I always wanted some of these when I was a kid, but I could never afford them. When I discovered their link to Motorola I had a good reason to get one, well two actually!

The Galvin Handie-Talkie made it's debut in 1940. Designed for the U.S. Signal Corps, it was the world's first hand-held radio transceiver. It is a five valve, single channel, crystal-controlled, AM transceiver, operating in the HF band from 3-6MHz.

The US Signal Corps designated the Handie-Talkie as the SCR-536 (i.e. Set, Complete, Radio 536). This number referred to the complete installation i.e. the radio itself, designated BC-611 (Basic Component 611), plus the associated batteries, coils and crystals.

It's success was due to it's simplicity of operation: Simply extend the aerial, which switches the unit on, and press the large button on the side to transmit. This simplicity meant it was widely deployed in infantry units, recon units and for directing artillery fire. Little training was necessary to use it, and it was often the first radio into action in an operation. It soon became a World War Two icon and was featured in many films.

Despite it's widespread use the SCR-536 had it's problems: Range was one mile (less in poor terrain), although it could be more in good conditions (e.g. accross water). It has been said that one could often shout further than an SCR-536! The aerial was prone to break (imagine walking round with a four foot aerial attached to your mobile phone - very difficult to avoid hitting your surroundings with it...) In the jungle the life expectancy of the SCR-536 was little more than one month (and that was for the specially tropicalised version) before corrosion killed it.

They would often be used in "nets" (groups of transceivers on the same frequency). They could communicate with other types of transciever (e.g. SCR-694 a backpack or vehicle mounted higher powered radio). They were used in Korea and by French forces for even longer, before being replaced by FM transcievers.

For more information on the general history of Motorola see the Motorola Timeline.

This is one of my Handie-Talkies. There were six variants; A to F. Mine are both F models, manufactured by the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1945.

An option introduced on the F models (it could be retro-fitted to earlier sets) was a replacement battery cover containing sockets for optional headset and throat microphone. This option adds about one inch to the length of the radio.

Here is a close-up of the data plate on one of the radios. As you can see it is manufactured by the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation of Chicago. Many other companies made these radios for the U.S. Signal Corps to Galvin's design.

This radio is crystalled to 3885KC which was (I believe) the standard frequency.

This is a Signal Corps BX-49 crystal set. Specifically for use with the BC-611, it contains 12 sets of transmit and receive crystals along with the corresponding tank and antenna coils. There are also 12 further holes to hold spare valves (tubes).

In the foreground is a boxed spare valve for the BC-611. The radio uses VT-171, VT-172, VT-173 and VT-174 tubes.

This is TM-11-235 - the operators manual for the BC-611. It is an extensive document which details all variants of the radio and describes the set-up procedure.

There are (at least) two versions of TM-11-235. The later (1945) version is expanded and includes additional information over the 1943 version. Army Air Force manual 08-10-136 of 1942 also deals with the BC-611.

This is the first page of TM-11-235 which describes possible methods of destroying the radio and associated equipment should capture by the enemy be certain.

These radios are now highly collectable and consequently difficult to find. They are de rigueur if you are into WWII battle re-enactment, military vehicles or military radios. So if you want one get ready to look hard and dig deep! And prepare to look even harder if you have got to have a Galvin version!

This is a BC-611 chassis - a very impressive shoe horn operation to fit all that valve circuitry into such a tiny space. Most of the space in the case was taken up by the batteries! The original 103.5V high tension batteries are no longer available for these radios, but Army Radio Sales sell a small inverter module which allows you to power the BC-611 with four modern 1.5V D-cells.

I was told this padded bag is a "drop case" for a BC-611. However the 1945 version of the manual suggests this was actually for use with the homing device which was a later accessory. It seems this was also the reason for the release of the alternative battery cover mentioned earlier.

This is a Shure Brothers T-30 throat microphone which could be used along with an HS-30 headset on the F type sets with the alternative battery cover.

BC-611 cartoon from the manual.