[ARC5] TBS Radios

[Mike Morrow]

Wayne asked:

>I note that the TBS radio net is mentioned.  I have heard of this before,
>but was this simply a system for Talk Between Ships or an actual radio 
>called the TBS?  I had heard they used rather odd freqs, such as 60-80 MHZ.

The TBS is a series of pre-WWII through WWII AM sets operating from 60-80 MHz.
The series went at least as far as TBS-7.

Click on the small picture at http://cgi.ebay.com/270661300361 to see what
the receiver looked like.  The transmitter was somewhat larger.

It was intended for short-range phone communication between ships in formation.
It was mostly a bridge-to-bridge comm set.  Sailor jargon applied a strictly
un-official tag of "talk-between-ships" to this set (and others afterwards).

The Collins MBF operated on the same frequencies.  The TBY-series (28-80 MHz)
of battery portables could net with the TBS. (But there must have been a fair
FM component to the output of the TBY's AM output.)

Mike / KK5F