/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>Green radios/ww2 radios for shack...or not..worth it?

Depends what they are!

HF rigs are always a great buy.

I own a WWII BC348Q receiver, and a navigational receiver from the ARC-5 command set series.

What you'll find, is that the ARC-5 command sets were fairly popular after WWII as surplus. They're fairly cheap to pick up, but by now, they'll need some work. Usually mice damage, bloated electrolytics, and missing power supplies. Remaking a high-voltage power supply for the B+ is not a cheap task.

Most 30+ mhz military rigs are FM only. The downside though, is that hams use commercial FM deviation, so our older "wideband" stuff is about 15 khz. The newer radios have a switchable "narrowband" that compresses that down to about 5 or 10 khz of deviation.

Military FM radios are typically 25 khz+ deviation to allow for crypto.

While you CAN convert them, it typically is not a worthwhile venture.

British Clansman PRC-320 HF rigs are fairly popular right now due to their cheap price.

The American/NATO PRC-1099A HF rig is desirable, but it comes at a high cost.