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

[David Harmon]

Darn right Dave.....It sounded pretty good near Tulsa on my A-2.


73

David Harmon
K6XYZ
Sperry, OK

-----Original Message-----
From: Boatanchors [mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of
David Stinson
Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2014 11:18 PM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net; boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Boatanchors] Western Electric 227B Marine Radio Telephone Lives!

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

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