined by the (calibrated) receiver frequency, the transmitter frequency is adjusted to the setpoint by the automatic frequency control (AFR, tube 5672) at the output of the crystal-controlled mixer stage.

The set is equipped with miniature tubes.

* AN/PRC-8 on the website of www.radiomuseum.org