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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment. |
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7th Dec 2018, 4:07 pm | #1 |
Pentode
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK.
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Pye Marine Receiver U304
Hi All,
Just acquired this receiver. Can't find any reference to it anywhere. Seems to be a late 50's fishphone receiver, uses B9A valves. Looking for a circuit or any other info. Power supply has been hacked about, currently mains operated but this may be a modification. Anybody recognise this receiver?
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Peter G8BBZ |
7th Dec 2018, 6:23 pm | #2 |
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
You might find it under Rees-Mace
David
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7th Dec 2018, 6:56 pm | #3 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Aberdeen, UK.
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
Like David says - I too recon its a Pye badged Reece-Mace marine Rx. Reece-Mace of Lowestoft were taken over by Pye in the 50's. Have a shufti back through "Search" - I had a R-M thread running for a while several years ago.
Regards, David |
7th Dec 2018, 7:59 pm | #4 |
Pentode
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK.
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
I had thought it was probably Rees-Mace before I got it home but then I found the attached on the chassis which seems to suggest it dates from after the Pye takeover of Rees-Mace.
As far as I can gather, Pye took R-M over in the early 50's and I would guess the design of this receiver to be later than that. The function switch (bottom right) has positions for Simplex and Duplex so I am guessing there was a companion transmitter which went with this receiver - again standard fishphone stuff. I was surprised there was no mention of it on the Pye History site - usually pretty comprehensive.
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Peter G8BBZ |
12th Dec 2018, 10:21 pm | #5 |
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
Does the fishfone still exist? Am I correct in thinking it was just above top band?
73 M3VUV. |
12th Dec 2018, 10:34 pm | #6 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
Quote:
The old AM fishfones were de-licenced by the late-1970s and SSB or VHF-FM 156MHz took its place. In a way, I miss "Trawler-band" - it was entertaining to hear multi-way conversations lasting several hours but consisting almost entirely of profanities! |
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12th Dec 2018, 10:48 pm | #7 |
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
If by "fishphone" you are referring to ship to shore telephone calls, I seem to remember these were connected through the Coastal Radio Stations. I dont think the authorities would have allowed open phone calls to be connected if they were going to be Profanities involved.
I know I certainly never heard any profanities, they calls were mostly skippers calling their loved ones at home. Maybe you are thinking of ship to ship calls on the Trawler Band, where they boast about and give misleading information as to where they are catching the fish. Mike |
12th Dec 2018, 11:12 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
"Fishfone" was the nickname for trawler-band two-way radio between ships (think of it like an early form of CB), and nothing to do with ship-to-shore phone calls.
Radios with "trawler-band" coverage were popular in coastal fishing areas so that the families onshore could listen-in to their crews while they were at-sea. Profanities very much included! |
13th Jan 2019, 10:05 pm | #9 |
Pentode
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Wick, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 227
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
definitely a modification as would have been 24 volt with rotary power supply for the HT
Do you still have the set. MM0HDW |
14th Jan 2019, 12:41 pm | #10 |
Pentode
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK.
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
Hi James,
Yes I still have the receiver - refurb in progress. I now know (courtesy of the Pye Museum) that this is the receiver used with the Pye Hornet or Swordfish II Marine transceivers. It would have been 24/32v DC powered originally with a vibrator power pack in the receiver, the transmitter being separately powered. A mains transformer has been substituted for the vibrator transformer but I think was rather under-powered and the primary is o/c. I have a replacement transformer which I am hoping will work a little better. The receiver is not entirely as per the manual for the Hornet receiver, there are some modifications which appear to be factory rather than user. Also the model number (U304) was not known to the Pye Museum, who believe the receiver may have been sold as a stand alone receiver rather than being integrated with the Hornet transmitter. An interesting project. cheers
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Peter G8BBZ |
14th Jan 2019, 5:34 pm | #11 |
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
Is the front panel meter an original or added feature?- it seems somehow out of sorts, presentation-wise, with the rest of the panel (though not nearly as conspicuously as some after-the-event add-ons!). This is the sort of of set where a multi-way switched monitoring meter would actually be a justifiable part of original spec., though, for the likes of DC supply/HT out etc.,
Colin |
14th Jan 2019, 9:27 pm | #12 | |
Pentode
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Wick, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 227
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
Quote:
I did a Woodson some years ago, one thing that I did was to rewire the filamentss using twisted pair wire and run from 6.3 volts. The smoothing on the power supply needs to be good, either a choke with a reservoir cap and a smoothing cap or a thermistor in place of the choke (if you cannot find a choke). You will get a lot of help on (shipsnostalgia.com@vsobr.com) nice bunch of guys into these ship radios. Keep us informed. Cheers. |
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15th Jan 2019, 3:40 pm | #13 |
Pentode
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 199
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
Hi All,
The front panel meter is original and was provided specifically as a null detector when the receiver DF function was in use. There are two antenna inputs, the Main antenna being connected to the insulator top left of the front panel and the DF loop antenna being connected to a balanced input provided (strangely) by a standard 1/4" TRS jack socket just below the main antenna. There are separate tuning and balancing presets for the two antennas located inside the set. Tha valves are already wired for 6.3v AC, the heater supply originally being derived from the vibrator transformer. The DC input side of the vibrator unit was fully floating wrt chassis, so enabling use in pos or neg earthed systems. Two versions of the vibrator supply were available, one for 24v DC nominal input and one for 32v DC nominal input. I have never come across a system with 32 v DC power before - how would this be derived? 5 x 6v batteries? cheers
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Peter G8BBZ |
15th Jan 2019, 4:48 pm | #14 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2011
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
Aha, so the meter is a genuine part of the original design.
I'd heard of marine 32VDC systems, but assumed that it was one of those "lost in the mists" things (19th century?), perhaps a compromise between current and safety in an inevitably damp environment? There were 8V lead-acid batteries, but I wonder if heavy but electrically robust NiFe stacks would have been used originally in boats? Low energy density is less of an objection when ballast is welcome anyway. It sounds like the sort of thing that member broadgage would have the answers to. |
15th Jan 2019, 5:59 pm | #15 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2018
Location: South Lakeland, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 47
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Re: Pye Marine Receiver U304
You'll still see 32v dc on boats - much later than 19c; and not unusual on older boats to see split 12/32v systems. Toilets and winches at 32v for example. Many accessories (switches etc..) still often advertised as being rated for 12/24/32v. All to do with manageable wire gauges.
In fact you might see all kinds of interesting things with split 12v dc/120v ac, single standard 24v dc not that unusual now. 32v supplied from 4x8v batteries if memory correct. Nick. |