[Milsurplus] is that an oscillator I hear whining?!

[William Donzelli]

> One set of widely studied and described radio configurations were those
> aboard the Coast Guard and Navy ships which searched for Amelia Earhart
> in 1937.  Pretty rudimentary stuff.  Maybe they shortchanged old Putnam
> and withheld the better equipped ships, in spite of what was promised.

It can be understood why Coast Gaurd ships were underfitted - the poor CG 
seems to get all of the handmedowns and leftovers from the Navy, and a 
tiny fraction of the budget.

As for the Navy ships - perhaps they were looking at one of the Ships 
that was a bit behind in the radio room. Certainly there were many old 
radios still left on the ships - we went into the war with REs, RFs, RGs, 
RAAs, and RABs, still in service, plus the later DPs, RAKs, and RALs. Of 
these, only the REs, RFs, and RGs were unsuitable, even after rebuilds to 
REa and RFa. The others all were used in frontline service until 1945.

> Ah, yes, as it was configured when finally decommissioned for the second
> (third?) time in 1965.  But, it did spend some time in Norfolk just
> before that, about which I have no real details.  At least it didn't
> suffer the indignity of getting guided missile tubes like a couple of the
> old battleships did.  No longer a sterling example of a WW2
> configuration.

BB59 is the Massachusetts, and since the refit in 1945, hasn't seen any 
duty. You must be thinking of an Iowa class ship. BB59 is from the 
previous class.

>  Now, how about digging into the records and see what the
> original compartment assignment was when it was commissioned in 1941. 
> The builder is long gone, is there a set of original prints on board?

The original records are there - I remember going over them with Chris 
Nardi. One of the interesting things is that the very first RBBs and RBCs 
(as is RBB s/n 1) were originally fitted to BB59, and some of the 
originals are still there. Other than the radars, VHF and FM equipment, 
the electronics stayed pretty much the same until the end.

William Donzelli
aw288@osfn.org