[Milsurplus] TCS as commercial marine radios

[Boeing377]

Mike,


Never saw one of those 440 SATs on a fishing boat but did see a lot of Kenwood TS 430s with JW Miller 2500 external auto tuners. Drake TR 7 was the most popular bootleg SSB by far. No discrete channels without using an AUX 7 board. I never saw a channelized TR-7 afloat, just stock ones with the trace cut that gave general coverage xmit. 


The Yaesu FT 747 would have made a good bootleg marine SSB but never saw one of those either. It had channels and was less expensive than the TR 7. 


The JW Miller 2500 auto tuner had a great reputation for being able to tune to ANYTHING at any HF frequency. It was slow as molasses (I recall about 15 seconds) but delivered  good matches to whips, stays, longwires or whatever else you were trying to load into on a boat. On long mid Pacific tuna trips, crewmen taking wheel watch amused themselves by "shooting sidebander skip" using the TR 7 on the CB and nearby outlaw bands. The JW Miller 2500 tuner handled those freqs without a problem. 


The TR-7s proved extremely reliable once treated for corrosion prevention. The trick was to never shut them off which might allow moisture to condense internally as they cooled. Many TR-7s were run 24/7/365 for years and years without failure. They were not DDS but depended instead on a PTO. Nevertheless this proved stable enough to avoid FCC violation notices. Just had to be careful to tune the VFO right on the channel center before keying up. The "marinized" TR-7s had the very bright 12 VDC pilot bulbs replaced with the 24 VDC versions which dimmed the filaments enough for night wheelhouse use. They also never burned out. 


Mark
AF6IM
www.parachutemobile.com



-----Original Message-----
From: mstangelo <mstangelo at comcast.net>
To: Boeing377 <boeing377 at aol.com>
Cc: milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Fri, Jan 22, 2016 1:42 pm
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] TCS as commercial marine radios

Speaking about bootleg SSB xcvrs, did fishermen use the Kenwood TS-440SAT? That was one of the first synthesized radios with a built-in tuner and channel capabilities. I've heard that they were popular with boaters but never verified this.

Mike N2MS
 

----- Original Message -----
From: Boeing377 via Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 20:35:06 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: [Milsurplus] TCS as commercial marine radios

<snip>

Salt air just ruined electronics that were not properly protected. Heathkit came out with a FCC Type Accepted  AM marine band radio at a low price but they were reduced to corroded junk in just a few years. MFP treated surplus gear fared well. We sprayed LPS 5 on unprotected radio gear like CBs and Drake TR-7 bootleg HF SSB xcvrs. Although messy, LPS-3 worked well to prevent chassis corrosion. Dow Corning Dielectric Silicone Grease was liberally applied to connectors with great long term corrosion prevention results.


AF6IM






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