Inside a Radio Room on Battleship NJ

[@fredlodden1538]

The guys in the radio club on board are a great bunch of guys. They even welcomed a foreign ham (me VK2WS) who was visiting, and I got to operate. I made about 15 contacts following the tour of the ship, one Saturday afternoon in October 2022 . I even logged a contact with the USS Drum that afternoon - museum ship to museum ship. I'll remember it forever.

[@randyogburn2498]

Cool, I've been aboard the Drum.

[@roninsc]

73 from AA2RR. Before I retired and moved from NJ, I spent a lot of time in that radio room making contacts and working on repair projects on the ship. It was always great to call CQ, CQ, CQ from NJ2BB, the Battleship New Jersey and listening to the 'pileup' of hams from all over the world wanting to have a QSO with the ship. Glad to see that NJ2BB is still on the air!

[@RaceBanner_]

Can you please do a video on that radio room?! It looks tremendously interesting but none of the space is actually covered.

[@Jankapotamus1]

Jeff!!! He was very informative when I took my tour earlier this year. He was repairing a piece of equipment, and explained to me in detail what he was doing, why he was doing it, and how everything worked! He’s absolutely a great person to have on the Battleship New Jersey team!

[@phillipbouchard4197]

Glad to see New Jersey alive and well and on the air ! This great battleship is an active member of the historic fleet of museum ships and set's a good example for other ships to follow. Thanks to all the volunteers who make this happen !

[@ScreamingEagleSid]

My late father worked on her at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during WW2

[@zoopercoolguy]

Thanks for doing this video. I love how almost every museum ship has an active ham radio club associated with it.

[@LawF250]

I just visited USS Midway last Sunday and they had two HAM radio operators broadcasting and talking to people around the world. Very cool!!

[@pcpilot8383]

Stayed on the Hotel ship Queen Mary in Long Beach five years ago.. Got to see there radio room and there HAM volunteers invited me in to watch them work as well as a tour of the equipment they used for HAM . and also the original ships communication equipment.

[@007007niki]

This is somthing I could be interested in. What a neat way to keep these ships alive and a great way to teach radio communications to the Boy Scouts.

[@SandhillandNorthern]

I was there last year with my sons' Scout troop. They did a great job teaching the radio merit badge. Great job and keep these videos coming. KC3MVP

[@AugustusTitus]

Thank you both for taking time to make this video. One of the other topics that I'd touch on when discussing the radio room is the "nets" or "networks" that were/are used by the military for group communications. We still have some of that procedure in amateur radio, but we aren't authorized for the power that the military used (up to 10 kW or more). The other thing to look at is just how many transmitters and different frequencies were in use for whatever they were used for. The Radio Room in a flagship battleship was used for teletype (RTTY), AM, FM, SSB, and Morse Code (CW), often at the same time to communicate around the world. It was virtually like a telephone central office or PBX with multiple circuits routed through, going to transmitters and/or receivers, and those transmitters and/or receivers routed to various antennas around the structure of the ship. Another thing we often communicate during a contest is location based on Maidenhead Grid Square, and sometimes there are "rovers" located at the corners of a grid square, or grid squares that are 90% water or more.

[@michaelsommers2356]

You should do video tours of all the radio spaces.

[@georgeb1364]

KJ6SXA here, would like to see some of the original radio and communications equipment the ship used while on active duty if possible. The hams pictured were using modern civilian equipment.

[@prh8068]

I have contacted NJ2BB, and many other museum ship radio clubs, numerous times. I greatly appreciate the volunteers who put these ships on the air. I am a CW (Morse code) operator and can't help but think about the vital Morse code communications that took place in past years to and from these great ships.

[@Imustscream]

Thanks for the info on the radio people and the contest

[@tomcarrion8881]

WOW, that brought back a lot of memories seeing the radio equipment i operated for 20 years as a Radioman the R-1051 HF receivers, the URA-17s, the antenna couplers and i believe that big red monster was the SAS-1 used to patch voice circuits throughout the ship and the combat information center i think thats what the nomenclature was lol. And then when he mentioned teletypes lol that was my NEC teletype repairman lol i might even be able to still fix one lol. I know very little about ham radio but i do remember on one of my ships the senior chief had his own setup and the call sign of the ship was NNN0CWM the ship having long been decommissioned. Thanks for the Video.

[@michaelsommers2356]

I think the NNN0 call signs were for MARS stations.

