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Old 9th Jun 2019, 2:25 pm   #1
G3VKM_Roger
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Default Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Hello All,

A Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship MF Radiotelephone followed me home today from the East Suffolk Wireless Revival. It seems complete and worthy of restoration. I know there are Coastal Radio fans on this forum so be interested in hearing from anyone who has got one operational. Post for a manual going on the Items wanted page.

73

Roger/G3VKM
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Old 10th Jun 2019, 7:43 pm   #2
David Simpson
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Hello Roger,
Right enough, these old CR R/T's deserve repair & restoration. I'm not familiar with the 91/MX. Any chance of us seeing a picture or two, & the circuit diagram if you have it, please ?
My two CR R/T's were the Nimbus & the Curlew. There should be heaps of thread posts to peruse if you check back through "SEARCH". CR loved 807's & QQV06-40's in their Tx's.

Regards, David
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Old 10th Jun 2019, 8:27 pm   #3
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Hi Dave,

I was hoping you'd pop-up when I used the magic words "Coastal Radio"!

I don't have any info but spent an hour on it today and am quite impressed with the build quality and especially the ease of getting to the discrete components. Some pix attached herewith, I can P/M you more if you like. There is a cabinet as well, makes a neat job.

RX coverage is MW and LW plus the MF marine band to 4MHz, TX has five 10X Brookes rocks, all present apart from 2182kHz. No PSU but the homebrew supplies I made for my TCS gear will be fine, I think.

Front-end of the RX looks to have had a upgrade, the RF amp is a 6BA6 and the freq changer an X79, the chassis is punched for octal bases and has been covered by a plate with the B9A and B7G bases, factory job by the quality of the workmanship. There's a 6V6GT for AF amplifier.

TX has three 6J5s, probably CO/BA/mod preamp and a pair of 807s modulating the 807 PA. Should be fixupable and easy to recap.

73

Roger/G3VKM
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Old 10th Jun 2019, 8:33 pm   #4
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Couple of TX pix too.

73

Roger
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Old 11th Jun 2019, 6:12 am   #5
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

This very useful link was posted "in another place"

http://radiohistory.uk/Coastalradio.htm

Cheers

Roger
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Old 12th Jun 2019, 1:59 pm   #6
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Hi Roger,
Thanks for posting the pictures. I regularly use a marine Ajax A20 on our Sunday Top Band net and occasionally on the VMARS 80 Metre net. The Ajax has a very similar looking TX layout with a twin valve AM modulator and a single 1625 ( 12v 807) PA.

Good luck with the restore
Pete
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Old 12th Jun 2019, 5:13 pm   #7
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Thanks Pete,

There does seem to be a fair number of Coastal sets around. Looks like the set I have is a 12 volt type so probably had a dynamotor supply when fitted to a ship.

Hope to use it on Top Band and also 80m if it will tune that high, the RX goes to 4MHz.


73

Roger
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Old 23rd Jun 2019, 4:55 pm   #8
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Hello Roger.

That is a fine radio you purchased I had a good look at it. Something to get your teeth into for restoration yes I was tempted.

All restoration has temporarily stopped as I broke my arm on Thursday evening, I fell off ladder pruning so even one handed cannot do much.

Looking forward to hearing how you are getting on with it.

All the best from Jeff G0PGY
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Old 23rd Jun 2019, 9:05 pm   #9
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Jeff,

Very sorry to hear about your fall, I know from painful experience that even a low height can cause real injury. I had a fall of about one metre and landed with a heel on a kerb stone at the edge of a garden path. I was out of action for six months, so hope you heal a bit quicker!

Yes, the Seafarer is in great condition and I would say has never had any work done since it was built. The front end of the RX has been upgraded to two B7G and B9A valve types but I think this was a factory mod. I wish I knew more about where it was used, I see that Coastal supplied all the RNLI stations and lifeboats so maybe it was in that service.

All I have done up to now (as I'm having a station revamp) is trace the wiring to the PSU, RX to TX and mic connections. The PSU was probably a dynamotor but I will use either a homebrew mains type or a Heathkit HP-23. The main tuning on the RX was stuck when I got the set but a tiny drop of 3 in 1 oil freed-off the spindle of the cord drive.

Still looking for a manual or cct diagram, if anyone has such a thing.

73 and hope the arm isn't too painful.

