[Milsurplus] The old 2 MHz boat channels ?

[Mike Morrow]

I was taking a domestic business flight years ago. The cockpit door was
> open as I boarded so I looked in to examine the neat instruments. A
> license posted on the inside of the cockpit door caught my eye. It was
* a FCC Third Class Radiotelephone License authorizing operation on
> 2.182 Mhz.

There could never have been such a document.  A FCC commercial OPERATOR license is issued ONLY to a specific *individual* (not to a place or thing) and it never specjfies any type of station information such a frequency of operation.  That would be part of the STATION license.

The Third Class phone license (element 1 and 2) was required to operate facilities such as radio dispatch consolez.  With a Broadcast Endorsement (element 9) it could be used at broadcast station consoles.  It was at one time required even for DJs and announcers.  The third class phone license has been dead for about 35 years.  While a third class license could be used "back then" to operate an aircraft phone station, typically only a restricted radiotelephone operator permit was carried by the pilot.  Nothing would be posted at the aircraft.

Since 1970 I've held 3rd, 2nd, and 1st class phone and 2nd class telegraph licenses with ship radar endorsement.  In the early 1980s the 1st class and 3rd class phone licenses were eliminated, and the 2nd class phone license  was renamed the General Radio Operator License with lifetime issue.

> Could this plane have a radio designed for operation only on the
> 2182 Emergency frequency?

Probably not if it's a civil aircraft.  But military aircraft often had 2182 available on the HF set.

But 500 kHz is more problematic.  Unless it was an old AN/ARC-8 (AN/ART-13A or B and AN/ARR-11 [BC-348-Q or -R] with MF oscillator, CU-32/ART-13A tank coil, and trailing wire antenna, most aircraft lacked 500 kHz transmitter capability.  The post-WW2 USAF AN/ARC-21, AN/ARC-58, AN/ARC-59 (18S-4A), AN/ARC-65, 618S-1, 618S-1MC sets lacked coverage below 2 MHz.  The USN AN/ARC-25 (AN/ART-13, AN/ARR-15) had 500 kHz capability only with the aid of an R-23*/ARC-5 as receiver.  The USN AN/ARC-2 and -2A, AN/ARC-38 and -38A, AN/ARC-39, AN/ARC-94 (618S-2), etc. lacked 500 kHz transmit.  The USCG had a locally-operated T-588/ART-33 that was specifically designed for service in the MF Morse marine telegraph band, including 500 kHz, on a trailing wire antenna.

Mike / KK5F

>-----Original Message-----

>When crossing either the Atlantic or Pacific and flying in other remote
>areas  you always tried to monitored 2182 and 500 IAW directives.  When a
>military HF station could not be raised on the assigned frequency for that
>area you could always send out a relay request on 2182  and send your
>position information. At least "someone" 
>had your last known position.  :-)
>k4che