MICS Radio VHF Receiver VR35

Technical data

This VHF Receivers was designed and made in the 70's by the French MICS RADIO company under the VR-35 designation.

It is a truly artisanal construction material, certainly assembled by hand if one refers to the mechanical design requiring far too many interventions. This will change with the SM-40 model.

Little information exists on this rather rare equipment except for a few cases of use by military services such as the MMFL (French Military Liaison Mission) in East Germany. A photo on the association's website confirms its use to listen to the followers in Stasi vehicles.

However, questioned on this subject, the daughter of the founder (Christiane F5SM)told me that she had never sold or worked with the French Army.
The receiver used by the MMFL may have been purchased off a public procurement or from a dealer, Beric in particular.
The frequency range and the bandwidth allowed the listening of radio-telephones, aviation and navy.

It covers four HF/VHF bands with AM/FM demodulation:
- 31-41MHz
- 67-88MHz
- 106-140MHz
- 140-175MHz

VR-35 uses a dedicated varactor tuned HF head / oscillator for each band with:
- a two 2N918 stage for the two low bands,
- a one BF363 stage for the medium band,
- a BF363/BF460 stage for the highest band.

The FI stage uses BF173, BF167 and BC238.
The AM/FM emodulation is done through a TAA661B.

Pictures

VR-35 in use in the MMFL
Image taken from the AAMMFL Secrets de la guerre froide site

Front Face
Rear Face
Inside view

First revision: 2022/09/04