Clansman Radio

Recently took the plunge for a Clansman PRC 320, have the instructions etc and it works fine, just wonder if anyone had experience with them during there service ? also what was there best antenna set up?

I'm not a radio ham (yet) but intend to get the licence, Military radio was on the cards for some time, but there not as cheap as they were when first released, Had more incentive when I returned from Normandy after watching a gent in the back of his vehicle with an array of Military radio, chilling with a few beers.

The beer bit I do anyway, but just the radio was missing.......

Geez.......from the title I thought it was about a radio to call your bother clansmen! Or a KKK radio station!

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Originally Posted by jonnyc

Geez.......from the title I thought it was about a radio to call your bother clansmen! Or a KKK radio station!

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I guess the title would raise an eyebrow in certain parts of the world, never thought about it until you mentioned it.

Mostly used them in FFR (Fitted for Radio) Landrovers, as the 320 is HF. Most section/portable radios were VHF, particularly the 349/352 and 353 .

I presume you know PRC stands for Pack Radio Clansman

Always pretty reliable and the whisper mode was incredibly effective.

Thanks Roy, I,ve only used the Bowman as secton radio etc, the clansman is new to me but Read a whole lot about them, in fact have a 321 inbound and a (TURF) for it, intend to use as a base station.
You would of used one of these in the back of a Landie ?

Probably, time and numbers begin to merge in the brain. The Landies were always fitted with a couple of big square radios, and then the portable ones bolted to the bulkhead.

On this side of the pond PRC meant "Portable Radio Communications".

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Originally Posted by jonnyc

Geez.......from the title I thought it was about a radio to call your bother clansmen! Or a KKK radio station!

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LOL ..... I thought these exact same thing.

As I recall, you had to match the wavelength to the number of antenna sections, using the plate on the back.

As it was an HF set, it was possible to broadcast over BBC etc. wavelengths so you had to be careful to avoid that.

I like the various power packs used on the small sets. 12v with 4 AA 1.5's, a rechargeable 12v self contained pack - but easy to forget it's on charge and knacker it or another pack with wires that you could just jump onto the vehicle battery. I think that there were some 'bleeps' (as we called the signals blokes) in Malaya and Vietnam testing these 'new' radios in tropical conditions. They weren';t called clansman then as I recall but didn't really take much notice of them. The bleeps always seemed to inhabit another planet. We used to wonder whether they could even tune in to the Home Service!. The little Clansmans were still in use up to when I was in, up to 2012 alongside Bowman

Geoff,
PM'd you, but both the 320 and the FFR 321 were excellent sets and simple to use compared to the A41 old sets. Far greater range and a MUST if you are a HAM radi enthusiast.
I think MOD made a big mistake putting these out to civvy purchase, but heyho it will be like the SA80 they'll be hunting people down one day who own one of these two sets they are that good.
Batteries with everything Military always take a back seat but some thought as Peter alluded to, was made when they designed these.;)

Thanks Gil, PM received, one good thing about the clansman range is the 24v battery, was standard for all the Portable radios, as I've got a 351 inbound too, I got 5 new batteries on ebay for next to nothing.

The 320,321 have dried up regarding surplus ones, as they were as you say popular with the Ham Radio due to the frequency 1.8 -30 Mhz and also the Land Rover FFR guys wanting to fit them out, plenty still about about but the average for a 320 when first on the market was around £60 and the 321 around £100 compared to now 320 = £200 -£400 and 321= £400 +

Some still about with surplus dealers who don't have the testing facility (were I got the 321 from ) but are sold untested.

Plenty of the 351's about etc due to the higher frequency 30-70 Mhz, if anyone is confused by the numbers etc then the lin below explains what was what, the Guy was ex REME.

Clansman Radios

Brilliant radios especially if you collect the whole series including the masts. Sent on an enforced Sigs Course to Hull once. I thought I had been rubber dicked as an NCO but I have to say it was the most interesting course and hard, theoretically I have ever done. Got back to the Battalion and posted straight to Intelligence ready for NI ha ha!! What a waste but we took every set apart and made sure we ALWAYS got maximum range by the techniques shown us, and it did come in handy in some parts of the border region of NI especially when you needed a chopper fast.
Shame they weren't around for Arnhem in the day :lol: