AN/PRC-77 Portable Transceiver

AN/PRC 77 Radio Set is a manpack, portable VHF FM combat-net radio transceiver manufactured by Associated Industries and used to provide short-range, two-way radiotelephone voice communication. In the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), AN/PRC translates to "Army/Navy, Portable, Radio, Communication."

History
The AN/PRC 77 entered service in 1968 during the Vietnam War as an upgrade to the earlier AN/PRC 25. It differs from its predecessor mainly in that its final power amplifier stage is made up of solid state components and does not use vacuum tubes. The AN/PRC-77 can use voice encryption devices which the AN/PRC-25 cannot. Today the AN/PRC-77 has largely been replaced by SINCGARS radios, but it is still capable of inter-operating with most VHF FM radios used by U.S. and allied ground forces. It is commonly nicknamed the "prick-77" by the U. S. Army and U. S. Marine Corps

Technical characteristics
The AN/PRC 77 consists of the RT-841 transceiver and minor components. It can provide secure voice (X-mode) transmission with the TSEC/KY-57 voice encryption device, but is not compatible with the SINCGARS frequency hopping mode.

Users
The AN/PRC-77 set is used by the Australian Army Cadets and the Australian Air Force Cadets. The Australian Army is phasing out the AN/PRC-77, which is being superseded by the RAVEN series. Because of a shortage of the Raven sets due to the extensive overseas commitments, the Australian Army still has AN/PRC-77 sets in service. Eventually, both the AN/PRC-77 and RAVEN will be completely replaced by the Thales MBITR in active service.

The AN/PRC-77 has been replaced, as a main source of radio communication for regular forces of the Norwegian Army by indigenously developed radio sets called MRR (Multi Role Radio) and LFR (Lett Flerbruks Radio) (Norwegian for Light Multi Role Radio), and a number of other modern radios. However the Norwegian Army did not throw these radio sets away. Instead many of them were handed over to the Home Guard which now uses it as their main radio in most of their troops.

The Austrian Army still uses the AN/PRC-77, though it seems as if it is only used for training cadets in radio communications. For border patrol the Austrian Army now uses a new device called "TFF-41", which is capable of frequency-hopping and digital encryption. The Austrian Army also uses the AN/PRC-1177 for example the Austrian AN/PRC-77 have a special switch for a 25 kHz mode, which reduces the bandwidth of the selected channel by 25 kHz and therefore doubles the number of available channels.

In the Swedish Army the radio system goes under the name Radio 145 and Radio 146 (Ra145/146), predominantly the Homeguard (National Guard) is issued the Ra145/146.

The Swiss Army used the radio as SE-227.

Canada too

The Pakistani Army has also used the set for the past 25+ years. Purchased from different sources including the US, Brazil and Spain, it is scheduled to be replaced in the next 5 years.

The Finnish army uses this radio as a "battalion radio", using it as a common training device. The radio is designated LV 217 'Ventti-seiska' ("ventti" being the Finnish for 21).

The Bangladesh Army use this radio as a section level communication equipment.In Chittagong Hill Tracts area the operations are still conducted with this radio.Some modified/improvised local antenna concepts often increase the communication range up to 15–20 km.