Marconi T1509: A Seriously Big AM Transmitter

[@john.stringer]

Great to see one of these old beasts still in use today. We had a T1509 in the radio room at my Air Cadet squadron HQ when I was a cadet in the 1980s. We operated it on a number of HF spot frequencies to contact other squadrons around the country. Great fun to tune. Sadly it was dismantled and stripped for parts in the 90s. Hopefully some of its components live on elsewhere.

[@nickjaxe]

WOW...what a beast...love the quality of old 30/40s radio equipment...I shudder to think what it must have cost the Gov to purchase. Good to see people are still around who can look after this gear. I am used to watching your vids on jet engines...coincidence this pops up in my in box...I bought my 1st HF tx a few weeks ago...just come down a few mins ago from my first proper use of it on 80mt...the only band I have an antenna for at present. I am MLPL6 so limited to 10w but still get interesting QSOs. eep up the good work...love the shack. 73 from Nick.

[@bobsol1200]

We used T1509 s in the Dutch Royal Airforce (NLRAF) till the end of 1960 s in low speed CW n ets, remotely controlled, so we worked full break-in. Frequency change by telephone giving the technicia at the transmitter station a four figure code he could then loop up which frequency to set. We also had a spare T1509 in the comms bunker which worked fb on 14mhz cw....

[@cbeagle]

With the T1509's size, it is designed that way as it was used 24 hours a day 7 days a week. for it's entire service, so it is over engineered to dissipate heat etc. They were installed in transmitter hall's, by crane, hence the lifting loops on the top, they were bolted to the ground, so weren't unstable when being serviced. A lot were sold to the Caribbean islands when on the surplus market, for use as radio station transmitters, constantly transmitting. I am told some were still in use until recently.

[@cthoadmin7458]

Wish I had those variable capacitors and roller inductor. Worth it just for those!

[@chansetwo]

That may have been used as an air-traffic-control transmitter by the RAF. I have a similar 250-watt. 700 pound transmitter made in the states that was used for that purpose by the USN.

[@bassdowg]

The modulation transformer and the powersupply transformers and Swinging chokes are what makes this xmitter vry heavy

[@genetomblin2883]

It's built like the ship board transmitters from that period

[@cornelishummel7987]

Hi there i have been reparing the same transmitter whe have all power sources and driver signal but no power endstage mesearing all all sources al there do you have a tip whre the problem is thansk for your time

[@dambuster6387]

Back in 1970,s I was in the Royal Naval Reserve as a radio operator in the training room we had also a very large transmitter primary for cw with full breaking using relays. The transmitter had a very distinct chirp when keyed and the relays clunking away I told my Commanding office it sounded like a pregnant duck He was not amused.

[@W4BIN]

200 Watts is almost nothing, I maintained a 240,000 Watt transmitter before I retired. A lot of HAM transmitter put out 200 Watts, starting with the FT-1000. The 813 is a sweet beam power pentode. The USAF used 5 kW HF transmitters to talk to their aircraft in flight. (hundreds of miles away)

[@dougtaylor7724]

Where do people find those?

[@swingdaddy2126]

Yes of course if you Want to go to say 27.025MHZ then yes its not very much but in general 200 watt carrier on Amplitude Modulation is nothing to sneeze at. awesome piece of equipment.

[@MauriatOttolink]

I believe that there was a Hand Held version of it

[@justicelut]

Too right, if it ain’t broke, don’t stuff with it!

[@ElPasoTubeAmps]

Love it... wish I had it. 73 WA4QGA

[@thewtf]

Thanks David, keep the video’s coming I’m a big fan! 73 Justin GW0FZY

[@Bravo4Whiskey]

My girl would leave me for having these beside my Yaesus....hey, I'm having no girl and lots of Yaesus :-) 73, de do4amf

[@netautorisationnetautorisa545]

*..200 W... NOT A LOT .. (A LITTLE STRANGE) .. BUT **#LOOKS** "MEGA GOOD" ..* *(MONSTERS IS TO "HAVE" ..A MUST)* *I HAVE "2" IN MY LITTLE HOUSE ... AND A "ROOM" FULL OF MORE PARTS* *LAST OF BIG "ONES" 1980s "1000 - 1500 W.. 15 KHz - 30 MHz.. AM/SSB.. 200KG* (200 KG "MAIN STATION" ..AND.. 200 KG "BACKUP STATION" can run on "24 Vdc") *SAILOR RADIO DENMARK .. "SOLAS / TANDEM STATION 1000" ..* GOOD LUCK .. MISTER