[MRCA] A URT-23 and a URC-35 walk into a bar...

[Tom Chirhart]

I was on the USS Ingram DD-938 in the mid 70's we had the WRC-1 and kept it on Hi-Comm 7X24 set to a clear HF freq that changed based on propagation, high day/low night. We would often get an Exercise White Pinnacle message via fleet broadcast and were timed to see how long it took to reply using our daily changing callsign and authentication table. 
The WRC-1 served a purpose but the WRT-2 transmitter combined with an associated R-1051 was the primary TX for HF ship-to-shore using KW-7/Orestes. 
The URT-23 was in Aux Radio aft in the same space as my teletype repair space, also my GQ station, also my ham shack with a Kenwood TS-520 and 4BTV mounted on the aft mast. Lucky for me my skipper was a mustang Commander and former radioman (CDR Samples -SK) he liked to phone patch home and it came in handy for patches between new moms and new dads. The URT-24 was just a 100wTX. 
The 1051 was great for receiving the fleet broadcast but sucked for CW. We came out of FRAM where the comms suite was upgraded from R-390's to 1051's BUT they left two 390's on top of the MF receiver op position (for listening to AFRS-morale) so I could use the 390 for CW ops which were by then just drills and since we still had to keep the 500kc log the mill was still there along with the CW key and jack for my Vibroplex.
The WRT-1 MF TX was removed once we were no longer required to monitor 500kc and only keep a log and not required to have an MF TX capability. (If we heard a distress we sent a message with details to NAVCAMS and that was it) The T-1 was removed and a satcom station put in its place. 
I was selected/directed to go to teletype school, it was a tough school and being a teletype repairman was a collateral duty on this ship and the pro-pay was next to nothing, like sea pay...
I know I could walk into the radio rooms of a FRAM Forest Sherman class tin can and fire up the gear... My RM1 was a former instructor at RM-A school and was the meanest-toughest sob RM in DESRON-14 but knew his crap, I hated his guts BUT learned more from him than anyone else. We still exchange Xmas cards and he's the old guy, not me... Funny how you remember the names of your toughest school teachers and forget the nice ones.... Hummm
73
Tom K4NCG
Sent from my iPad

> On Mar 12, 2014, at 10:02 PM, "W2HX" <w2hx at w2hx.com> wrote:
> 
> As the new shack progresses. I continue to move in equipment from storage. This is about 550 lbs of radio. Good thing we installed that huge beam in the garage! Next phase will be to get it all running. No small task.
> Does anyone know what, exactly, a URT-24 is? I see reference to it with regard to the URC-35, but have yet to see a picture or what it consists of?
>  
> <image001.png>
>  
> 73 Eugene W2HX
>  
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