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Wireless room spares

18K views 76 replies 32 participants last post by  les.edgecumbe 
#1 ·
Any of you fine chaps recall the spares we carried by regulation? Was it two spare valves for each one of that type in use? And three for every two in use? Something of the sort methinks.
I'm thinking of the stocktake we would need to do before the start of voyage. Was the spares cupboard ever inspected and checked by some shore-side authority?
I'm attempting to write a bit of memoir about commissioning Brocklebank's Mawana's wireless gear for her maiden voyage in 1958. Don Butterworth was my boss. Tom Eggleston was Master.
 
#43 · (Edited)
Quite right Bob! This is what the SOED has to say about it:

pein noun var. of peen noun.

peen noun. Also pein. L17.
[ORIGIN Origin uncertain: cf. peen verb, pane noun².]
The end of a hammer head opposite to the face, esp. when sharp.

peen verb trans. E16.
[ORIGIN App. of Norse origin: cf. Swedish dial. pena, päne, Danish dial. pene, paene, Norwegian dial. penna, paenna.]
Beat thin with a hammer, hammer out; strike with the peen of a hammer.

I'm now beginning to wish I hadn't commented on it....(==D)
 
#44 ·
Quite right Bob! This is what the SOED has to say about it:



I'm now beginning to wish I hadn't commented on it....(==D)
To finally hammer this matter out ,
We also have the Cross Pein and the line pein hammers with chisel style head fore and aft or athwartships as used by tinsmiths, panel beaters etc .
Could be used for chopping wires in the wireless room if no side cutters in the kit.
 
#49 ·
Six years at sea and never, ever, typed a crew list or any other do***ent for the ship, Master or shipowners. Any and all clerical work performed by me aboard ship was for my employer, Marconi Marine and in pursuance of operating a radio station.

If you abhorred the work of a ship's writer, you should have chosen your employer more carefully, David. Signs off with a smug smirk.
 
#54 ·
Sailing with Mobil, I recall having to do the crew lists for immigration.
For several months we were lightering off the Texas gulf coast.
USA immigration requested all crew lists be in alphabetical order.
As we had a substantial number of crew members, 40+ being of Asian extraction with some names longer than the alphabet, and the remainder, Brits.
The Asian crew did not change, but the Brit members would change one at a time after 4 months or so. I soon came to an agreement with immigration to have two crew lists. As I had a one of those copying machines were you typed on a wax type paper and then put it on a drum and rotated the drum which made copies.

A small price to pay for doing about 6 hours a week on the key. Those were the sailing hours out to the VLCC and back.
 
#51 ·
Dunno about the substance in that claim David. My time at sea preceded Stan's involvement - my dealings with him came much later, as his boss. While I was an R/O I took great care to avoid any involvement with East Ham depot - had it marked on my career plan as "Here be dragons."
 
#53 ·
Nothing wrong with East Ham. R/Oing or (from admittedly brief experience) techying. Dave Brown and the team, not all names remembered I am afraid, but a largely happy bunch as long as one didn't break anyone's warding file through misuse, especially when the anyone was Irish!
 
#57 ·
Radio spares

During my time at sea , i had 3 visits from R/I,s none of whom even enquired about spares let alone checked them. An R/I in Hobart visited my ship and tried to come the old madam with me regarding the transmissions that emanated from the radio room of that fine vessel. He threatened to hold the ship until the problem (QRI/QRH) was solved, the tx came from Noahs ark and I merely informed him that I worked on the ship but did not own it and Hobart is not a bad place to rest up for a while.!! . We duly sailed on time so I guess he must have had a bad day.
 
#58 ·
Posted by new member Richard-T in incorrect area. I have moved to correct location - Hawkey01


I worked for Philips in Australia from 1967 to 1996. In my early days we had a very large factory in Adelaide (Hendon) that manufactured receiving valves and B&W picture tubes amongst it's many electronic components and finished products. With the change-over from valves to solid-state electronics in "browngoods" (radios, TVs, etc) in the 1970s there was no longer a big demand for valves and many Philips tube production lines were sold either to the Far East or Eastern Europe. I think the Hendon line went to Japan but memory could be wrong. We certainly bought our replacement market receiving valves from Japan afterwards.

The USSR was a long way behind the West in introducing solid-state gear just about anywhere, including their military, so it's hardly a surprise to find them (and maybe China?) as the main source of transmitting tubes - and also as a source of tubes for the audiophile market.
 
#59 ·
Posted by new member Richard-T ....

The USSR was a long way behind the West in introducing solid-state gear just about anywhere, including their military, so it's hardly a surprise to find them (and maybe China?) as the main source of transmitting tubes - and also as a source of tubes for the audiophile market.
I remember reading back in the 70s that Soviet kit was claimed to be built to better withstand EMP from any exo-atmospheric burst and that was a possible reason to retain valves.
At that time solid state kit was quite delicate, but nowadays who still regularly uses a wrist band to earth? - I do use an anti static work mat though. (Thumb)
 
#60 ·
Not strictly related to this thread but when I was studying for my MRGC in Bristol there was a wonderful shop in Newfoundland Road called "Helmore and Hunt". An Aladdin's cave of vintage radio equipment and spares. If you ever needed to replace a valve they would put the old one on the tester and refuse to sell you a new one if the old valve was still functional. Sadly the shop long demolished for the M32 into Central Bristol but I am sure generations of radio enthusiasts in Bristol remember the place with affection.

Larry +
 
#61 ·
Hello Larry

Yes I remember that place. I had a Marconi Elettra receiver in need of a few new valves and they had all I needed. I would spend some evenings (when not in the King's Head at the top of Gloucester Road) listening to Portishead and the nearby shipping on MF to improve my CW before the final test. I would on occasion wander into the shop just to browse around with no real mission in mind. The chaps there didn't seem to care and left me to it.
Here in Singapore when I first arrived more than 40 years ago there was a similar shop at the basement of the famous Sim Lim Tower, full of AR88's and RA17's. It was radio Mecca. Also, long gone.

John
 
#67 ·
If a failure occurred and there were no spares on board was the radio officer typically able to get those spares at the next port of call?
 
#70 ·
Years ago in Portland Maine, on a Saturday afternoon, a tech came aboard to fix our RMS2 radar. A peculiar resistor behind the CRT had gone duff. Everything was closed down, but he said he could find something among his amateur radio friends, and did I was to go with him. You bet. He found what he wanted and we went back via his favourite watering hole and my round. We went and sat down and when the beers came, he asked how old I was. Good job I had my uniform on as the answer was 19. Not enough for Maine !!

David
+
 
#71 ·
Steaming down to Australia the auto alarm failed on test. Fault was a Siemens relay, o/c coil. No spare. Attempted to repair but the wire was too fine. Radioed ahead to Oz but on arrival no spare but an interested radio surveyor. Was permitted to sail with 500kcs rx audio fed to the bridge speaker for monitoring by the personnel there. Spare arrived at next port in the PG.
No spares carried for the marine VHF, (not required under existing regs.) which resulted in difficulties until I managed to extract a set of valves from the ship owners.
 
#74 ·
As I have been told by an older British radio officer, now passed on, that on several of his ships he had young Indian boys who would stay in the radio shack and listen for ..._ _ _ ...
while the RO was sleeping or at mess, and if heard to to get the RO as soon as possible.
 
#76 ·
Varley: thank you. Yes, I think back now and I believe that he did call them “watchers.” Great find.

Regards and stay healthy in these trying times.
 
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