[Boatanchors] The ultimate boatanchors?

[WF2U]

John,

There is a 4U  on the air in San-Francisco - see
http://www.radiomarine.org/4U-proj.html .

I own a few merchant ship communications receivers: an RCA Radiomarine
AR-8516, a Marconi Marine Atalanta, a Phillips BX925, a Siemens E310
("Rainbow") and an E311b.
I know of a few other Radiomarine and MacKay receivers in collectors' hands.

I also have a few US and British Navy ships' receivers, as well as an East
German Navy main receiver.
I'm in the process of building a power supply for my Liberty Ship  MacKay
167BY MF/HF radio console, which includes the RCA AR-8506-B MF/HF receiver.
My MacKay 128AY LF receiver is sitting next to the console - I never saw the
150 AY LF MacKay transmitter in "captivity"...  I know of 2 other 167BY's
being regularly used on the air on the ham bands.

I'm presently working on recreating a "generic" late 1940's  Canadian Navy
radio room in my shack, inspired by the museum ship HMCS Haida, (her radio
room curator helped me with documentation  and some more photos of various
RCN ship radio rooms). The equipment includes the main MF/HF transmitter
(500 W CW Canadian Marconi PV500), the medium power LF/MF/HF  transmitter
(100/35 W  CW/AM  Canadian Marconi CM11), the low power LF/MF transceiver
(15/7 W CW/AM Canadian Marconi FR12), the main LF/MF/HF Canadian Marconi
CSR5 receivers and the  Canadian Marconi MSL5 LF emergency receiver
(superregenerative and crystal).
Speaking about the "mills" - a real telegraph mill is part of that radio
room.

I personally love Merchant Marine and Navy radio equipment and wish more
transmitters were available - it seems that many more receivers survived
than transmitters.

73, Meir WF2U / NNN0AAF
Landrum, SC



> -----Original Message-----
> From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of John Tengelin
> Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 8:55 PM
> To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Boatanchors] The ultimate boatanchors?
>
>
> Hi, all-
> I've been lurking for some time- have read a lot of posts
> concerning stuff
> that I can remember from the past- military and otherwise- thanks for the
> memories!
> My question is- whatever happened to those neat old consoles that
> I sat in
> front of during my brief stint as RO on merchant ships in the late
> 60s?  RCA 4U and Mackay Marine, I believe. They contained transmitters,
> receivers, auto alarm units and a real neat 8-day windup clock with two
> hour hands.
>   Can't remember model numbers but they were big, heavy and
> impressive! Oh,
> and whatever happened to all the "mills"- the typewriters with
> all caps and
> a slash through the zero key?
> Just wondering if any of this stuff has survived and where it's at now.
> 73
> Thanks
> John
> K7FPM, KL7IPH, WA7QJF, KYMW, KABT, KCPG, WTES, plus several navy
> air/ground
> CW calls which shall remain anonymous.
>