[Milsurplus] A Visit to Battleship Cove

[J Forster]

Last week, I finally go around to visiting Battleship Cove in Fall
River, Massachusetts, for about half a day. This is the floating home to
several warships of WW II vintage, and they have a web site at
http://www.battleshipcove.org/

While radio, radar, and other electronics is certainly not the emphasis
of the displays, there is certainly quite a bit to see. What most
interested me is that the various installations appear to be a time
capsule of the period and unmolested since. Part of the reason is that
many areas are behind plastic sheets, so sticky fingers have not been
able to swipe knobs and other bits. Unfortunately, this makes good
photography difficult as the flash bounce ruins many attempts and the
exhibit lighting is pretty dim, as it would have actually been.

Unfortunately, the radio areas of the PT Boats and planes were
essentially not visible and the Russian Missile Corvette relatively
uninteresting as the fire control areas were not accessible.

USS Massachusetts:

The Battleship Massachusetts exhibit focused mainly on the 16",  5", and
AA guns, magazines, and shell handling. The crew living and eating
spaces as well as the kitchen, bakery, laundry, hospital, and other such
places were on display. There was also a very capable machine shop with
several lathes, mills, a power hacksaw, and loads of other things. The
radio facilities were a disappointment though.

One radio area was the shop for TBX radios to support the Marine
contingent on board. This was a neat little electronics shop with a
scope and signal generator and was clearly for checking out and doing
repairs on the sets. However, the radio on the bench was not a TBX but
looked a lot more like an RBB.
http://home.earthlink.net/~navyradio/id3.html

The other radio area was designated 'Radio Central' with roughly 10
operating positions, 5 on each side of a hall. Each position had a pair
of what appeared to be RBBs, some with panadaptors mounted on top. Each
position also had a mechanical typewriter, (Not all were the same model)
and an adjustable desk light.  There were a couple of other receivers
also.  The crypto office was nearby, but had only a safe and some
teleprinters. No FSK or other gear was visible. Radio Central  appeared
to be a receive only facility as I saw no evidence of transmitters.
which is a bit puzzling. I saw none of the high power transmitters I
expected (beyond a roughly 18" tall high voltage feed through insulator
bolted to a superstructure plate) in another part of the ship.

The radar equipment was also a disappointment as none was visible beyond
a couple of displays and some story boards. There was little evidence of
the ship's service in the early days of ICBMs when she was on picket
duty.

In many ways all the ships seemed quite alive. There was a smell of
heavy grease which got stronger the lower you went and there were a lot
of humming power transformers and clearly active power panels. I don't
recall seeing any machinery rotating, however.

USS Lionfish:

I'd never been aboard a WW II sub before and was quite surprised at the
headroom and just how crammed the ship was with machinery. There were
valves, levers, pipes, and cables everywhere and the watertight doors
were a bit difficult for a tall person to get through.  All in all a
remarkable place.

The sub appeared to have been equipped with some ELINT capability, as
the first thing I noticed was a SPA-1 Radar Pulse Analyzer, mounted next
to a AN/APR-4 sweeping receiver with TN-18 Tuning Head (300 to 1000
MCPS), crammed in on top of some pumps and stuff.

The sub also had SD-5  VHF (111 to 117 MCPS) Air Search Radar with a
CRV-52AAY-1 transmitter. I don't recall seeing the display though.

For an LF & HF transmitter, the sub had a TBL-12 with a CME-50064 Speech
Input Equipment. Here's a pic of a similar unit:
http://jproc.ca/rrp/sradequ.html .

The receivers appeared to be a pair of RALs, similar to this:
http://home.earthlink.net/~navyradio/id3.html

I wish there had been more explanatory placards on things. For example,
the fuzing of the torpedo warhead was described, but the method of
propulsion was not.

In retrospect, I did not see any SONAR or crypto gear which is odd, but
the sub did have the smallest head I've ever seen....  well under 3 feet
square !!

USS Joseph P. Kennedy:

This was by far the most interesting to me as it had the most
electronics by far. The equipment all appeared to be mid fifties to
early 60s.

There was a nicely equipped electronics shop with a mil scope and a
digital frequency meter that appeared to be a Navy version of an HP 5245
w/ Nixie readouts. There were also a number of rack mount VHF radios in
the shop for repair as well as a permanently installed WRT-1
transmitter. Interestingly, there were a number of radiation survey
meters in the equipment cabinets, signaling the entry into the nuclear
age.

Sadly, the main radio equipment area was only visible through a
Plexiglas door, but there were over 20 feet of tall racks just loaded
with equipment such as receivers, transmitters, and FSK gear, but the
door was locked. Another time, perhaps.  I did not see any radio
operating positions,BTW.

There was little of the radar gear visible, beyond a room with a couple
of displays and a plotting table (?). Again, I didn't see any SONAR gear

If you are in the area, the place is well worth a visit. Unfortunately,
many of the interesting places are not open for display and it's hard to
get good pictures. In many cases, a very wide angle lens is needed
because of the cramped quarters and the plastic windows make flash
photography problematic. Using a tripod would be all but impossible in
most places.

Still, it's a very good example of how the equipment was set up and most
of the operating environment is intact. I was alone on the sub for a
while and you could hear the small noises and the lapping of the water
against the hull and it was very spooky.

Best,
-John