Czech RF-10 VHF FM Manpack Radio

The RF-10  is a military VHF FM manpack that was manufactured for the Czech army by the Tesla company in Pardubice in the early 1070’s .   It was intended to replace the obsolescent Russian R-105 and R-109 manpack radios that had previously been used by the Czech Army at company level.   It is much smaller and lighter than the radios it replaced and also compared favourably against the US army PRC-77 and PRC-25 radios used by NATO forces at the time. 

 

The RF-10 covers the frequency range of 44 to 53MHz in 25 KHz steps . The mode is FM and power output is about 1W.   Power is supplied by a battery box that contains 5 x 1.2v D-Cell nicads. 

The front panel has a multi-way connector for the handset (8) , a BNC connector for an external antenna (2)  and a socket for short and long whip antennas (1).

Operating frequency is entered using three frequency selectors, the first (3) covers 44 to 53 MHz in 1MHz steps,  the second (4) provides 100 KHz steps and the third (5) selects 00, 25, 50 or 75KHz.  This allows the band between 44 to 53 .975MHz to be covered in 25KHz steps.   Operating frequency is displayed in the windows above the frequency selectors (6) .  A red light (10) illuminates to provide a low battery warning.

A mode switch (9)  controls power on/off, squelch on/off and ‘whisper mode’ .

The icons on the mode switch are as follows –

Whisper mode allows the microphone gain to be increased so that the operator can communicate without having to raise their voice – useful for some military situations !

The front of the radio is printed with a set of simple operating instructions designed to allow non-technical operators to establish communications with minimal training. 

The RF-10 is supplied in a polystyrene packing box with a complete set of accessories  -

1 – Carrying case

2 – Battery case

3 – RF-10

4 – Battery

5 – Handset

6 – shipping case

7 – Long wire Antenna (30M)

8 – Long wire antenna (5M)

9 – counterpoise

10 – padlock

11 – long whip antenna (1.5M)

12 – short whip antenna (0.5M)

13,14 – straps

15 – spare fuse wire

16,17,18 – Manuals.

The manuals are in Czech and provide detailed operating instructions , including diagrams of how the set should be carried  -

The record book for this particular set indicated that it has been in use from 1984 until 1995.

 The set comes with an extensive set of antenna options – long ( 1.5m ) for up to 5Km range and short (0.5m )  whip antennas ,  a 5M vertical wire antenna for up to 10Km range  and a 30M long wire for up to 20Km range.

The instructions on the side of the set indicate how these should be deployed.

This particular set has been tested on the amateur 6M band both portable using the whip antennas and mobile using a ¼ wave mobile whip.  It proved to be very sensitive on 6m and allowed contacts of > 15km distance when mobile and > 20Km when portable from high ground.   As this is an eastern block set  it does not use the 150 Hz tone squelch common to NATO sets which makes it more suitable for amateur use .

This is an interesting collectors item and is still a very usable set on the amateur bands.   They occasionally turn up for sale on e-Bay for around €70 to €100 .