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After longing for one for a long time, I have today thanks to Alan C on the BVWS forum, acquired not just one Pye PF8 radio, in its original polystyrene packaging and including a pair of seemingly good NiCd's, but TWO! The second missing its baseplate and knob, and with one dicky PTT switch, but seemingly otherwise complete.

For those who dont recognise it, this is a Pye PF8 Pocketfone single channel UHF FM handheld transceiver, a revolutionary product in the early 1970s, and an iconic item, since its use by Mssrs Bodie and Doyle in the popular TV series The Professionals. Julie wouldnt let me acquire the other two iconic items from that series - namely the Ford Capri, or the L1A1 SLR service rifle!

The second radio will serve as a donor for spare parts. All I need now is a service manual! Since both radios still have their original channel crystals, and the ID plate is engraved with the Tx and Rx frequencies, and knowing they have a 10.7MHz IF (as confirmed by the IF oscillator crystal), it was little effort to deduce the oscillator multiplication factors needed to work out new crystal frequencies (x3 x3 for each)

A quick test has failed to get the set working, but a multimeter check seems to show that the battery isnt making contact. This is probably just due to the tarnishing of the positive contact, but might be down to physical positioning or size of the contacts. I'll power the radio directly with 2.4v clipped to the terminals to see. Hopefully the inverter circuits are sound.