Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

World War 2, SRC536 Walkie Talkie, WX9450 MAIN, 2/28 Battalion,1944

Subcollections
Communications Gallery - Centenary of Royal Australian Corps of Signals
Overview

The SCR-536 was a hand-held radio transceiver used by the US Army Signal Corps in World War II. It is popularly referred to as a walkie talkie, although it was originally designated a "handie talkie"

Historical information

The SCR-536 is often considered the first of modern hand-held, self-contained, "handie talkie" transceivers (two-way radios). It was developed in 1940 by a team led by Don Mitchell, chief engineer for Galvin Manufacturing (now Motorola Solutions) and was the first true hand-held unit to see widespread use. By July 1941, it was in mass production By war’s end, 130,000 of the units had been manufactured by Motorola. The SCR-536 incocorporating the BC-611 transceiver was first seen by Australians during the New Guinea campaign.

Details

Details

Registration number
cwa-org-32-54-629
Inscriptions and markings

The SCR-536 incorporated five vacuum tubes in a waterproof case. There was no external power switch on the SCR-536. The operator pulled out or pushed in the antenna on the top which operated an internal switch to turn the radio on or off. The power was supplied by a BA-37 1.5 volt dry battery for the filament supply and a 103.5 V BA-38 battery for plate supply. Battery life was about one day of normal use.
The SCR-536 weighed 2.3 kg with batteries and 1.75 kg without batteries. The unit operated in AM voice mode between 3.5 and 6.0 MHz frequency range on any one of 50 channels. Plug in crystals and coils were used to control the frequency of the receiver and transmitter. The antenna was a 40 inch (102 cm) telescoping rod that slid into the case. The SCR-536 had an RF output power of 360 milliwatts. The range of the unit varied with terrain; from about a hundred metres), to approximately 1.5 km .

Contextual Information

This object is in the Communications Gallery commissioned by the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia as part of the Centenary commemorations of the Royal Australian Corp of Signals. Communication devices used by the Australian Army also are presented in their operational context throughout the Museum.

Links to additional resources
Service Records - Main
24 Infantry Brigade, 2nd AIF
Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

Organisation Details
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W-T
North of Cairns, Queensland, 24 August 1944, WX9450 Sergeant Thomas Duguid Main operating a walkie-talkie radio, watched by one of the umpires, during the 24th Infantry Brigade invasion exercise.
Walkie talkie
WT2
WT 3

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