A short overview of South African Radio companies:

In essence South Africa had 2 companies that manufactured these "green" radios. Historically they are known as Grinel and Barcom.
For the description I will refer to Grinel as " A "; and to Barcom as " B "

To start, company "A" (Grinel) in its peak day has had all of the following names during its history and manufactured predominantly HF radios; Although they also made 2 types of VHF radios, 1 UHF radio and 1 combined VHF/UHF radio

SMD Racal SMD Grinel (Grinaker Electronics) Grintek Grintek Communications Grintek Communications Systems SAAB Grintek Communications SAAB Systems Grintek

Circa 1960 - 1975 Circa 1975 - 1985 Circa 1985 - 1994 Circa 1995 - 2000 Circa 2001 - 2002 Circa 2002 - 2005 Circa 2006 - 2009 Circa 2010 - 2012

After that the green radio division of the above company was bought out by company "B" (Barcom); as shown below:

Fuchs Barlows Communications BARCOM Reutech Defence Industries (RDI) RDI Communications Reutech Communications

Circa 1968 - 1975 Circa 1975 - 1984 Circa 1984 - 1995 Circa 1995 - 2003 Circa 2003 - 2008 Circa 2008 - present

Reutech's traditional stronghold was the VHF and UHF radio sector.

Both Companies had about 1500 employees in its peak years which was during the years of 1988-1992.
Currently there is only 1 company left in South Africa, Reutech Communications.

Some of the other radio's manufactured by Grinel/Grintek are:
TR400 (UHF radio)
TR600 (combined V/UHF radio)
TR6000 (more modern VHF radio)
TR178A (predecessor of TR178B - no LCD, plenty of rotary switches)
TR2400 (more modern HF radio - replaced the TR178B - still in active production)
TR2600 (19" fixed rack installation HF radio)
TR2800 (Airborne HF radio - in production) and
TR2000 (another HF Man portable radio - still in active production [ close window ]