"Eisboch" wrote in
:

Meanwhile, they couldn't use the secure HF TTY, so they rousted the
old seasoned Radioman Chief out of his rack and he had to set up and
send encrypted CW for about 4 hours. It took him at least an hour just
to raise somebody. I was dragged out of my rack because nobody could
figure out how to set the transmitter up for CW. (I figured it out,
but it was the first and last time I ever had to do that).



USS Everglades (AD-24). Radio Two had two TBK, One TBL, 4 TCS, two AM
plate modulators for the TBKs, all running off racks of motor-generator
sets in the back compartment from old Ship's 110VDC power off the DC
steam generator that powered the winches and booms.

If I keyed both TBKs at full power, I could load the M-G sets enough to
actually drop our head pressure...(c;

You boys need CW or AM to shore on MF or HF, just let me know what freq.
After she's tuned up, it's best to keep your bare hands away from the
shrouds on the mast. Don't wanna see anybody get burned....(c; On some
freqs, they'd turn the air blue around the longwires at night in the wet.

Rock and Roll radio in Charleston was WTMA on 1250 Khz. My fav test freq
used to be 1253, which made a nice hi-pitched note on any radios on deck.

Antennas were long wires between the king post crossarms with a vertical
component down to big brown ceramic feedthroughs into Radio Two, aft
superstructure. Inside the transmitter shack, RF ran in a box trunk on
3/4" copper tubing, unbalanced to the antenna tuner atop the TBx
transmitters. On 4 Mhz, I could easily pin the antenna current meters
and had great reports from hams and Charleston Test Control on 2150 Khz,
even from half way to the Med.

Many times the old girls with the bright filaments had good signals
ashore when the new Collins AN/URC-32s sending 500W to their 35' whips
could barely be heard ashore or afloat. We had one FSK unit, I don't
remember the model, that would give one of the 3 big transmitters FSK
capability, fed by the crypto machines in Radio Central, KWR-7 and 37s.

BM deck techs were terrified of them after one BMSN took the grounding
strap off a turnbuckle to clog it with paint and got his hands burned.
They'd always call me, after that, to coordinate when they would be
properly secured with a working aloft chit.

After the transmitters were trashed by our pencil pusher RM teletype
operators, causing these old manually tuned transmitters grief, I made a
deal with the comm officer. I took over Radio 2 and had the ONLY key.
If he needed a freq I wasn't already up on during the night, they got me
out of my rack to retune in minutes.....instead of having to rebuild the
amps and clean out the melted tube parts for hours when his geniuses
changed freq and tuned some stage on the wrong multiplier setting....
(sigh)

Thanks for the memories.
Butler ET1 - (call us Glitter Delta)

"Larry" wrote in message
...

"Eisboch" wrote in
:

Meanwhile, they couldn't use the secure HF TTY, so they rousted the
old seasoned Radioman Chief out of his rack and he had to set up and
send encrypted CW for about 4 hours. It took him at least an hour just
to raise somebody. I was dragged out of my rack because nobody could
figure out how to set the transmitter up for CW. (I figured it out,
but it was the first and last time I ever had to do that).



USS Everglades (AD-24). Radio Two had two TBK, One TBL, 4 TCS, two AM
plate modulators for the TBKs, all running off racks of motor-generator
sets in the back compartment from old Ship's 110VDC power off the DC
steam generator that powered the winches and booms.


Thanks for the memories.
Butler ET1 - (call us Glitter Delta)


I've long forgotten the transmitter types we had, but I think they were
similar to the ones you describe. I think the two older were 1kw versions
(exciter and intermediate power amp) of a shore based, 10kw AN/FRT-39
transmitter .... or something like that. It was a two rack monster standing
about 5-6 feet tall and mounted on rubber feet that allowed it to sway all
over the place. I forget now ... peak the grid and dip the plate? Or was
it the other way around? We also had a couple of more "modern" automatic
tuning transmitters but I can't remember what they were .... UCC-1?

