Battleship Massachusetts Radio Room

[@MichaelHeal99]

I love the collaboration between Battleship Cove & Battleship New Jersey. The history lessons are great.

[@davidjean2170]

Your really bringing back memories for me right now. I worked at battleship cove for years from around 2000 till something like 2018. I know Chris well, the radio room tours were always full on overnights, I love seeing the similarities and the changes between the two ships.

[@N-hunter]

I remember learning Morse code at Battleship Cove as a Cub Scout

[@jeffwilliams8066]

It was USS Alabama for me in the scouts. I loved the trips were we stayed the night on the Lucky A.

[@mike-ng9b81]

Thanks and 73! Would like to see the New Jersey's radio rooms as well!

[@jim874]

Yeah same here! Compare the latest iteration that the New Jersey was upgraded to .. to what we just saw in this video - 1946 state of the art.

[@rexoliver7780]

That last transmitter shown in the first row was the same one I learned transmitter tuning in a college I attended.Was asked to tune it-never seen or touched this before-Tuned just like the transmitters in the "book".Also they had the old Sarkes Tarzan Ch#2 VHF TV transmitter-and tuned that one as well.Worked with both on a class project.The rectifiers had to be replaced in the ST TV transmitter.Got it working.The HF unit with its MG set-you could sort of tune it by the sound of its genset.Would change tone when the RF stages were properly tuned.Until now didn't know that set was used on ships.

[@stephensmith4480]

I Didn`t know that they had Iambic paddle Keys for sending Morse as early as back then. Brilliant presentation, thank you.

[@mfbfreak]

They didn't. In the 40s (looks like 40s equipment to me) they did have bugs, keys that automatically generated the fast dits, but where you manually had to send the dahs. Might be that they hid a keyer somewhere and do use a modern paddle, i can't tell.

[@michaelhovey1698]

Have enjoyed your Battleship Cove tours greatly. You are certainly taking a wealth of knowledge back to NJ

[@TozziWelding]

I can smell the ship from here, I haven't been in years.

[@greentland]

Right? I just took my nephew a few weeks ago and it was exactly the same as when I was a cub scout.

[@TheShawna1]

I've been there a couple of times with our Ham club to "Activate the Ship" for "Museum ships On the air"...which is an Amateur radio special event where Hams can Make contacts with Different museum ships all over the world. While we didn't operate the original equipment But we had a lot of fun operating there! BTW the typewriter In NAVY Speak is called a "MILL" an all capitals typewriter, as that's how all messages were dispatched until Very recently sometime in the 90's if i remember correctly.73'Jim KB1PFL

[@eherrmann01]

I had the opportunity to get on the air on the U.S.S. Kidd (W5KID) a couple of weeks ago, we were lucky enough to make contact with U.S.S. North Carolina (NI4BK). It was great fun. My favorite part is how happy it makes people when they get to add a warship to their QSO logs. 73, Erik N5KON.

[@nobodysbusiness87]

Look at all those tubes!👀 Its like analog Shangri-La! I can only imagine how loud it must get in there with all the motor-generator sets running! Not to mention hot!

[@adamlewellen5081]

Fyi. VHF = very high frequency UHF =ultra high frequency HAM = high amplitude modulation. FM =frequency modulation AM = amplitude modulation. Thanks grandma, a long time ham operator and red cross officer Kb6lhr. My grandpa Wa6zfe

[@jim874]

High Amplitude Modulation ? You mean plate modulation? de WA8SDF

[@adamlewellen5081]

@@jim874 not familiar with that. Explain please?

[@jim874]

@@adamlewellen5081 Modulation is putting a voice or other sound on a radio carrier. AM radio, for example is Amplitude Modulation. FM is Frequency Modulation. And so on. I was asking if he was referring to plate modulation, where the audio signal is applied to the plate circuit of the final amplifier in a transmitter. It results is a very high efficiency of such a transmitter. There is a lot more to it, but hope this helps a little.

[@adamlewellen5081]

@@jim874 I thought vac tube tech works on the pfm printable Pure Fing Magic Thanks will dive in that rabbit hole

[@johnknapp952]

"How does that radio work?" "It's FM.....F***ing Magic".

[@Gatsby1923]

Growing up in MA I visited the Massachusetts a number of times. Can't wait to get down to NJ again though!

[@SkylersRants]

Fascinating. I really enjoy this type of rarely discussed aspects of the ship. I'd love to see a discussion of how they disseminated operation orders throughout the fleet during WWII. I can't imagine that they used HF radios, but it's also hard to imagine the hundreds of ships at Okinawa getting hard copies all at the same time.

[@TheShawna1]

They had Digital "RTTY" aka Radio Tele type

[@SkylersRants]

@@TheShawna1 Interesting, I'd never heard of that before. I'll have to look it up.

[@SkylersRants]

Thanks. I looked it up and I know what it is now. I didn't realize it was used in WWII.