[@tomcarrion8881]

@@michaelsommers2356 Correct

[@ZBM2Ory]

It may be an older model since she's an older ship, but i vaguely remember the "coke machine" being an SA-2112.

[@lauraaz3015]

Ryan, Another great video! Thanks! How about putting together a video with the radio club covering all of the radio equipment in each of the radio rooms on the ship? The New Jersey's radio club has done so much to restore these radio spaces. Time to share their accomplishments with lots of detail.

[@arnoldgrubbs2005]

Had hopes of visiting the station at USS Hazard and USS Marlin over the weekend, as the radio club operating there asked if any other amateurs wanted to operate for a while, but was not feeling the greatest last weekend. Had hoped to contact the NJ!. Maybe next year. Thanks for showing some of the things the hams do. I think it would be great to have a short video on the MARS program and how that helped out in wartime if it could be arranged!

[@davidstearns9664]

As a ham radio operator (KD2ERR) I was out of town last weekend . So I missed Museum Ship weekend. Looks like you all had fun! 73 KD2ERR

[@ravenbarsrepairs5594]

As a ham(General) with no HF equipment(thought I'd budgetted to get a radio this year but my Jeep had other plans), I'm envious of those who live close enough to places like the battleship where such equipment exists. 73, KD2QQF

[@AZPhotoWACA]

Managed to make contact with NJ2BB via voice on 20 meters twice. Once with the BSA, once with a volunteer.

[@chuckmoore4600]

I have not worked NJ2BB but I will start watching for them. I have worked a couple of other ships, one was the Kidd. 73's NR0W

[@Scout75PortableRadio]

Nice to see the patience working the QSO’s. The band conditions were pretty rough that weekend. I didn’t participate in the museum ships weekend this year, however I have made a contact with NJ2BB before, along with other ships including USS Midway.

[@Scout75PortableRadio]

Now that I know you guys are on the air fairly often, I’ll add NJ2BB to my alerts so I can work you in the future.

[@rilmar2137]

That equipment looks glorious

[@Electronzap]

My dad was obsessed with ham radio, never interested me to talk to strangers on a radio, but the electronics stuff in the books he had did. Probably wouldn't have started a KZbin channel with this name otherwise.

[@Spookieham]

73s from VK6HIL. Tell the guys to run some FT8 or WSPR so those of us in Australia have a chance at a QSO

[@zororosario]

Teamwork nice stuff, sorting what works or doesn't? Cheers to all the good boys. ❤

[@brianbranson2306]

the Signal corps reenactors out at reading Pa, are the only ones i know of that have a working teletype

[@georgemusulin5812]

USS Iowa has theirs working. San Pedro, Ca.

[@jeffg9157]

Do you have a link to them?

[@dancamp1515]

Ask and ye shall receive! 😁 Posted on the "weird antenna locations" video that it would be cool to see a segment about this event, and lo-and-behold here it is! Thank you Ryan for putting this together. 73!

[@RichNotWealthy]

Dang I missed the event! My late uncle Joseph was a radioman in the USS Frederick C Davis during WW2. My dad and his twin brother were just kids then but both later served in the navy and also had rates in electronics. Growing up (other side of the Delaware River from NJ) I never heard of ham radio. My dad and uncles apparently had enough of radio in the Navy? Even when I got my license my dad never showed any interest. BTW uncle Joe barely survived when the FC Davis was torpedoed and sunk by a Uboat which itself was sunk later that day. The Destroyer Escort USS Stewart at Galveston is a sister ship of the same class. I have visited a couple times but the radio room was off limits at the time. All due respect the explanation of ham radio and call signs was confusing. But there are plenty of ham radio KZbin channels for ppl who are interested.

[@bigsarge2085]

What a cool experience!

[@Weesel71]

Very nice and interesting. Be real neat to see the faces of some of the equipment. (hint, hint for future posting.)

[@dankono4729]

I ( kf7aho) have operated off of the uss Turner Joy (ns7dd) here in Bremerton Washington on that weekend in the past...

[@stephenbritton9297]

There are SO many different assets that utilize the same band of callsigns. broadcast TV and radio, naval/merchant/commercial vessels, civil aviation, public safety communications centers, maritime radio comm stations, and more. How the US makes do with just three leading letter series (K, N, W) I don't know. Especially in the future, when the FCC starts assigning call signs to Starfleet...

[@michaelsommers2356]

The US also uses half of the As, AAA through ALZ. 73 de AB2SB.

[@andrewkruchoski7757]

KB3ODK myself... and my brother is KB3ODJ and my father is W9BKB... got my callsign in 2006....

