The Soviet R-123M Low Band FM Tank Radio
Channel: g0ozs
Date: 30/05/2020

This video describes the specification, controls and use of the R-123M "Magnolia" (Р-123 «Магнолия») VHF FM mobile transceiver and includes some 10M FM off-air recordings made during good propagation today. This video was somewhat unplanned taking advantage of these conditions so is mostly handheld phone camera footage - apologies if not up to usual standards !

Hopefully this will be useful for anyone thinking of buying or figuring out how to use one of these radios.

Because they were so common for so many years there is even a US Army Technical Manual - the English Language text is at https://military.trcvr.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/R-123M_User_Manual_English.pdf 

My radio came from Poland (thanks to E-Bay seller "Mediaevalarcher") and worked well out of the box - all I've ever had to fix was one tuning dial bulb. I normally use the radio with a full size J-Pole antenna and if you listen to the end you will hear stations from as far apart as Poland and Spain received 5/9.

I hope you enjoy the video 

73 de G0OZS