View Single Post
Old 28th Jun 2019, 8:08 pm   #10
WB6NVH-GEOFF
Tetrode
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Monterey, California USA
Posts: 51
Default Re: Ex marine AM radio equipment.

I would post photos but I don't know where most of this equipment is! This is caused by having too many radios and moving to a smaller house. Eventually I will find everything, hopefully before the mice do.

The French set dates from probably about 1949. It operates on 12V with a built-in vibrator power unit. It needed little work, all the "Regul" branded capacitors, which were a glass tube with the ends sealed in tar, had totally broken down and were leaking DC terribly. The only other issue was that some prior owner had attacked the chassis with steel wool and there were now bits everywhere in the main tuning condenser. Those were flushed out with non-residue spray cleaner and the remaining stubborn ones burned out by applying a current limited 500V DC to it from my Eico multi-function bridge, which resulted in a miniature Chinese New Year display for a few minutes as the dial was placed end to end.
It has several bands for the receiver, as in Longwave, trawler band and (I think) AM broadcast. Took awhile to determine what PO, GO and Lugo meant. If I recall correctly, it uses a 6V6GT as the output PA tube.

The American sets (and the French) all use a lamp bulb in series with the aerial lead output and it's a case of "tune for maximum brilliance."

Harvey Wells was a going concern until a flood damaged the factory beyond recovery and business tapered off and ceased. They were involved in amateur, marine, aircraft and police radio and made attractive equipment, although you have to wonder what they were thinking when they offered the Bandmaster as having 2 Meter capability with an 807 PA tube, which is hitting its ceiling at 50 MHz as it is. One of the Antique Radio Forums members is using his Bandmaster mobile, and apparently it fits as the auto is a 1960 Dodge.

The Civil Defense "CD" program is a complex subject. Basically, the federal government subsidized the purchase of radio gear for civil defense use, by local agencies, as well as supplied it, and anything in that program would have had a decal set supplied by "FCDA." Some amateur gear was specially designed for the program, such as the Johnson Viking II CD model (general coverage) and the famous yellow Gonset VHF AM "CD Communicators." The CD radios were used by local civil defense organizations. The government also gave funds to local fire departments and police agencies for newer radios, with the requirement that decals and labels be placed on it saying where it came from. I am unaware of any equipment being issued to individual amateurs, it was sent to organizations. The whole program more or less fell apart by 1963 and the CD radio gear languished in storage or "took a walk" until the 1970's when much of it was surplused or scrapped out along with the contents of nuclear war "fallout" shelters such as the useless yellow CD V-700 radiation survey meters (which only tell you whether you will live another few days or another few weeks.)

The marine sets here generally have a variable tuned AM broadcast band and then crystal control or fixed trawler band channels matching the crystal controlled transmitter channels. It was popular to cut down the AM broadcast coils and move the variable tuned receiver to 160 or 80 Meters, wiring that in place of the fixed channels. It is generally impossible to find any documentation on these things so conversions are done by reverse-engineering. Most of the western USA is more or less desert soil and getting decent grounds involves burying radial wire for a counterpoise. A couple of cronies are using series capacitors between the marine set output and their 160 or 80 Meter 50 Ohm antennas. Same with their ARC-5 aircraft transmitters.

I have a TCS setup too, including the ghastly AC Collins shore power supply which weighs 50 Kg and is an annoying huge lump which leaks oil like a 1949 Studebaker. That accessory load coil on the TCS was for frequencies below 3 MHz as I recall. That is the last item I don't have, but I have plenty of substitutes.
WB6NVH-GEOFF is offline