Greetings!
Soooo
ANOTHER reader sent me a ‘care package’. In this case I got me a Big Ole Cardboard Box, with a note: “BCE: Found this cleaning out my recently deceased Father-in-Laws house. He was a Marine radioman in The Nam. I have ZERO use for it, and I have no idea if it works. It’s ‘dead weight’ and I thought it would make a nice addition to your collection (or a good doorstop.)”
No signature, nor return addy.
My most humble thanks for the gift Fren.
It will have a good home here.
It was a heavy sumbitch. Turns out, it was a rather worn but in good shape for it’s age PRC-77!

Now the fascinating part is the front plate?
It’s a Brazilian Issue PRC-77.
The only thing I can think of is that his FIL was part of both the Nam, and the Marine’s intervention in the Dominican Republic back in 1964? Maybe his FIL took this as a souvenir? Brazil and the US had some ‘issues’ during that timeframe, and his FIL -might- have been in the D.R. prior to a tour in the Nam…
Either way, this thing is awesome.
Not sure if it works however. The battery case has/had this weird “D-Cell” made at home adapter, which as you can see, I have id’d the issues:

It takes like 10-12 D Cells…
Sheesh…
If I had to make and educated guess or even a WAG?
The Brazilian Army probably didn’t have either the access to, or ability to manufacture the standard ‘brick’ magnesium battery that the Prick 77 used:

Hell we don’t even make those things anymore… last run according to sources was back in 2008. That pic came from eBay, and they want $60 buxs for it!!! That’s going to be a hard pass thank you very much…
So, my guess is that since the Brazilians couldn’t source ‘traditional US DotMil Batteries’, someone put on the “thinking cap” and came up with a way to power this thing without the need for the standard US DotMil issue battery.
Overall, the thing is pretty beat on. No extreme damage outside of a freq knob being fucked up, and it missing like ALL of the rubber covers and fiddly bits. Turns out there is a ton of those out there for rather short $$$.
I’m going to do my best to see if I can repair it, and see if it works. If it does? Well, yeah sure it’s non-secure. Granted it’s ‘OldTech’.
HOWEVER it is MilSpec and I have a more-than-passing familiarity with the ole Prick 77. My reserve unit I was in after Gulf One used them almost exclusively. Adding on a manpack radio to the preps, never mind a Brazilian manpack?
I can only imagine using it as say a distraction for the OPFOR.
As in placing it in a good ambush spot… and turning it on, and leaving the mike button taped on ‘transmit’…
Even if to only distract the ‘bad guys’ with their RDFs (radio direction finders)… And when they do find it, man, the looks on their faces… “WTF are the fucking Brazilians doing supporting these guys!?!”
Sort of like my eating, washing then saving them Chinese PLA rations to be ‘left behind’ as a distraction. My reasoning for things like this is that well, the Intel Squirrels?
Stuff like that throws them for a loop… literally. If done properly you can completely ruin their day. It gets inside and completely fucks up their OODA loop. For those unfamiliar, the ‘OODA loop’ is “Observe, Orient, Decide and Act”

Now, that’s for banking/investment, but it still is absolutely applicable in a military scenario. By leaving behind a bunch of PLA (People’s Liberation Army) field ration wrappers, the Intel Squirrels, as is their nature, are going to run down every. single. possible. aspect of them before ultimately discarding the idea that the REDFOR has PLA support.
By having, oh say an Italian handheld VHF DotMil radio ‘dropped accidently/left behind’ they’re going to be scouring ALLLL sorts of intel (eBay and the like, never mind private sales, which since I got this thing, there’s a WHOLE HUGE Community of DotMil Radio enthusiasts) and thereby utilizing other resources to track down the ‘who-how-where-when-why’ of it all.
Krainian Rations right now, as well as Russian Rations would be great. Any anti-Leviathan Action could be credibly dropped on the doorstep of a vengeful Krainian, pissed off at the US for needlessly causing the slaughter/destruction of the Modern Day Krain or a SVR team of Russians, doing ‘sabotage’… thereby distracting the REDFOR (Leviathan if I didn’t make that clear) intel assets, as well as actual Hunter/Seeker Kill Teams.
Hell…
Talking tradecraft like this alone….
If I go to jail, I did not kill myself aight?
But yeah.
Things like that are the ‘sand being poured into in the intel gearbox’ as let me tell you… the Intel Squirrels? There’s some serious autism going on there. I personally dealt with them professionally for a number of years. And God help someone IF one of the ‘squirrels’ gets it in their heads that “Yes, those PLA rations means there must be a connection to the bad guys and being supported by the PLA”… well, from experience, it’s almost impossible to get them to ‘switch tracks’ so to speak.
They’ll ‘run that nut down’ until they hit a brick wall.
And even then they’ll still have misgivings that its a possible false track. That it’s still valid, and that they missed something.
In the meantime, you can keep fucking with them.
It’s a wonderful thing.
Call it “The BCE Intel Mobius Loop”
Once you set them on the track, it’s really fucking hard for them to alter course, OR even worse admit that they were wrong.
They’ll keep going, round and round and round and round and round and round and round ad infinitum
Hubris in the Intel World is a Pure Dee Motherfucker.
Them Intel Squirrels? Because the DotMil trained them and told them for years that they were/are the bestest, brightest, and smartest, they don’t have the ability to realize they might be wrong. I lost count of how many times I saw this…
Hubris like I said… anyways… your thoughts and suggestions always welcome.
So More Later
Big Country

Jes’ Sayin’