[Boatanchors] [Milsurplus] [BoatAnchors] Mackay Marine Mystery

Sun Jan 11 12:53:42 EST 2015

A couple of years ago there was an article in Electric Radio about replacing
the "unobtanium" tape dial with a digital readout. The result looked very
nice and professional, if one didn't know what the 3010 looks like in the
original configuration, the digital readout would have looked original to
the receiver. The article also mentioned some fairly simple improvements to
the 3010 performance.

73, Meir WF2U
Landrum, SC

-----Original Message-----
From: Boatanchors [mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of
Elliot Blaize Jr.
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2015 10:08 AM
To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] [Milsurplus] [BoatAnchors] Mackay Marine Mystery

Hello all,
You are right!  The 3010 was a nice set, but the 16mm fiberglass tape 
looking two color dial tapes were prone to wearing out.  This 
especisally if the Radio Officer was a "scanner"!  They would go up 
frequency and down in an almost never ending back and forth slow scan.

Another downside was the toothed belts that ran the tuning mechanism.  
They are "non-existant" now, but I gather that there is someone who has 
a belt the same "tooth pitch" and length, but wider.  They can be very 
carefully trimmed with a sharp x-acto model knife if you are very careful.

The dial tapes themselves were extremely rare or non-existant in 
Mackay's stock.  Usually some depot might have been in the possession or 
a spare or two on the shelf, but most of them had been discovered and 
shipped to a depot who was in dire need of one.  The 3010 had been 
pretty much superceded by the "lever digital dial" solid state receivers 
(3020?) and a few other ones that were less popular than the 3020.

I CAN SAY, if you find a dial tape, it will probably be worth more bucks 
than the whole rest of the receiver, as the set is almost useless 
without an accurate "readout" tape.

I remember there was a couple of 3010's laying around the warehouse 
(spares) at Lykes Steamship warehouse in New Orleans, but they had 
already been robbed of the dial tapes.  When they liquidated the excess, 
unwanted equipment, I passed them up and didn't bother to bring them 
home, as dial tapes were, for all practical purposes, not available.

That wasn't too long before I retired.  By them most of the older ships 
had been sailed to the wrecking yards in India/Pakistan vicinity.  There 
was a helluva lot of spares on the ships including tubes that had been 
squirrelled away by  smart "Sparkies", who figured they might need them.

Sorry I can't help you more.  Hen's teeth are very difficult to find!

Sandy Blaize W5TVW

Mackay Radio New Orleans for quite a few years.
On 1/10/2015 10:41 PM, Raymond Cote wrote:
> Ol seems i left out a digit am my last post. Its the 3010 receiver.  That
sounds more like it
> Thanks to WF2U
>
>    "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose"
>
> Raymond Cote
> KD9CCZ
>
>> On Jan 10, 2015, at 21:42, Meir WF2U <wf2u at ws19ops.com> wrote:
>>
>> The Mackay 3010.
>>
>> 73, Meir WF2U
>> Landrum, SC
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Milsurplus [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of
>> Raymond Cote
>> Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2015 10:21 PM
>> To: ebjr37 at charter.net
>> Cc: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net; milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>> Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] [Boatanchors] [BoatAnchors] Mackay Marine
Mystery
>>
>> Hi Sandy!
>>   Since you are a good bet to know the answer, what was the Mackay radio
>> that had the sprocket type tape for tuning?
>>
>>   "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose"
>>
>> Raymond Cote
>> KD9CCZ
>>
>>> On Jan 10, 2015, at 16:06, ebjr37 at charter.net wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello All:
>>>
>>> I worked for Mackay Radio for some time retiring about 1995.  There was
>> another receiver that was almost identical but had a different type
number.
>> Can't recall what as it has been too many years ago!  I have seen the
>> military "seal" looking marking you mention, on the 128 receivers that
>> belonged to Lykes Steamship, who was one of Mackay's biggest customers in
>> New Orleans when Lykes was based there.  They must have sold "stock"
units
>> that has been marked for military use, but maybe still in stock because
the
>> unit  had been cancelled or wasn't needed at the time by the military.
>>> That's my guess.
>>>
>>> 73,
>>>
>>> Sandy W5TVW
>>> Formerly employed by Mackay New Orleans branch/depot.
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 8:42 AM, David Stinson via BoatAnchors wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Here's a mystery for you "big Navy receiver" fans:
>>>>
>>>> Walked into a "militaria" shop yesterday and walked-out with
>>>> my first Mackay Marine, a 128AW longwave receiver in very nice shape
and
>> for a good price.
>>>> So here's the mystery:
>>>> Why does a "Liberty Ship" radio
>>>> have Army Signal Corps inspection stamps?
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