NS120S Marine transmitter

[glowinganode]

Hi all,
I picked this up yesterday from the Newbury radio rally.
Does anyone have any information on this, even the maker would help.
A large proportion of the components were sourced from RadioSpares which suggests a small scale British manufacturer.
It operates around 2MHz, AM.
A pair of TT22's in parallel for the final, and another pair for the modulator.
I estimate the output to be around 100W carrier.
The label inside the enclosure mentions "Spey 60" installations, does this mean anything to anyone.
Many thanks,
Rob.

[David Simpson]

Hello Rob,
Looks like you're about to set out on a similar venture to my "Coastal Radio" one.
Your Tx looks similar to the Coastal Radio ex Lifeboat Nimbus Tx I've had a thread about. But I wonder who manufactured your ex Lifeboat one.
"Spey 60" was an old type of RNLI lifeboat I believe. Named after a Scottish river & 60' long. Late 50's/early 60's I reckon. Probably about 1.8MHz to 3.6 ish. Most accurately tuned to "2182 KHz" - the marine emergency frequency.

Regards, David

ps. Just thought - will probably require 24V DC(boat's supply) - heaters, relay, etc, and about 500V(300mA) HT from an inverter or rotary PSU driven off the boat's 24V

[G6Tanuki]

I had a look at that at Newbury too: I couldn't get the case open to see inside, and from the multi-way cables coming out the back I guessed it probably needed an external PSU too.

If you think it has lifeboat-heritage, try contacting these people:

http://lifeboat-amateur-radio.org.uk/

who may know something about it.

--G6Tanuki.

[glowinganode]

Hi David, funnily enough your name came to my mind when I was looking at it earlier.
I've had a look at your thread, it certainly looks similar, the tapping arrangement and former of the anode tank coil look identical.
I would estimate the date of manufacture late 60's / early 70's from the components used. It is very conservatively built, so the design may have been a few years old.
Valve lineup: 2 x TT22 finals, 2 x TT22 modulator, 5 x PCL83 and 2 x 90C1.
The styling of the case looks newer though, maybe it was a re-hashed design.
It requires two HT supplies, it doesn't state the voltages but I guess around 300V and 600V, also LT at 28Vdc.
It is ten channel crystal controlled, indeed channel A is 2182kHz.
What makes you think it came from an RNLI lifeboat?
Cheers, Rob.

[Herald1360]

Looks like overkill for topband

If the valves are OK, you might get (rather a lot of?) dosh for them, given their close relationship to the KT88 (ie the same except heater volts and top cap anode connection), from the audio community.

Beginnings of a nice pair of 30W ultralinear monoblocs there......

http://www.tubebbs.com/tubedata/sheets/126/t/TT21.pdf

[glowinganode]

Hi G6T,
I managed to get the case open enough to spy a shiny pair of TT22's, I wasn't expecting two more at the back. I hung out till I was just leaving as was very happy to get it for less than half the original asking price.
Chris, yes a bit ott for top band, but may try it on 80M hopefully it will stretch that far. 3650 obvious place to start, then may look at fitting an external VFO input and excite it from a sig-gen.
Well aware of similarities to KT88, though I shalln't be selling.
I'd certainly expect a bit more than 30W, ISTR you can squeeze 175W out of a pair, class B.
Rob.

[David Simpson]

Hello again Rob,
I'm not really up to speed on RNLI Lifeboats, but I think that each class is named after a British river. The latest is "Trent", I think.
Best bet is Derek of the Lifeboat Amateur Radio Society. Based in Ormskirk - 01695 573 870. A keen knowledgable Ham.
Another Lifeboat expert is Quinton Nelson -
quinton@nelsonboats.co.uk

I did try a 3615 crystal in my smaller Coastal Radio Curlew Tx, but it struggled. Best to stick with the existing marine frequencies of round about 130m.
Oh yes, another good site is "Ships Nostalgia" - post a picture & and I'm sure some keen ex Radio Officer will recognise your Tx.
Please keep us informed of your progress. My Nimbus & Curlew Tx's both had just a 500V HT supply, with the HT's for the smaller valves such as the N78's - taken off a hefty dropper(prone to burning out). 6.3V heaters will usually be in a series/p-ll network off the 24V.
You're wise to intend holding on to your Tx as it is.Its probably as rare as rocking horse manure.

Regards, David

[Herald1360]

Originally Posted by glowinganode

Well aware of similarities to KT88, though I shalln't be selling.
I'd certainly expect a bit more than 30W, ISTR you can squeeze 175W out of a pair, class B.
Rob.

I was thinking of at least modest fi.....

