[Boatanchors] Western Electric 227B Marine Radio Telephone Lives!

[David Stinson]

Western Electric 227B Marine Radio Telephone Lives!

Well I never did find a diagram for this little cutie, but 
I wasn't about to let it sit there and laugh at me 
and give me the finger. 
 I by golly was gonna FIX-IT and I did!  
Here's a photo of the 12-Volt-operated little stinker:
http://home.netcom.com/~arc5/WECO_227B.JPG
The front panel is beautiful.  Mike Hanz explained to me
how they anodized it and all.  It has the look of shiny 
glass, kiln-fused Enamelware to me.  Pretty.

It's designed to be a close-range transceiver very much 
like a sea-going "Command Set."  4 channels.
Transmitter is crystal control.  
Receiver either tunable over 2-3 MC or via xtal.
Supposed to operate as much like a regular telephone
as possible.  Used for talking to harbor control 
or the tug next door.

The transmitter is a simple 6L6 power xtal oscillator 
modulated by another 6L6.  
It uses a very cool "stone-age" 1930s WECO E-3 handset
with a big honking carbon element.
Getting the TX running was just a matter of refurbing 
the vibrator supply, changing the electrolytics and one
bad resistor in the modulator.  Have xtals for 3885
and 3870.  Going to try programmable oscillators for 
3880 and 3890.  PA tank/output is a lot like the 
tank for the BC-230 except much more "picky."
Took awhile but it's perking along at 7 Watts out,
which ain't bad for a power Xtal oscillator with
only 300 volts B+.

I scratched my head over the receiver for awhile and 
wondered if someone had taken
 "The Golden Screwdriver"to it at one time.  
 It is a simple thing:  no RF Amp,
6K8 converter, 6K7 IF, 6Q7 Detector/AVC/1st Audio
and single-ended 6V6 Audio Out.  But it gets "hinky."
Receiver was dead and some of the connections made
no sense- why does the AVC line go to +70 V from 
the B+ voltage divider resistor stack??
Never did figger-out that one.  
I measured the 6K7 cathode and it was showing 
like 180 V to ground, so obviously I'm missing
a ground here somewhere.   Didn't seem to be a 
"mute" circuit.   So I just jumpered the "cold" end
of the IF cathode resistor to ground and 
the receiver arose from the dead.

Measuring the OSC freq at what should have been
the 2 MC point on the dial confirmed that the "385"
marked on the side of the IF cans was the IF freq.
The IFs tweaked-up without incident. 
The 6Q7 1st Audio is wired as a cathode-follower
to feed the 6V6.  That threw me off for a little while.

The antenna was connected directly to the 6K8 grid
with only a single tuned tank in the grid circuit, which
was of course so loaded  and low-Q that adjustments
were almost pointless.  Setting the frequency range
of the receiver was just a matter of tweaking the
"band set" cap in the OSC section.  Putting it up
on 3-4 MC was just a single "tweak."  
Of course, with the grid so loaded, the thing was 
deaf as a post.  I suppose that was intentional, since
it was intended for very short ranges and the 2-4 MC
Maritime Band in the 1930s and 1940s could be a
mad house of QRM.  You wouldn't want your
"telephone" to be all that sensitive.

I removed the antenna connection from the 6K8
grid circuit.  Wound 8-9 turns on the "cold" end
of the grid tank to ground and hooked the antenna there.
The receiver came alive, the grid tank peaked sharp 
and it receives nicely now for so simple a design.
AVC action has a lot of range, as one would
expect in something designed for this service.
Only down-side is very "tight" or fast tuning.  

Programmable oscillators provide enough drive to
run the receiver "xtal control."  $4 a channel.
Beat that, International Crystals ;-)
Going to channelize the little set on 
3870, 3880, 3885 and 3890 KC,
which covers 90% of the AM activity here.  
The oscillators will need switching and some "boost"
to run the transmitter.  I have transmitter crystals 
for 3870 and 3885, but will need the oscillators
for 3880 and 3890.

Tonight, I hooked the little rig to my dipole,
put it on 3885 and made "first contacts" with it.
The little 7 watts got decent reports from Texas,
Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and an extended
QSO with K4KYV in north central Tennesse.
Not bad.

Guys, when I manage to bring one of these nice
old radios back from the gathering darkness,
I feel just like this:
http://home.netcom.com/~arc5/happyboy.mp3

73 DE Dave AB5S