# Call Sign Identification Request



## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

If anyone has a call sign book, please could you tell me what ship is MHJR

The reason I ask is that I purchased a 2182 transmitter receiver (Coastal Radio Corvette) on a car boot sale this morning and it has that call sign on it!

Bob


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

MHJR is registered as a yacht named Kismet.


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Thanks, I should be able to find it now.
Bob


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

The only _Kismet_ I could find online is a "superyacht" but this transceiver does not have the "superyacht" look about it, so I guess there was an older one with the same name.
Here is the transceiver.
Bob


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

Hi Shipbuilder. I got that name from the ITU list on their radiocommunication site. There is only that one Kismet allocated that c/s. I also then did a Google and got the same results as you have.
The Coastal radio transceiver I do recognise as being the type once fitted to RNLI lifeboats. I used to operate the one on the old Kirkcudbright 37 foot Oakley lifeboat many years ago.
Hoping you manage to track Kismet down.

Regards

Rab Thomson


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

I have had a look inside now. A beautifully built hybrid, transistors and valves. If the receiver doesn't work, I don't suppose I could fix it as I don't have all that many transistors (never liked them anyway!(EEK))
Could probably fix the transmitter if faulty and the valves are OK. Lovely job though!
Bob


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## Searcher2004 (May 3, 2012)

Shipbuilder said:


> I have had a look inside now. A beautifully built hybrid, transistors and valves. If the receiver doesn't work, I don't suppose I could fix it as I don't have all that many transistors (never liked them anyway!(EEK))
> Could probably fix the transmitter if faulty and the valves are OK. Lovely job though!
> Bob


Hi Bob,

I can ask on the Vintage Military and Amateur Radio forum for info if you like as their members are "in to" marine equipment as well. Have done a search on their Members site and found this from Dec 2013:-

"Hi All
Does any member have any 'Coastal Radio' equipment they wish to part with? In particular the transmitter and case for the Curlew 350, although the complete station would do! Coastal Radio were a firm in the 50's and 60's that designed and made HF marine radios in Leith and Poole for the RNLI amongst others."

(I've left the contact details off but can QSP via P/M if it would help you).

A couple of drawbacks on the receiver; like people, germanium transistors develop inappropriate "whiskers" as they get old, tiny strands of metal grow inside the structure that eventually short out the innards. 

Secondly, probably due to the high failure rate of domestic receivers, the price of replacement Ge transistors has soared and of course you can't always be sure you're buying a serviceable device. Check out ebay for prices, your receiver looks to have Mullard OC-series devices in it. 

Let me know if you want to cross-post to VMARS, a photo or two of the set would help.

Cheers,

S2004


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Thanks for reply. Yes please, I would be interested to know further details of it. The power cable has extremely thick wires, so I assumed that the PSU is a solid state device working off maybe 24 Volts rather than mains. I checked the fuses and they were quite heavy types and not blown. The fellow at the car boot sale said he didn't know anything about it, but the dial lit up when plugged in. I really felt he may have plugged it into the mains and blown it up!(EEK) Not having a 24 Volt battery, I connected it to 12 Volts and the dial did light up and a slight hiss from the speaker. I have not tried it on an aerial yet. I can only assume that the seller was making it up when he said he had plugged it in, as mains would certainly have blown something out! He did say he knew nothing about radio!
I would be happy to part with it for the price I paid, plus carriage. Or it could be collected (Preston).
The reason for my lack of enthusiasm is that is mainly full of transistors which I have never been too keen on. It is a complete transceiver though with MW, LW (Variable tuning) . The transmitter spot frequencies (crystals) are 2182, 2381, 2016, 2527, 2246 and 2301.
Bob


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## Searcher2004 (May 3, 2012)

Shipbuilder said:


> Thanks for reply. Yes please, I would be interested to know further details of it. The power cable has extremely thick wires, so I assumed that the PSU is a solid state device working off maybe 24 Volts rather than mains. I checked the fuses and they were quite heavy types and not blown. The fellow at the car boot sale said he didn't know anything about it, but the dial lit up when plugged in. I really felt he may have plugged it into the mains and blown it up!(EEK) Not having a 24 Volt battery, I connected it to 12 Volts and the dial did light up and a slight hiss from the speaker. I have not tried it on an aerial yet. I can only assume that the seller was making it up when he said he had plugged it in, as mains would certainly have blown something out! He did say he knew nothing about radio!
> I would be happy to part with it for the price I paid, plus carriage. Or it could be collected (Preston).
> The reason for my lack of enthusiasm is that is mainly full of transistors which I have never been too keen on. It is a complete transceiver though with MW, LW (Variable tuning) . The transmitter spot frequencies (crystals) are 2182, 2381, 2016, 2527, 2246 and 2301.
> Bob


OK Bob,

As I said in the P/M, I'll see if anyone on the Yahoo VMARS forum can come up with any details. 