[@seanhazelwood3311]

As a ham (w4mrh), that aspect of the video was great. However, I was expecting more info on NJs actual radio equipment. More along the lines of the video Iowa did on their shacks.

[@wfoj21]

so - in first major portion of video with Ryan _ I will guess near all equipment there was not present when NJ first became a musuem -obtained since then.

[@k4vms]

Very Cool from K4VMS Ricky from IBM

[@markpetruno7368]

Great looking shack, the R-1051s and URA-17s ... along with the Antenna tuners alongside ... I think I had a qso with you guys a few years ago ... enjoy the weekend ... are you able to use any of Navy Radios ... 73 de K3MP Mark

[@487joe]

Nice to hear a little code.

[@jonpeterson1939]

Hey Ryan, how about a video showing the food storage area’s ? Freezer and dry storage. Thanks, JP

[@gn1656]

Would have been nice to get a tour of all that radio gear behind him

[@gilesshine3917]

Thanks for this video, hopefully someday I can work the battleship.

[@sonus289]

Would love to see some of the old ship radio gear operate

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

It does work! We have morse code and teletype going too.

[@vrod665]

The radio club is fantastic. What antenna did they leverage for this event.

[@RichNotWealthy]

I found information about the radio station aboard by searching the callsign NJ2BB

[@robertfritz9916]

WD6S liked this video. Unfortunately local CCRs prevent me from putting up an HF antenna. Here in Idaho a station was at Farradut State Park, which was a WWII training center that trained 300,000 seamen for the Navy.

[@mfbfreak]

If a flagpole or clothesline is legal, you can very well hide an antenna in one of those. Alternatively, build a nice magloop that you can put on a movable base. Magloops work decently well, though you're limited to about 15w if you don't have one of those big expensive vacuum capacitors. But at 15w and CW or another narrow band mode, you'll already be working quite a lot of stations.

[@henryganzer4685]

interesting but i see they have mostly modern amateur radio equipment in use. did they use original military radio equipment from the ship too? i think there must be high quality receivers and powerful transmitters on the ship from his military service times on the ship or these things are removed?

[@Spookieham]

Even if they were in place the power emitted and frequencies would not be usable by Amateurs as they have their own allocations. Plus the old equipment would be VERY power hungry and probably dangerous to use due to age.

[@henryganzer4685]

@@Spookieham maybe you are right but i think if the equipment is from its last service time in the eighties the electronics would not be too old for bring it up to working conditions.

[@Spookieham]

@@henryganzer4685 Possibly but working frequencies would be wrong

[@henryganzer4685]

@@Spookieham thats interesting, the transmitters on the ship working with fixed frequencies? i was a radio operator in my military service time at the beginning oft the eighties. i remember the training on two mobile radio stations (on a truck). the small one has a frequency range from 1,5 to 12 mhz with 400 watt transmitting power and the other one ( on a bigger truck ) worked in a frequency range from 1,5 to 30 mhz with a transmitting power 1000 watt. there are some shortwave amateur frequency ranges in that area. is there any website out there with more detailed information about the radio equipment of such a big ship? i found that very interesting. thanks

[@RichNotWealthy]

I would think that military radios have the capability to operate on amateur hf and vhf but it’s just easier to hookup a commercially available Amateur rig because the ops are familiar with it’s operation

[@mrnemo204]

0:20 The ship still uses XP!

[@robynstephens166]

Nice to see a reference to an Aussie icon band, AC/DC.

[@DptyFife]

I would like to see an episode on ventilation. With all the water tight doors/compartments how was air moved through the ship when in a battle stations condition?

[@tonybutler3502]

Can you let me know the ham callsign of the gentleman using the Lionel J36 bug key, his sending is really superb 73 Tony

[@Saelig66]

I tried several times to find the Hew Jeesey on the air but conditions didnt favor contact from my station Michingan in 2023. I'll try again in 2024

[@trey1531]

I participated in this a few years ago on the USS Kidd?

[@richhoule3462]

KE2BDO Sharing this one with my club

[@DAPete418]

Wow. You still have the Coke machine in there! I recognize most of the equipment I can see in this video. Old stuff, bet we were still using it all in the early to mid 2000’s.

[@robertmartin995]

R1051 i remember that from the ET school.

[@McTroyd]

Cool to use the original radio room for this. Were they using the ship's antennae as well?