Roger/G3VKM
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Old 24th Jun 2019, 11:19 am   #10
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Hello again Roger,
Apologies for not getting back to you. Great set of pictures. The Seafarer rig is new to me. The Tx looks similar to the Nimbus, but that's tank coil was cylindrical not triangular. Same tapping method, and easy to re-crystal & re-tune to 80m frequencies. Looks like a couple of 807's for the PA.
I think all the bumph I had on the Nimbus & Curlew rigs can be found in "Search", pictures, circuit diagrams, etc. My complete Curlew rig & documentation has gone to a chum of James Duncan up in Wick. But I still have the Nimbus Tx & stuff here. Its now paired with an Eddystone 730/4 Rx.
These sets were mainly used on fishing boats & coastal vessels. Rudimentary aerial matching via a Variometer, as the aerial length was determined by the distance between the fore & aft masts, not a sub-division of the wavelength(approx. 120m for marine band).
Power supplies - 24V DC for the Rx, & Tx heaters. 500V HT from a 24V rotary PSU running down in the engine room. The big PTT Relay switches the aerial from Rx to Tx & mutes the Rx.
I built a rotary 250V HT PSU for the Curlew Tx from a 24V ARC52/PTR175 PSU, and for the bigger Nimbus I built a solid state 500V HT PSU out of a Sailor T122 SSB Tx's 24V/1000V PSU.
A couple of Tractor/Lorry 12V batteries in series should suffice. Belting out 50W, the Nimbus Tx drew about 8A from my 24V set-up.
If you PM me your address, I'll send you an A3 copy of the Nimbus Tx's circuit diagram.

Regards, David
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Old 24th Jun 2019, 12:03 pm   #11
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Roger,

I've only just looked at your pics and what a good set to have acquired. I'm sure it'll be good on the Norfolk topband net and the 80 metre AM net.

Looking through the other pictures I was pleased to see the Woodsons kit and how similar the innards looked to my Woodsons now owned by Keith. It even looks to have Denco coils as mine did.

I was very pleased to see PIM, which baffled me for a long time together with others on the forum, identified as POSITION INDICATOR METER, the first time I've ever seen it in writing. Indeed there is an extension meter available.

I'll have a listen for you when you get it on 80 metres.

Best,

Jim
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Old 24th Jun 2019, 8:31 pm   #12
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Hi Dave and Jim,

Good to have a chat today, Dave and I’d be interested in any data on Coastal and Woodson products, it’s an interesting subject.

Jim good to hear from you, hope all is well it’s you? I was lucky to find the Seafarer as I’d never seen one before and at first thought it was a piece of test gear! I’m hoping that even without a manual I can get it going, it’s a fairly classic design.

73 both,

Roger
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Old 25th Jun 2019, 10:26 am   #13
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

One post moved to a new thread here:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=157541
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Old 26th Jun 2019, 10:13 pm   #14
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Hi All,

Searching for more info on Coastal Radio equipment I came across this site, which I don't think I have encountered before:-

http://www.radiomuseum.co.uk/mar.html

There is also an interesting link to a similar RX owned by M0ZGB:-

http://www.radiomuseum.co.uk/coastal%20radio.html

73

Roger/G3VKM
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Old 4th Jul 2019, 12:21 pm   #15
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Just realised I didn't thank David Simpson for sending me the paper copies of the Coastal Radio info he has, thanks David and if I get anything on the 91/MX I'll make it available to the group.

There's a Coastal RX on ebay, search on COASTAL RADIO LTD EDINBURGH 7 RECEIVER TYPE SH6D R/T

It looks very similar to the internal layout of my 91/MX receiver. Too expensive for me, I paid a lot less for my TX and RX. It's local to me though and if the price was right..............!!

73

Roger/G3VM
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Old 5th Jul 2019, 6:26 am   #16
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Default Re: Coastal Radio Type 91/MX Ship Radiotelephone

Just an additional bit of info, I found my way to the RNLI "Lifeboat" magazine archive last night. There you can download PDFs of articles or editions and I found two articles of interest in the March 1948 and December 1937 editions, both of which have "Radio Telephony in Lifeboats" as the leader item.

Both the editions show the older Marconi equipment that had been fitted to some lifeboats pre-war and also shown is the new Coastal Radio installation which would be in place on almost all offshore boats "within two years". There are mentions of the problems of waterproofing the radio and ancillary equipment, the changes in aerials and the advantages of crystal control of the transmitter.

Two other Coastal Radio equipment owners who I have been in e-mail contact with have the "new" receivers as shown in the 1948 piece and their web sites were linked earlier in this thread.

The RNLI site also mentions publicity films and one I found (in two parts) on YouTube called "Gale Warning" has a brief shot of the new installations. Given the relatively small size of Coastal Radio they did well to land the RNLI contract against competition like Marconi and I wonder if Marconi bought-out Coastal in 1956 to re-secure their place in the lifeboat radio market?

The archive is here:- https://lifeboatmagazinearchive.rnli.org/

Hope the above is of interest,

73

Roger/G3VKM
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