I have a pair of such amps- based on the GEC applications notes circuits for the KT88. I would expect that they are run well within their limits to keep distortion to a minimum.

If you're planning to use the beast for its intended RF generating purpose, that's much the best idea, really.

[Sean Williams]

Nice bit of kit Rob! - there was a company that made Marine radios called Spey

[techiesteve]

You had a good find there Rob. I was there too, saw it, but had my hands full with a Woden UM3 and a Racal TRA 355 power supply that contained a useful mains transformer.

[Keith]

There's a Guernsey amateur who regularly uses a Spey transmitter on 3615kHz (daily from ~07:30, in fact!) I believe it's a Spey MS6-MS and also uses TT22's at about 40W output.

[Sean Williams]

Thanks Keith, thought my memory had an element of truth somewhere!

[Dave757]

Hi Rob,

Some years back I had what would appear to be the matching receiver, also marked Spey. I could find no info on the set, and as the circuitry had been hacked around, I passed it on. The set was transistorised, and had what appeared to be an Eddystone 898 Dial. I seem to remember that the circuitry was partly on a printed circuit board, and partly on a large plain paxolin board, with component leads pushed through holes in the board, and wired from point to point on the back.

The only reference I could find was that it may have been supplied by Woodsons of Aberdeen, but don't quote me! I did however keep a picture of the set, and this is attached.

Kind regards

Dave

[G4XWDJim]

I've got a marine band transmitter/receiver made by Woodsons of Aberdeen. The receiver uses soldered in Denco coils and with its RF stage ond one IF it works quite well.

The transmitter has an 807 in the PA modulated by another 807, Heising style. The pair fit in a case together quite like a WS18 and more or less the same size.

Jim

[glowinganode]

Thanks Dave, that's very interesting. I wonder where the set is now?
Confirms the name Spey, were they the manufacturer or was that the name of the product range?
BTW how do you get 200' of aerial onto a 60' boat?
Rob.

This article contains a tragic reference to both "Woodsons NS 120S reserve transmitter" and "Woodsons Spey SP1 reserve receiver".
Rob.

[Dave757]

Hi Rob,

I'm not sure where the set is now, but I occasionally see the person who had it from me, so I will ask the question next time I see him.

Regarding the antenna, I would have thought that it would either have to be loaded, or matched by the output circuit of the TX, or you could try a 'Slinky' type coiled antenna!

Kind regards

Dave

[G6Tanuki]

Could it be a Woodson's "Talkback" - see

http://www.woodsons.co.uk/history.html

and the "Products from our past" bit on the right?

--G6Tanuki

[David Simpson]

Well, me, My thoughts on Lifeboat classes was a red-herring, sorry. I used to work for Woodsons many years ago, but by then, HF wise, they were just agents for Sailor Radio. I can vaguely remember their old "Clipper" HF AM sets, but not a Spey Tx.
Just last week I was newsing with one of their retired engineers - all their old stock & spares was skipped a while ago, sadly.
The boat's aerial would just have been and end-fed open wire. Length - just whatever the distance was between the masts. Certainly not even 1/4W.

Embarressed, David

[glowinganode]

This Tx has been passed on to David, I'll let him pick up the thread.

Rob.

[David Simpson]

Right enough,
Rob has passed on the Tx to myself. Many thanks to him for the work done so far - particularly the lovely mains HT PSU which he had built to a very high standard.
Also, many thanks must go out to GU4 LJC(another Spey owner) - Brian for sending me a copy of the circuit diagram along with relavent technical info out of the manual(held originally on microfiche by Woodsons).
Seemingly,back in the 60's, Woodsons made several versions of the Spey. This one - the NS120S was the last, and possibly the most troublesome, maintainance-wise, according to a retired marine R/T specialist I know.
The front casing is of cast aluminium and sadly very corroded in places. Has been a sod to rub down, but at last has taken two coats of primer & three of topcoat. Thankfully the glass faceplate was intact & cleaned up a treat.
Initially, I tested all the valves, and just one TT22 was duff with a H/C short, ( Many thanks to GM8 AGM for donating a spare).The rest(PCL83's,90C1's) were fine. Fine enough in fact to put out approx 50 odd watts on High selection and 10W on Low. And reach out 600 odd miles to the Twente WebSDR site in eastern Holland.
The spec states a max o/p of 90W, although reduced to 50W for use in UK coastal waters back then.
Modulation is only approx 35% instead of the spec of 90 - 95%, but suspect the dynamic Mic it came with is to blame. So have fitted a carbon mic into a lovely old Pye R/T Handset which Rob also gave me. As the Mic amp is a GGT.
Will give a progress report in a week or so.

Regards, David