[@paulsimmons3417]

Would have been nice to see the original radio equipment that would have been in use on battleships (as well as cruisers, destroyers, etc.) during WW2: Transmitters that had to be tuned manually and patched to various MF and HF shipboard antennas; Receivers for MF and HF in use and patched to panels for corresponding MF and HF antennas. Same with the chain-based crypto machines that were used to determine each ship's encrypted callsign.

[@richardelushik1177]

From N8GGO-Great discussion of Ham Radio and how it works to assist during disasters, and much more.

[@thomasmoore8142]

I'm a fairly new Ham, KQ4EQE, and I mostly use the digital mode FT8. Does any of the ships do FT8?

[@bluerebel01]

What is the frequency you broadcast on?

[@michaelsommers2356]

They can use any amateur frequency the individual operator is licensed for.

[@seanhazelwood3311]

I assume you mean which frequency NJ2BB uses for the special event? General Class portion of 20m and 40m ssb.

[@RichNotWealthy]

HEY RYAN! Can you put up a link to the radio club website? Big Brother keeps deleting my attempts to share it

[@rodneybuchholz9200]

Are the radios and other equipment the property of the ship or the operators.

[@michaelhorne8366]

Slightly disappointed there was no conversation around the actual radio gear installed in the boat. I was staring at those racks for the whole video just waiting for the discussion to swing over to them.

[@mongoose388]

It's a Dave Burgess sighting. Regards to Dave.

[@richcrozier1108]

73 from KQ4OJ

[@steveskouson9620]

I LIKE Jeff's shirt. I have to find one. steve

[@IMDunn-oy9cd]

This old salt recognizes those R-1051s on the right.

[@michaelsommers2356]

And they look like URA-17s above.

[@IMDunn-oy9cd]

@@michaelsommers2356 Sure are. I'm bet there are empty bays where the crypto used to be.

[@michaelbrasher8833]

During my time in the Navy in the Persian Gulf War 1990-91 MARS calls were a blessing when possible. NZK was our call sign . Neat memories.

[@michaelsommers2356]

NZK should be a shore station. Ships had four letters.

[@bobroberts2371]

" What is it to being a Ham ? " It means " Using the radio to talk about the radio. "

[@RichNotWealthy]

I’ve heard that and for some it’s true but not everyone who gets a radio license is a techno geek

[@weirdscience1]

Is it true that HAM is going FM?

[@thekidfromcleveland3944]

🎶no static at all🎶

[@RichNotWealthy]

Amateur radio ops have used CW(Morse code, the first digital communication tech) AM, SSB, FM, and various digital voice and data communications. Citizen Band radio has been be limited to AM and SSB but the FCC recently allowed FM voice. Maybe that’s what you are asking?

[@davidrece8872]

Someday you are going to have to tell the story on you "coke machine". That big red box you were standing by.

[@philipsavickas4860]

teletype the original text

[@Turboy65]

With such an incredible amount of 1500 watt HF transmitters and excellent receivers available, I'm disappointed to see the operator using a modern commercial HF transceiver for the event. I'd prefer that the Battleship's equipped radios should be used whenever possible for all special events. That equipment still works well, and it's historical. Please use it.

[@shawnmcintyre4773]

Why ?

[@robynstephens166]

Yes, Ham radio still very much has a place in the world. Ham radio will still work with a hand cranked power supply. Ham radio does not need WiFi. Ham radio will recive using a hand cranked power supply when the terrorist take out power stations and its good exercise as well

[@hautedaug]

unwatchable due to volume issues

[@EmrysImmortal]

Faccon = "Facilities Control"

[@randyogburn2498]

I've always thought becoming a HAM operator would be neat, but I'm afraid its out of my budget.

[@brendandenney]

There are reasonably priced low power radios and antennas that can get on HF around $200. Digital modes are easy to get into.

[@shawnmcintyre4773]

Wrist watch cocked to the right… there’s a reason .

[@U812-k7j]

Racks of Navy radio equipment and what do they operate a rice box shame on them......

[@mike-ng9b81]

I've worked NJ2BB 4 times: once from home, and 3 times they've called me while I was calling CQ POTA!! Awesome job guys, keep up the good work!!! 73 de NG9B ps I have worked all 4 Iowas and have their QSL cards in my collection!

[@neonhomer]

I tried to work NJ2BB this past weekend but my antenna was down and didnt have a chance to get it fixed... Will yall be working Field Day this year (2023)? If so listen out for N4DAB... 73 de KK4BFN

[@allenmiddendorff2068]

de KB3NVF, Thanks, 73

[@72polara]

73 de K6ZRX