[Boatanchors] Naval radio communication during WW II

[William L Howard]

This started as a question to me and I provided a quick response to him,
the boat anchors list and army radios. This afternoon, I had time to do
some digging through my manuals and have a more detailed response.

William L. Howard


 Would some kind soul care to give an opinion on the state of
radio/wireless
communication between warships in 1940/1941?

 I get the impression that R/T (radio-telephony) wasn't around in those
days, and didn't
come into general use until 1944/45 with the introduction  (into the RN
anyway) of the
TBS and Type 86M (?).

 That leaves W/T, lamp, semaphore and flag hoists.

 By the same token, how did FAA/USN aircraft of that period communicate
with their carrier other than by W/T? Was that a function of the T/AG
(Telegraphist/Air
Gunner)?
  yours aye, Bob Nicholls

Bob,

Wireless is generally accepted as Morse code or CW and has a much
greater range than
voice. Hence I would assume that communication between ships at sea and
Fleet Hq
somewhere on land would be in Morse code. Also CW has the capability for
encoding/decoding which voice communication does not provide. When time
is not that
critical Morse code will suffice. In a fast moving combat situation,
voice is more practical.
As to the main ship transmitters and receivers, I can not quickly come
up with the
numbers/nomenclature.

In the early 1930s the main aircraft radio set was the SCR 183 set
consisting of receiver,
transmitter, control boxes, spare coils, dynamotor and associated
cables. This was
replaced by the SCR 274N set. (No extra plug in coils). Currently a
complete SCR 274N
set sells for upwards of $1200.00. It consists of two transmitters,
three receivers, a
dynamotor/modulator unit, pilot and co-pilot conrols and various crew
station boxes.
Primarily used on multi engine aircraft such as the B 17, B 24, etc. By
the time the B 29
went into production the ARC 13 transmitter was used along with a
companion receiver.

There is a CONFIDENTIAL document titled �Catalogue of NAVAL RADIO
EQUIPMENT dated 1944 which breaks radios down into the following
categories:
Section I Radio Direction finding Equipment Pages 3 - 17
Section II Radio Transmitting-Receiving Equipment Pages 17 - 27
Section III Radio Receiving Equipments Pages 27 - 89
Section IV Radio Transmitting Equipments Pages 89 - 174
Section V Radio Homing Beacon Equipments Pages 177 - 185
Section VI Signal Corps Equipments Pages 185 - 211
Section VI Harbor Detection Equipments Pages 211 - 227


Army aircraft used the SCR 274N sets for plane to plane communication
and this set is
referred to as "the command sets". The BC 375 transmitter and ground
version , the BC
191 were the long range sets and were referred to as the liaison sets.
Large sets with
several plug in coil/RF boxes.  The companion receiver was the BC 348
with versions A
through J. Still a popular radio set with HAM operators. Currently sell
for about $150.00.
There are also a whole series called ARC 5.

A RESTRICTED Navy Training  Manual, titled �Aircraft RADIO EQUIPMENT�
dated
1944 lists several radio sets. The most common Naval aircraft radios
were the RU 16 or
RU 17, which looked just like the SCR 183 sets but in a black wrinkle
finish. A small
black box like unit with loop antenna could be mounted on top of the
receiver. This was
designated the DU direction finder. The GF series transmitters were
normally installed in
fighters, obserevaton and patrol planes. This too. looked like the SCR
183 series rado
sets. The larger and heavier transmitter was the GP series which were
installed in Scout
and Torpedo bombers. This was a large, bulky set requirng the use of
plug in Tuning
units.

Naval land forces, which I take to mean shore landing parties and U.S.
Marines made use
of different types of sets. The first set was the TBY set. Then there
was the TBS set.
Several other sets were used, depending upon the application.

The TBY sets were for ship to shore use by naval landing parties. TBY 1
through TBY 8
sets exist. Assumption is they got better as more R&D was done.
Basically powered by
batteries there was also an AC power supply for these sets. The Army
equivalent was the
SCR 195 set which by 1944 was replaced by the BC 1000 back pack set. The
basic
infantry radio set was the SCR 284 which was comparable in size and
capability to the
Navy TBS set.  The TBS sets were a bit more powerful than the TBY sets
and were
powered by hand crank generators. Some of the early TBY sets were
knocked off
frequency if the antenna brushed against a tree!

There was also a set called the MAB which was under development but as
best I can
determine did not get adopted for wide useage. It is listed as being for
Paratroops.
Assume this would be U.S. Marine Corps paratroops. Fair Radio sold them
some years
back. A similar type set but receive only was the RBS. Emerson  made the
RBS set,
sometimes called "The beachmasters radio" which was a battery powered
receiver only.
Special versions of these RBS sets were also made and dropped to the
resistance units in
France.

In general, AM sets had greater range than FM sets but FM sets had
greater clarity for
voice operations. Tank units used FM for most of their radios but the
Armored Divisions
Intelligence Sections and reconnaisance units used AM sets for the
greater range. The
SCR 506 in the CW/Morse mode had a range of 125 miles, 5 to 10 miles in
voice mode.
The SCR 510 and SCR 508 sets were the FM sets used by Armor Units.

As to lamp, semaphore and flag hoists, these are possibly more secure
means of sending
messages as they can not be intercepted by an enemy ship/ intercept
station.

You can see examples of most of these radio sets by visiting my web
site, taking the
museum tour and going to the WW II sections.

As to "state of the art", the Germans and the Japanese finalized their
radio designs in the
mid 1930s and used regenerative receivers. The US delayed until the war
started and used
super heterodyne sets which were vastly superior sets. We also used
metal tubes which I
think came along in 1936. Of interest is the fact that the Japanese
copied them and used
them in their late war radio sets. German sets had metal tubes from the
early 1930s
onward but of a different style tan the US. German capacitors were also
much better than
ours. Today, if you get a German radio set, chances are you can power it
up and it will
work, as opposed to the Japanese sets which require almost complete re
building,
replacement of all capacitors, rewinding the interstage transformers,
etc. a real nightmare.
Most US radio sets of the 1940s also require replacing all the
capacitors. It is my opinion
that US radio equipment of WW II was very superior to any of our enemy�s
radio sets.
I hope I have answered your questions. As you can probably "read between
the lines" my
expertise is with Army radio sets and not Naval sets.

Bill Howard