[Milsurplus] TBY on the air - old business

[David Stinson]

Thank you, Nick, for saving and finding that.
I wish I still had the log book photos but they
disappeared when Netcom got bought-out.

I do not believe the books were "training" or any such thing.
Why would they spend so much time training procedures
for equipment they didn't use??
I especially enjoyed a TBY convoy-wide butt-chewing by
the convoy Commodore.  He'd overheard someone cussing
on the TBY and he strongly ordered no more such nonsense
and promised to skin anyone caught doing that.

The TBYs were monitored, "calibrated" and air-checked
at regular intervals to keep them on the common frequency.
What they used as a calibration standard I could not discover
from the log books.  The ships would share batteries and
repair parts to keep the rigs going.  Something was done for
ships which had a dead/unrepairable TBY- something like
moving to the center of the convoy and using alternate
comm methods, but I don't clearly remember those details.
Almost all of them used a large inventory of batteries for the trip,
but a few had power supplies.

It was evident that the rigs were fitted inboard
with external antenna- doubtless the ground plane-
and not hauled about by hand, since this would result
in "de-calibration" quickly, as anyone who has operated
a TBY hand-carry or on his back can attest.

Figuring-out the meanings of many of the flag hoists and
colored-light signals was fun.
Each trip, the "compass rose" (think of the "pie" diagram
used for the ZB-2) was changed, as well as other signals
so you'd have to figure it all again.

I wish I could remember to whom I gave the books.
Hoping they weren't thrown out when the grandkids
cleared the old fella's house or some other such thing.
I hope they are safe in some "museum ship" holdings.
I do remember trying to find someone who would have
a plan for preservation, but there did not seem to be
very much interest at the time (which surprised me),
so I didn't spend the time to photo or scan them all.
   Writing and documenting are too much effort
if no one seems interested.
They were enjoyable to work to "de-cipher."

GL OM DE Dave AB5S

P.S. I did make "contacts" with my TBY years ago-
short "hellos" to truckers on Channel 19 while cruising I-30 ;-)

On 8/22/2024 6:29 AM, Nick England wrote:
> See Dave’s 6/29/14 and similar email to the list.
> http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/milsurplus/2014-June/046738.html
>
> Nick England K4NYW
> www.navy-radio.com <http://www.navy-radio.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/milsurplus/attachments/20240822/17d0c5dc/attachment-0001.html>