[Milsurplus] Radio From Battleship Cove

[Rob Flory]

Radio Activity at Battleship Cove

On Saturday Dec. 1 battleship MASSACHUSETTS (BB-59) broke radio silence to try to communicate with the NORTH CAROLINA (BB-55), using Big Mamie's well-restored suite of WWII radio equipment.  On hand were Mac McCullough W1SRR, RM1 from BB-55, Jack Morris W2EUA CRM WWII, BB-59 curator Chris Nardi N1UXJ, Dale Gagnon KW1I,  Harry W1AAX, and myself.  We never heard BB-55 but we did work numerous other stations.  We have some line noise at the ship.

A secondary activity was gathering information from Mac and Jack.  Jack explained that in his experience on CVEs, DDs, and BBs, there was typically only one man on watch copying the FOX broadcasts, using the RAK/RAL combination.  The RAK/RAL are configured with a switch that allows the headphones to be switched to either receiver or both so you can get past fading on one circuit or the other.  He said if there was someone who could copy 40WPM that they would copy press to get news to distribute on the ship. He said only during general quarters would all the chairs be filled.  He also explained that they kept a communal bucket of water to put your coffee cup in when you were done and when you wanted a "fresh" cup, you would just reach in and  grab one.  Yuck.

Mac and Jack both confirmed for me that copying code was an unconscious activity, during which you could shoot the breeze(not the word they used) with another guy, or jump up and get a cup of joe and sit back down and catch up.  I have begun to experience a tiny bit of direct circuit from headphone to paper after hours of practice but my mind is not as flexible as an 18-year-old's.   I remain impressed as hell by the skill of the Navy RMs.

All of our activity was done from Radio I (Radio Central), the main receiving location on the ship.  The transmitters are another deck down and a good ways down Broadway in Radio II, and are remote controlled from Radio I and many other locations.  Radio I is in the public area of the ship so we had lots of visitors.  Those who were captivated by our activity instead of just taking a quick look and passing on were treated to some hands-on activities.  We sent Dale over to the JOSEPH P. KENNEDY Jr. DD-850 where he operated a vintage ham transceiver on 50.4Mc(an extremely rare use of non-Navy equipment at the Cove) and had a few young visitors call over there using the TBS set with tactical callsigns, procedural signals, and WWII phonetic alphabet.  "Big Brother, this is Bay State, over.  Bay State, this is Big Brother, go ahead, over.  Big Brother, this is Bay State, my name is Journey, Jig Oboe Uncle Roger Nan Easy Yoke, over.  Bay State this is Big Brother, Roger, hello Journey, this is Dale, Delta Alpha Lima Echo, over. (Insert Smiles Here).   NB1CR, this is N1EPL out."  The ships' Navy callsigns have been converted to amateur by inserting the 1s.

A few other kids were invited behind the barriers to sit and tune the RBA receiver for non-directional beacons.  After a few minutes of sounding out the dits and dahs, they looked up the letters on a chart and then I looked up the beacon's location.  We were really impressed that one of the beacons heard was in San Juan, PR.  Even a few moms got into sounding out the dits and dahs.

Before the public activity, Dale and I checked into OMRN on 3885kc at 5AM Saturday, using the TBM-7 and RBB from Radio II.  On Sunday, I checked into OMRN on 3570kc at 9PM from the radio compartment inside the armored conning station, 4 levels above the main deck.  It was a unique feeling to operate from one of the three operating positions in a small room inside 16 inches of armor, lit only by the pilot light indicating my transmitter was on.  I was using the TDE transmitter and RBB receiver 7 decks below my location on a darkened ship, so I was hoping that I had set up the receiver and transmitter well using the LR frequency meter.  I was a little off but I could hear everyone and they could hear me so I guess I was close enough. 

 The radio compartment in the conn is part of the bridge restoration project being undertaken by curator Chris Nardi, who has done an amazing job of restoring functionality and appearance of ship's systems.  We determined that the next several times that I check into OMRN should be from different locations.  I think fire control central will be my next, surrounded by the analog computers used for solving the complex problem of hitting a moving target from a moving platform.

Today I'll be taking my son and nephew for a tour.

Rob Flory  December 3, 2007