[Milsurplus] RAK/RAL Muting

[Howard Holden]

Having worked aboard the USS Ling in Hackensack, which has an RAL/RAK combo, there was no sort of muting control, no tone generator used that I was able to determine. No antenna relay setup. The antennas were switched with large knife switches located on the overhead below the antenna pipe up into the conning tower, and a small patch panel above the RX power supplies, which were above the receivers, so one could not easily switch an antenna between RX and TX during a contact. Often the ships and shore stations did not use the same frequency, which would have made things easy. The antennas were close enough (one running up the port side to the bow, one up the starboard side) that clicks would have made monitoring one’s own sending a breeze. While using the RAL on HF, which I did quite often, I simply turned down the sensitivity control (to the right of the regen control), and was able to monitor my own sending just fine. Blocking was not a big issue with it cranked all the way down. 

It’s one terrific receiver for CW, as long as one learns how to “steer” it with the regen, peaking, and sensitivity controls. you don’t just turn an RAL on and listen, you have to actually operate it. 

Howie WB2AWQ

From: William Props 
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2016 12:23 PM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net 
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] RAK/RAL Muting


I haven't tried grounding the antenna input. I'll play with it some more tonight.


How was this accomplished on the ships and subs? Did they have some sort of sidetone oscillator, or no sidetone at all? Any sort of antenna attenuation when used in combination with a transmitter? I was under the impression the receivers and transmitters had separate antennas, and sending was monitored in the receivers.


Thanks

Chris



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