Radio one and two? Ha. Our transmitter shop was about 8 feet wide by 14
feet long. Radio Central was one deck above and was about the same size.
Then there was an ancient emergency transmitter installed somewhere in the
stern that nobody paid any attention to. I was one of the few ET's in the
Navy that also had a Mod 28 teletype repair job code, so I was kept busy.
That job code was usually held by the RMs.
I was in from 1968 until 1977 and went through the warrant selection
program. Almost was forced to made it a career by continuing to accept
school opportunities, but thankfully bailed out when I had the chance.

Eisboch

"Eisboch" wrote in
:

I've long forgotten the transmitter types we had, but I think they
were similar to the ones you describe. I think the two older were 1kw
versions (exciter and intermediate power amp) of a shore based, 10kw
AN/FRT-39 transmitter .... or something like that. It was a two rack
monster standing about 5-6 feet tall and mounted on rubber feet that
allowed it to sway all over the place. I forget now ... peak the grid
and dip the plate? Or was it the other way around? We also had a
couple of more "modern" automatic tuning transmitters but I can't
remember what they were .... UCC-1?

The FRT's were much later. TB series transmitters were WW2! peak
grid/dip plate, load plate then redip because the load detuned
everything. The antenna coupling capacitor on a TBK was two cast
aluminum round pieces that screwed in and out from each other with round
plates that meshed, but didn't touch of course. St Elmo's fire would
cause them to flashover, some times...(c;

I fixed "a few" UCC-1s in my day....yecch. I also worked on the
transmitter/receivers after the TB/RB series, the SRT/SRA series. I was
involved with some of the best (and most profitable) field changes that
came from benny suggs George Raines, an MIT engineer classmate of mine
who refused a commission, and I generated while in "A" school's
accelerated program. George couldn't open a tech manual without pointing
out some stupid error or better way of designing some circuit. He did
the engineering, then I'd build it in the school's shop to submit in our
detailed report with our benny sug...(c;


Radio one and two? Ha. Our transmitter shop was about 8 feet wide by
14 feet long. Radio Central was one deck above and was about the same
size. Then there was an ancient emergency transmitter installed
somewhere in the stern that nobody paid any attention to. I was one
of the few ET's in the Navy that also had a Mod 28 teletype repair job
code, so I was kept busy. That job code was usually held by the RMs.
I was in from 1968 until 1977 and went through the warrant selection
program. Almost was forced to made it a career by continuing to accept
school opportunities, but thankfully bailed out when I had the chance.

Everglades, a destroyer tender, was quite large. We were just a portable
shipyard. We even had an electric foundery and could make about anything
any machine part could need. Our electric shop had a full motor rewind
shop. Our main ET shop had 12 ETs. I was an ET-1598 cal tech
(metrologist) in Fleet Cal Lab designator EAT for nearly 4 years. Glades
was started at the end of WW2 but abandoned as the war ended and not
completed until 1952 to serve in Korea. She spent Vietnam, when I was
aboard her, in Charleston with Med cruises to service 6th Fleet cans and
to do Yellowstone's work for her in Mayport, FL.

Our TTY shop had two RM1s with all the schools, just aft of my cal lab.
My 28KSR used for press copy in the cal lab, posted every morning on the
mess decks bulletin board, was built from spare parts in that shop. I
had a stolen R-390A, homebrew rtty modem and that TTY machine running
24/7 in the cal lab storeroom so we didn't have to listen to the noise...
(c;

My Navy tour was from '64 to '71. Nothing heroic, I joined the Navy for
ET schools and to avoid being forced to Vietnam to die for nothing by the
War corporations. Glades was a great place we all hid in on the other
side of the planet. In '71, with the war winding down before politicians
were strung from light poles, we were 'encouraged' to leave. One of our
chiefs was refused reenlistment at 18 years service to keep from paying
him a retirement check and medical benefits from being exposed to
chemical warfare in 'Nam. He was forced out and lots of the rest of us,
traumatized by Navy's treatment of him, figured it was best to leave.

I got even and became a contractor....(c;