[ARC5] Help needed: PT boat restoration.

[Geoff]

> On 29 Jun 2013 at 20:25, Geoff wrote:
>
>> ...with the high hull number of the restoration
>> candidate and the short life of a PT boat it was far from a 1941
>> version. Id of thought that by 1944-45 something more mainline would
>> have been installed.
>>
>> I wonder where Kens friend is getting his information?
>
> The fellow I am dealing with is a friend of the restoration crew. Those 
> guys
> have their own plans, to which I am not privy. I have not yet spoken 
> directly
> to any of them.
>
> Apparently, they are restoring PT-658 to the condition it was in when it 
> was
> "parked". It was built in 1945. Apparently, at that time it contained an 
> ARC-4
> and a TCS-13 set up. From what my friend tells me, they have subtantially 
> all
> of the TCS-13 setup except some sort of antenna knife-switch, and the only
> thing they have of the ARC-4 is a control box and some cables. That is all 
> I
> know about that part of the story at this point.
>
> My friend did tell me that he did talk with the restoration crew about 
> getting
> one of them licensed to operate the stuff in the ham bands, or to include 
> a
> local ham club in their group. As I understand it, he was more or less 
> ignored
> for the moment.
>
> They have more important things on their collective minds at the moment:
> some pencil-necked politicos in the Navy have decided that since the group
> is not affiliated closely enough with the Navy, they have to move 
> everything,
> including the substantial boat house they have built for the boat 
> "somewhere
> else" off of Navy property within a short period...like 60 days.
>
> At the moment, they have no where else to move it.
>
> They have been where they are now, Swan Island Naval Training Center
> near Portland, OR, since 1994 at least. This order has come as a complete
> shock to the entire group.
>
> I suspect that at this point authentic radio equipment is at the bottom of 
> their
> list of worries.
>
> Kenneth G. Gordon W7EKB
>


That boat was the subject on another forum a few years ago.
Apparently on a shoestring budget with a high member turnover if I remember.

Not something the navy would want to tolerate if it was an eyesore.

Carl