[Hallicrafters] Re:Scott Receivers on our old Liberty Ships during WWII

[edben]

Good morning, gang!  I'm real glad to get your interesting "feedback".
Gary, I'm going to guess that the Scott Short Wave Communication Receiver we
had on one ship was one of the SLRM's you describe.  It was designed
primarily for headphone use (As were all of the receivers in the radio room)
No wonder I've lost some 90% of the hearing I once had! (Of course, those 20
mm  guns "planted" on the steel roof of the radio room just might have had
something to do with it, too!)  Pre-war maritime communications were almost
entirely in the 400 to 500 KC (KiloHertz to the youngsters) range.  The
receivers supplied by Mackay Radio as part of their "Coke Machine" -- Yes,
the wall-filling prepackaged Transmitter, Emergency Transmitter, Receiver,
Emergency CRYSTAL RECEIVER, and Dynamotor power supply, for running off a
roomful of storage batteries when shipboard power was "out", was universally
and affectionately known as a "Coke Machine"! -- and the whole system was
strictly long wave.

And Barry, your price reports on those old Scotts are quite encouraging.
For several years I had two SX-42's side by side in my work area.  I learned
from each of them.  Comparing operation of one with the other helped improve
both of them.  I finally did some swapping, put the best "insides" in the
best case, and vice versa.  Wound up selling the "reject" set in excellent
working operation, but far from a "Collector's item, for enough to have
purchased either one of those Scotts you mentioned (And my buyer happily
helped set the selling price!)

Dave, I was really happy to see your information on the "gray line".  You
sure described exactly what we were experiencing.  I've never let myself get
into Ham Radio.  Always figured that I couldn't afford to sit on my fanny
for all those hours of Ham Radio Fun.  I really did too much of that as a
kid.   I built my first radio when I was in the 8th grade (1936), with parts
from old "first-generation" discarded radios -- and instructions from an old
mid-1920's Junior High General Science textbook.  I spent too many hours
listening to short-wave when I should have been "out there with the gang".
Guess I've been trying for the "best of both worlds" ever since.  Can't let
my love of old radios get in the way of my hiking and my biking!  I'd never
heard reference to the "gray line" term before, but it sure doesn't surprise
me.  It sure made for a happy crew that day -- Even the "commercials" were
so good that we didn't want to miss a thing -- not even the one for "Black
Grass Laxative" (Seems to me that was from Nashville, or at least that
area).

Dave, your description of the SLR-12-B sure seems to come close.  And
naturally, there was no BFO, not for entertainment.  Now, speaking of
entertainment, there were good hefty speakers mounted in both the Officer's
and the Crew's mess-rooms.  On my first Liberty Ship, The Ignatius Donnelly,
on my second trip, we had an old timer skipper, Captain Lund (Very Danish,
and his speech showed it).  He was a great guy, and played a great hand of
rummy (at ten cents per hand).  Of course, the day I beat him twenty plus
hands in a row, his face turned bright purple -- but he got over it!
Captain Lund hated what he called "Jazz" -- not the good New Orleans stuff,
but what we today would call "progressive jazz" -- the real wild screechy
stuff!  One particularly wild number, during one lunchtime period, was just
too much!  Captain Lund got up from his seat, stamped across the room to the
speaker, grabbed the speaker wires and put his while body into them, and
pulled them right off the speaker, growling, "Dot Foocking Jahzz!".  It's
still hard for me to hear a bit of wild jazz without vividly having the
image of Captain Lund come back to me!  (Of course, I fixed it up again.
Didn't do any real damage -- but I'm sure it made him feel a lot better!)

Oh yes, it's a rare month that goes by without me dreaming, at least once,
that I'm back on board ship, we're under-way -- and I've forgotten
everything that I'm supposed to be doing!  Sad part of it is, that the
Maritime Radio Operator, Morse Code and all -- just doesn't exist anymore.
It was really sad, just several years ago, when they "pulled the plugs" on
Maritime Morse.  The only place it's heard today is on the ham bands.  Sure
sounds good when I tune in, once in a while.  Just don't dare let myself
"get hooked" once again.

                        Ed Benjamin -- The Old WWII Liberty Ship Radio
Operator