This website also partially describes some telecommunications devices that were in use in this region during World War II and were later retained as war trophies in the Yugoslav Army. Also described are some foreign communication devices received as military aid or purchased on the market for the needs of JNA and Territorial Defense signal units.

The website primarily covers portable and mobile radio devices, but we have also dedicated a section to mobile radio relay and telephone-telegraph devices, as together they formed the mobile military telecommunications system.

The period covered here can be roughly divided into two phases. The first, up to 1960, saw the Yugoslav Army equipped almost entirely with captured World War II communications equipment, or devices received as generous aid from the United States. Since 1948, Yugoslavia had been in confrontation with the Soviet Union following the famous Cominform Resolution of 1948, and was glad to accept this military aid. At that time, negotiations were even held between NATO and Yugoslavia regarding its possible membership in the Western military alliance. The Yugoslav Army was then equipped with standard NATO military equipment and armaments. After the "reconciliation" with the Soviet Union, the Yugoslav People's Army imported some communications equipment from the USSR (medium and high-power radio-teleprinter systems, and Russian tank radio devices came along with armored vehicles). Domestic production of simpler communications equipment also began in local factories: Morse telegraph keys, field induction telephone PTI-49, telephone exchange MP-10, field telephone cables, etc.

From 1960 onwards, in line with the concept of "general people's defense" and reliance on domestic capabilities, the local defense industry was engaged for the production of armaments and military equipment. The majority of the communication devices presented here were created during this period. Most were entirely domestic products, and even the components were manufactured in Yugoslavia (vacuum tubes, semiconductors, crystals and crystal filters, capacitors, resistors, etc.). Defense industry factories not only equipped their own armed forces but also exported these devices worldwide. Some devices during this period were produced under license or imported, but repairs and overhauls were carried out in domestic workshops and facilities.

This is a non-profit website created out of a desire to preserve this heritage from being forgotten. On this site, former soldiers, professional military personnel, police officers, or individuals who in any capacity served as signals operators in JNA signal corps units, the police and other services, as well as engineers and workers of the defense industry, can reminisce about the devices they worked on, designed, manufactured and maintained. Radio amateurs, collectors and all others interested in military technology can find plenty of material here to learn more about military telecommunications devices produced in the factories of the former Yugoslavia.

We ask for your forgiveness for any errors in presenting the data, as most of it was done from memory and information received from friends and colleagues. We thank you in advance for your corrections. Write to us:

Radista web team: Zoran Đorđević - Đole and Branislav P. Davidović - Brana.