[@jeffreyyoung4104]

As a kid in the 60s and 70s, I would have old WWII radio equipment given to me, as it was obsolete and usually not working. In many cases, I was able to repair and get the stuff working! While I didn't have a license, I would use a light bulb to transmit into to make sure the transmitter was working right! Usually, I would trade or sell the stuff off after getting it up and running. It's tough to find such equipment today, as it was scrapped or stuck in someones closet gathering dust! I would love operating such a station, but I would have to hone my CW skills back to what they once were!

[@josephmoylan9199]

Just now seeing this, really enjoyed it

[@charletonzimmerman4205]

I remember, maintaining -400 cycle, MG sets for RM's & ET's, when I was in, navy late 70's

[@haljames624]

Thank you.

[@smedleyhverovhe8919]

Surprised that there was no radioteletype gear shown. I'm sure it was in use for fleet broadcast. 23 years Army ground-pounder signal officer. Maybe RATT and Crypto was removed by the Navy? Learning more Navy every daay, thanks Ryan.

[@jim874]

He showed a modulator that could be used on HF, I suppose. But that would have been AM, not SSB. CW was a lot more efficient and works a lot better for encrytion, That stuff was good, but still pretty crude compared to what they have now. Heck, the Yeasu FT-950 sitting here in my ham shack is light years ahead of their 1946 technology.

[@KB4QAA]

SH: manual morse was used during WWII for shipboard operations. TTY was undergoing introduction, but probably used for shore-shore links. Manual morse was finally phased out in the early 1970's.

[@terryrogers6232]

Oh wow. Droool. Oh wow. What a collection of radio gear. Wow. I wonder if I could rewind the gene-motors and set the brushes right. I come from that age and found that designing Ferrite switching transformers gave me some insight to the old days. I can smell the ozone now. .Be sure to photograph the windings before working on them as often the winding style makes a difference for example to dissipate brush transients. I have rebuilt WW2 radio gear and upgraded some of them with solid state such that they could be reversed back to tubes without spending a fortune. Cascode FETs have near the same parameters as tubes but way more stable. Have some converted receivers in the garage.

[@ianmangham4570]

Oh dear, he went and said LITTRALLY! 😥 there's no escape 🤕

[@BornRandy62]

I toured the Alabama following the Commissioning of USS Princeton CG59 at Ingles shipbuilding in Pascagoula Mississippi. tours were restricted to topside only on the new ship so I took my parents to what was available and close.

[@MrJeep75]

Very cool, thanks for sharing

[@APV878]

awesome

[@cannon440]

Is it true that many WWII ships had silver wiring? It is great to see this equipment save from scrap.

[@KB4QAA]

No.

[@mfbfreak]

Silver *plated* wire is somewhat common in the RF coils in radio equipment (mostly VHF and UHF), but solid silver wire? Never seen it.

[@martyyoung598]

At 6:14 concerning the radioman mannequin who is seated at the receiving station: he should be uncovered and the headset (earphones) should not be placed on top of his ears. This was very fatiguing after many hours of receiving. Rather, they should be placed on his temples as most did where the hard Bakelite phones were much more comfortable and did not hinder the listening of CW (Morse Code) as the sound propagated to the ears through one’s head. If you ever watch the movie “Midway” from the 70’s, they got it right. Also, when describing a receiving station, the “typewriter” is called a “mill”.

[@FloridaWildlifeChannel]

All done by ITs now in the Navy. Very interesting to see the old version of this stuff.

[@libraeotequever3pointoh95]

Thank you for making this interesting and educational video. :-)

[@TheUsmc0802]

Wow, this is awesome, I just jumped on Wiki. We didn't get our moneys worth out of these ships. 5 years! She's got atleast 25 left to give! What a shame.

[@joshuariddensdale2126]

I only know the letters O and S in Morse Code.

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

Those are the important ones

[@n3zyd]

- - - O . . . S You now know V . . . - it's the first four notes of Beethoven's 5th. B is the reverse - . . . just 9 more that also reverse 5 of which are 1 and 2 digits long, and that covers the alphabet.

[@jim874]

@@BattleshipNewJersey as long as you know the correct order LOL

[@ericcommarato7727]

Transmitters of this era didn’t have electronic keyers as today’s transmitters do. Electronic keyers transmit Morse code dots and dashes automatically. Navy operators would either use a straight key like in old western movies, or what was called a Bug. Bugs were manufactured by a company called Vibroplex. Most Navy operators were proficient using the Vibroplex Bug. With the Bug keyer, dashes were sent by depressing the one side of a “paddle” and dots by depressing the other side of the paddle. The dots were created by an oscillating or vibrating contact, thus the name Vibroplex. The Vibroplex Bug is still made today and largely used by amateur radio operators. This type of key takes considerable practice to master, and has a distinct radio signal. It allows radio traffic to be sent clearly at a considerably higher word per minute rate than a straight key. WW2 Vibroplex Bugs are quite collectible today, as they performed a great service by the operators using them to help the Allies win the war.

