Tag Archives: Radios in Movies

Famous Collins Transceiver in Apocalypse Now

by Dan Robinson

We have seen so many great receivers and other equipment appear in movies, it’s surprising that this one may have slipped by our Radios in Movies radar.

In Apocalypse Now, the classic 1979 epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is briefed in a hotel room in Saigon about Colonel Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando), the renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane. The scene includes Harrison Ford (by the time the movie came he had become a big star with Star Wars) who tells Sheen that Kurtz is to be “terminated”.

But as we’re reminded in a post on the Collins Collectors Facebook page, a famous radio is sitting on a file cabinet in this scene — identified in the collector group as a KWM-2A.

It’s another reminder of how many great examples of amateur radio and other equipment have played roles in great movies!

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Radio spotted in “Le Salaire de la Peur/The Wages of Fear”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bruce Fisher, who writes:

Here’s a radio from the 1953 French film (whose English title is) “The Wages of Fear“. Can anyone identify it?

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Radio Sighting in “Let’s Get Harry”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Perry Lusk, who writes:

Guess what kids? Another radio sighting from the 1986 film Let’s Get
Harry! Lots of big names in this one including Mark Harmon, Robert
Duvall, Gary Busey, and former founding member of the Eagles Glenn Frey.

While on a covert rescue mission in Columbia, they found the bad guy’s
hideout with some old Yaesu equipment among other radios.

Hmmm… I wonder how far they could get out with that mag-mount
antenna? And what band is it tuned for?

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Paul spots an AOR AR-3000A in “20 Days in Mariupol”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

“20 Days in Mariupol” won this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary.
The movie is about the Russian siege to that city in the opening days
of the Ukraine invasion, as recounted by a filmmaker located there.

There is a segment of the movie about Russia’s use of propaganda to
demoralize the local population. The still photo shows an AOR AR-3000a
communications receiver playing a Russian broadcast, trying to
convince the city’s inhabitants that they cannot stop the invasion.

That radio was reviewed on The SWLing Post a few years ago:

A review of the AOR AR-3000A Wideband Receiver

The sad and grim movie is available for free viewing at PBS:

20 Days in Mariupol

The part showing the radio starts around the 35:16 mark.

Thank you for sharing this, Paul.

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Frans spots radios in The Royal Tenenbaums

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Frans Goddijn, who spotted the radio gear above in the The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Can you recognize this iconic brand? How about the receiver on the lower shelf?

Thanks for the tip, Frans!

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Perry spots a Zenith Transoceanic in “The Alligator People”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Perry Lusk (KG7YC), who writes:

I spotted this on an old “B” rated film:

Might be more fun to identify the movie than the Zenith Transoceanic we all know.

The answer is The Alligator People (1959). The man is diagnosed with a fatal medical problem and try’s getting an experimental procedure that involves alligator DNA and later turns into a, you guessed it, an alligator!

Wow! That sounds like a wild ride for the protagonist!

So we may all recognize a Transoceanic when we see one, but does anyone know the exact model? Feel free to comment!

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Dan spots an ICOM in the trailer for the new film “I.S.S.”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:

An ICOM transceiver features in the new movie I.S.S. A film from the space disaster genre about U.S. and Russian astronauts and cosmonauts on the space station when nuclear war breaks out down on Earth. See if you can ID the radio, which flashes by quite quickly in the trailer for the movie: