[Milsurplus] Loss of the Thresher, 1963 - AN/UQC-1

[W2HX]

really interesting! Did they use some kind of directional "antenna" or transducer to point the communications more directly? I would imagine they would want to concentrate the energy and also reduce likelihood of enemy interception? Could they use any kind of encryption on that audio signal through the water?

________________________________
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net <milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Mike Morrow <kk5f at earthlink.net>
Sent: Saturday, October 5, 2019 11:24 PM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Loss of the Thresher, 1963 - AN/UQC-1

The undewater telephone system that the SSN-593 and other US submarines would have been using from late 1950s on into the 1980s is the AN/UQC-1.

A 400-watt USB signal from 8.3375 to 11.0875 kHz for AF  voice modulation frequencies of 250 to 3000 Hz (8.0875 kHz carrier frequency) is delivered to a single transducer.  To send a CW signal, an AF oscillator is used instead of voice AF.  A range better than 36,000 feet was expected between two AN/UQC-1 sets.

I was the officer on the AN/UQC-1 for post-overhaul test dives of USS Daniel Boone SSBN-629 in February 1978.  It had reasonably good range and clarity.  The ASR on the surface also used the AN/UQC-1.  It was very infrequently used.

As a ham, at the time I found the system's use of a USB audio signal with suppressed carrier and suppressed opposite sideband to be clever and very familiar technology.  The raw signal in the water even sounded a little like listening to an RF USB signal on a receiver with no BFO.

Anyway...that's how submerged US submarines had voice and CW communications to surface vessels or other submerged vessels at the time of the SSN-593 loss.

Mike / KK5F

-----Original Message-----
From: Nick England
Sent: Oct 5, 2019 8:09 PM
To: howard holden
Cc: "milsurplus at mailman.qth.net"
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Loss of the Thresher, 1963

And SSB acoustic at that. Not knowing anything about the field, I was surprised to come across a manual for the AN/BQC-1 SSB acoustic communication set. The set provides SSB voice comms at 8.3-11.1 kc, plus CW at 24.26kc. 1 watt output to a transducer. For speech, range is 500 yards minimum, for CW, 2000-5000 yards. - Contractor was Bendix, Approved by BuShips March 1949.
Cheers,
Nick

On Sat, Oct 5, 2019 at 7:32 PM howard holden <holden7471 at msn.com<mailto:holden7471 at msn.com>> wrote:
>
> Acoustic. Sound travels fairly well through water. The Thresher was in company with a tender, working on diving tests.
>
> One thing I participated in as a CW op in the Navy, after the sinking of the Scorpion in 1968, was listening for test radio signals from automatically released buoys. I do not know of any such systems actually being deployed.
>
> Howie WB2AWQ
>
> On 10/5/2019 3:57 PM, Hubert Miller wrote:
>
> My question is, what system did the Thresher use to "radio" to the surface ?
>
> -Hue Miller


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