German Radios Used by Iraqis

There is a debate as to whether or not any of the quantities of the German SEM-52A found in the U.S. today were in fact brought here by returning GI's from Desert Storm. This confusion was compounded by the fact that a couple thousand of these radios were sold as surplus by the U.S. Government around the time of Desert Storm.

Speculation on the later was supported by the fact that many of these examples retained painted markings in German indicating a possible NATO origin. While the original source for these radios is still a subject for debate, we now have some evidence to support the use of at least some SEM-52's by the Iraqi's.

In early 1999 one of our members toured Europe visiting all the various museums and military surplus stores. While there, prompted by the overwhelming need for schematics, and miscellaneous accessories for these radios by numerous U.S. collectors, he also visited the parent company of the SEM-52, SEL, (Standard Elektrik, Stuttgart Germany), now Atelco. In his words the following transpired:

I made contact with a lady in the contracts department. She pretty much read me the riot act, said she knew that several SEM-52As had landed in the USA but that they had been stolen in Kuwait during the gulf war and that SEL was pursuing the alleged "thief" and would file charges and have him jailed, in other words, the units are "hot" and stay out of it and you can not get any documentation because these units were made for a foreign government and thus proprietary.

So, it would seem that there is now some additional evidence supporting my original contention that at least some of those SEM-52's floating around came from Desert Storm.

SEM-52A With Accessories	SEM-52A Built by Standard Elektrik in Stuttgart Germany (SEL), the SEM-52A is a design of early 70's technology, and it is a very tough and simple radio of high quality construction. Configured much the same way as the BCC-349 for carry, operation and physical layout, but is much smaller and lighter. As with most equipment of German origin, the quality of this radio is excellent, the only failing that can be observed is also common with ALL equipment of European origin. This is the substandard synthetic materials used in the sets accessories, i.e. fragile plastics used in the construction of audio accessories, the elastic used in straps for harnessing and audio accessories is very poor, canvas used for harnesses and bags is very thin and of poor quality, and the vynal used in the construction of the carry case is very stiff and brittle usually having badly frayed edges. Though this radio was used by it's parent counties defence forces, it too was obsolete in the early 80's and replaced by an almost identical, but much more advanced synthesised design. Janes 1979/80 does not list the SEM-52(A), it does list the SEM-52, and other letter designations including N, and E. We can surmise that this letter designation is used to identify the frequency range this radio will cover, in much the same way as the Canadian and Dutch CPRC-26. It is known that the "E" suffix is associated with a cheaper variant, the "N" is high frequency split, and the "S" is the later model synthesised version. The SEM-52A is a crystal control, six channel radio that can be set up for operation on any six frequencies between 47 and 57mc. Though other frequency splits of 39-80 were also built, only the 47-57mc version has been encountered. The RF power output is rated at 300mw from a 6-9.9VDC power supply. Several different battery types are known to have been available for this radio, but the most common is that which utilised discreet "AA" cells. It uses a vinyl covered tape antenna that is similar in length and construction to US variations, but a BNC compatible antenna connection suggests that other antenna types could have been used. One last accessory worthy of comment is that the headset supplied with the radio is most unpopular with both it's original and current users. Though it is known that an optional handset was available, none have ever been found. The pair of SEM-52A's in my collection were acquired by me early in 1995, and were reported to have been removed from an Iraqi / Russian tank. In mid 1996, the US government sold via sealed bid over 1100 of these sets in a single sale but in separate lots. It is unknown where these examples came from, other than all these example show signs of German use and storage. Currently Fair Radio Sales has quantities of them for sale. An east coast dealer has advertised a couple of these radios for sale, and professes them to be NATO surplus, but as this dealers promotional rhetoric is normally false, this claim is highly suspect. It is however of the utmost interest to the authors to find out where this large stock of radios came from that the US government auctioned off, and what their intended purpose was.
SEM-52A
SEM-52A
SEM-52A Battery Compartment

E-6862 (SE-6862)
The second radio of German origin to appear is the curious SE-6862 (actually marked E-6862). Unlike the SEM-52, with this radio we have several details that prove it's Desert Storm connection. Aside the fact that this radio's colour is desert tan, and all it's panel markings are in Arabic, we have the testimony of the soldier who personally captured it. The particular radio in my collection was captured by elements of the 5th Special Forces Group in a command bunker south of Kuwait city just prior to the liberation of the city.

I said 'curious' radio because this set is basically a modified SE-6861 backpack HF/SSB transceiver built by AEG-Telefunken since 1978. The modification is simply the elimination of several of it's internal modules to allow receive only operation. As captured, it was contained in a combination power supply/audio amp, mobile/shock mount, being operated from 12 volt vehicle batteries. The antenna in use was a short tape type, the same as that used on the SEM-35 VHF backpack transceiver (same as that used on the U.S. PRC-25 & PRC-77 but for the connector type).

The SE-6862 is not a radio typical of those found in Iraqi hands. Though it had been in production for a number of years, it was not a cheap set, nor of an extremely outdated design.

SE-6862 Features:
* CMOS Technology in it's circuits.
* High impact plastics in it's cabinet construction.
* Automatic antenna matching.
* 5 Channel front panel programmable memory.
* 1.5-30mc Operation in 100cps steps.
* USB, LSB, AM, CW modes.
* Size 80.5mmH x 285mmW x 296.5mmD, 8.3kg.

We now have two radios of German origin with sufficient evidence to show that they came from Desert Storm. When combined with the above circumstantial evidence, and the proximity to Kuwait city that this equipment was captured by Allied troops. And when we consider the very large quantities of like materials that have been reported numerous times stockpiled in the same general area. Can we yet conclude that these radios were in fact not originally the property of Iraq but captured by them from Kuwaiti forces, and then re-utilised.

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