Clansman PRC-344

The British military Clansman PRC-344 UHF Man-pack Transceiver. Made in the late 70’s by Siemens Plessey Defense Systems in Christchurch, England and was used by the British Army and the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps. The British Army decommissioned the last Clansman PRC-344 in 2008, replacing it with the Bowman communication system.

The PRC344 is a lightweight UHF/AM radio station. It is interoperable with the PTR1751 airborne transmitter/receiver and the PVS1760 and PVS1730 series of shipborne and ground multi-channel equipments.

It is suitable both for ground-to-air links between combat troops and their supporting ground-attack aircraft and for control communications for emergency airfields and helicopter landing pads. It can also be used in small naval craft for the control of marine corps assault troops and naval landing parties. The PRC344 is an AM transmitter/receiver operating in the 225 to 399.95 MHz band with 50 kHz spacing, giving a choice of 3500 synthesised speech channels. Remote-control facilities operable up to 3 km are incorporated; rebroadcast and homing beacon facilities are also provided.

The transmitter output of 2.5 W with the battle or elevated omnidirectional antenna gives an operational range of greater than 160 km for ground-to-aircraft working at an altitude of 9000 m and 16 km for ground-to-ground (line-of-sight) working. Operation involves channel selection by three decade rotary switches with two further controls for mode selection and volume level. The frequency indicator can be illuminated by switched dial light.

As a manpack, the radio is operated from rechargeable Ni/Cd batteries of 1 or 3.3 Ah capacity. Alternatively the radio can be powered by the hand generator system which includes a 1 Ah rechargeable Ni/Cd battery.

With its manpack carrier and battery the PRC344 can be used as a clip-in vehicle installation. A vehicle-mounted discone antenna is used and the battery is float-charged by a DC charging unit from the vehicle supply.

The radio can also be used as a ground station feeding the elevated discone antenna. The PRC344 uses the standard range of ancillaries