[@toastnjam7384]

When in went in the Navy in 1970 I went to radioman school and the first few weeks was spent learning sending/receiving Morse code and typing. I got pretty good but when I got assigned to my ship (USS Kitty Hawk) there wasn't a key in sight, it was all teletype.

[@jim874]

The problem is getting the dah's length correct and consistent. I had my novice when I was 15, and had a pretty good fist with a straight key. The first time I tried a bug, it was pretty funny. Took a month or so of practice before I did a QSO on the air, and even then I wasn't too happy with myself. Anyone know what the WPM that a Navy radio net ran at?

[@ericcommarato7727]

The Army Institute Basic Radio Code training records went from 5 wpm to 16 wpm. I want to say a proficient op would run 18 wpm with great efficiency. ARRL Extra Class when I got my ticket 25 years ago was 20 wpm, with not much efficiency!

[@jim874]

@@ericcommarato7727 I didn't have a receiver with a BFO in it, so i bought a code record from Allied Radio in Chicago and taught myself the code well enough to pass my novice test. By then I had an old BC348 and a DX20. I later traded the 348 for an HR10 that worked a lot better.

[@waikintang8246]

@@ericcommarato7727 Auto sender of coast station would up to 26wpm

[@pab4435]

Fall River ❤

[@lsdzheeusi]

When you get on the air it must be a bit of a shock to people "Battleship here ..."

[@andrewcubbage1007]

Presumably during WW2 most radio signals were encrypted in a secure office before being passed to the radio operators for transmission? Did the Allies use a mechanical system, like the German Enigma machine, or code books of some kind? Also, did the US and British navies use the same codes when operating together?

[@KB4QAA]

AC: Both manual coding from books/tables as well as machine decoders were used in WWII. Machine decoders became prevalent for routine use by the middle of the war. The NSA museum in Maryland has examples. You can see them on their website.

[@andrewcubbage1007]

@@KB4QAA thanks, I will have a look at the NSA museum website

[@sonus289]

would love to see a ham radio group/club do a ham radio contest on museum ship/subs?

[@greentland]

Lol he's better at being Curator than I am at breathing!

[@MakeMeThinkAgain]

A pity the USS New Jersey doesn't have its original radio equipment (I'm assuming it doesn't). The New Jersey received (and decrypted) the most famous message in US Navy history.

[@mikem5043]

I was slightly surprised there was no teletype machine

[@ZGryphon]

"During non-combat operations." Honestly, I would love it if they had played records during combat operations. I suppose it wouldn't really do for practical reasons, plus it would've been so noisy at those times that music probably would've been pointless. Still, who doesn't love the idea of a naval battle with a live soundtrack? "I don't want to set the world on fire," sings Bill Kenny as you and your shipmates rain high explosive on _Jean Bart._

[@n3zyd]

If USS New Jersey has working HF gear the two ships could make radio contact on 20 meters. 10? perhaps start a Scout "net" relaying messages with USS North Carolina. and other museum ships.

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

Both ships have fully functional radios and regularly broadcast and teach scouts how to do it.

[@jim874]

@@BattleshipNewJersey would be cool to listen in to a QSO between the shipd\s

[@divarachelenvy]

I would love to see how big the tubes are..

[@burroaks7]

dammit don't make me feel old lmao .... i was born in 89 don't worry. joking aside all of that restored tube radio equipment is soooo friggen awesome radio nerds\audiophiles etc... would be ruining their pants. also.... ships band room???? well dauymn that's pretty awesome also the fact that it was fed into the ships p.a. and broadcasting equipment that's friggen awesome the\each ship is a legit mobile high power radio broadcasting station\piggyback station .... excuse my terminology i'm no expert there are some aweomes videos out there about tube powered broadcasting some is still in use

[@ashman187]

BB = Battleship Brothers

[@kn4ixcKn4ixc]

Ham radio rules

[@davesnelling3812]

Did all this radio equipment generate a vast amount of heat ? there appears to be a lot of air ducting and no portholes.

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

This is below the waterline. So portholes wouldn't work here. But yes, they do generate heat, thats why these spaces had AC.

[@user-wl7pj7xt4v]

How long were the SoDaks in mothball before being scrapped or turned into museum ships?

[@jeremygagnon9277]

About 18-19 years. 1946-1965

[@Lockbar]

What might be the maximum signal transmission range in miles if the Battleship had use of its most powerful transmitter to get a message out?

[@jim874]

MY guess it depended on what HF frequency, the time of the day and what the sun spots were like back then.

[@coolminecraft1457]

Does New Jersey have an operational radio room?

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

3 in fact. We usually broadcast on Saturdays, when we can get people in that is.

[@airdamien]

Ships organ?

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

When we say that battleships have everything, we mean it!

[@cliffjones40]

cliff jones lesson to be learned google

[@carltornblom3648]

INT ZBO-QRK5-INT QRK