SEM 52-S military handheld

Months ago, I've bought a german military handheld: a SEM 52-S. Specifications: see http://www.kpjung.de/e_sem52s.htm
Is an FM handheld with frequency coverage that includes 6 meters, 1 watt circa power out, very big and weighty, but so cool! 6 fixed channels programmable with internal contraves.




The radio is a SEM 52-S/FZ/46 and is not born as an handheld: is user on tanks with a mount, see http://www.greenradio.de/e_sem52sfz.htm, but is useable as handheld using a SEM 52-S battery pack (delivered with the transceiver).
I've also the antenna, a long (93 cm!!!) SEM 52A antenna, with fits perfectly in SEM 52S

• First Job: rebuid battery pack

The battery pack comes with a broken, unusable NiCd battery pack. The box is also very dirty and in bad conditions. I build a new battery pack using two docks for 4 AAA battery, and fit in 8x900 mAh NiMH AAA. The result is shown below:

• Second Job: arrange an alternative antenna

I have an original antenna, but is very long (93cm) and I want a smaller one for short-range contacts. I choose to modify a commercial item. I buoght an old 43 MHz whip antenna: 43 MHz is almost a dead band, and dealers are happy to sell one for a very discounted price. The antenna is a CTE model HP-FLEX/B.


The antenna is 54 cm long. Using the FT-817 as a tunig tool, I cut the antenna until a dip in SWR happens (I stop at 1.5:1). The antenna is now 36cm tall (from bottom of BNC connector to top of the whip. See the shorted antenna mounted on SEM 52-S


Next job: building a speaker-microphone (to do)