One place that might be able to help is the Hoswick museum on Shetland. I visited some years ago when my ship was in Lerwick and the curator, Cecil Duncan, picked me up at the ship and showed me around. He has several Scottish-made marine sets off of fishing boats but from the photos I took I can see he didn't have your model, but he may be able to help, his ham callsign is GM0EKM. 

Hopefully, your set is OK, as you say if the seller had put mains on it that would screw it well! The big power supply on the back looks like the inverter for the valve stages and it looks as though the modulator uses transistors rather than valves. It's most likely to be an AM set as there don't seem to be any obvious filters for SSB generation, that would put it in the 1960s era, I'd guess. Those frequencies are UK home waters channels, couple are intership, I think. 

Anyway, will put up a request on that forum later today, hopefully you'll get a helping hand.

Cheers

Roger/Searcher2004


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Thanks Roger,
It is AM. 2182 and 2381 are distress and supplementary distress freqs. The others are intership freqs, although 2527 does not ring a bell with me.
Bob
PS Thanks for PM.


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

Kismet was at one time a popular ships name, whilst looking for you I found three but none showing the Call Sign you have, perhaps she was a former fishing vessel?


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Thanks,
The first thing I thought of when I saw it was "trawler!" I put the call sign in Google and came up with an ancient Norwegian whale catcher called _Globe IV _ showing with that call sign. Only trouble is, M is not a Norwegian call sign group! 
At the moment, I have no idea.
Bob


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

2381 was used to call UK coast stations 0900-1700 and listen for a reply on 1792, but this stopped many years ago. 2016 and 2527 are Ch2 & Ch5 working frequencies for phone calls etc. 2246 & 2301 are intership frequencies

David
+


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

2381 was also the supplementary distress frequency equiv. to 512 on W/T. I had forgotten about 2016 and 2527, but knew 2246 and 2301 were intership.
Bob


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## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

Shipbuilder said:


> 2381 was also the supplementary distress frequency equiv. to 512 on W/T. I had forgotten about 2016 and 2527, but knew 2246 and 2301 were intership.
> Bob



I do remember 2381 as the 'office hours' calling frequency for British registered ships calling UK coast stations and indeed the reply was on 1792. 

I don't remember it being used as a supplementary distress frequency though. In practice it would have only been available for British registered ships as it was not fitted or licenced on foreign flag vessels. I stand to be corrected as I was more 'deep sea' than 'coasting'.

(Thumb)


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

2381kHz and 512kHz were referred to as supplementary calling frequencies. They were provided to permit normal communications to continue between stations not directly involved in an emergency, without disrupting on-going distress traffic. They were not supplementary distress frequencies. 

2182kHz and 500kHz were distress and calling frequencies. The use of distress frequencies was far more closely regulated than was the case for calling frequencies. For example Silence Periods applied to distress frequencies but not calling frequencies.


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Yes, I remember now. 512 and 2381 were supplementary calling frequencies for use when distress was in progress. Just forgot!
Bob


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## berbex (Feb 17, 2013)

Quote from #8 'The reason for my lack of enthusiasm is that is mainly full of transistors which I have never been too keen on.' Do not be afraid of the little animals, they are quite harmless.

They are also quite easy to test without taking them out of the circuit. Find out the connections from their numbers so you know if pnp or npn and which legs are what. Any 100% short between legs, that's a dud.

The eletrolytics on the transistor board in pic are 12v dc so they are likely driven at the old 9v supply (likely negative). The rating of the big cap on the tx in pic (smoothing) is also an indicator of supply voltage to transistor section if driven separately. 

Also I distinctly recall seeing a Kismet berthed at the marinas in Malta years ago.


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

It is all academic now, because earlier today, I started dismantling it!
I have already filleted out the major components, valves, transmitter tuning capacitor, receiver triple gang tuning capacitor, panel mount fuse holders, panel meter, loudspeaker, crystals & holders etc. Having problems getting the main PSU out. Finally, the relays and all the transistors. I do know how to test transistors with an analogue meter (Got an AVO 8 last week on car boot sale - 100% working order). I can cope with them, but have never liked them!
The bits & pieces will live again in new projects!
Bob


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Thanks for reply. The valves were QV06/20 (Equivalent to 6146) and QV03/12.

I am no great fan of the AVO! I have a modern digital Tecpel DMM 8007 with a transistor test facility, but I have never found the transistor test very efficient. Poking the wires in through those small holes is really not worth the effort although I have very deft fingers! Once in, the figures mean very little to me! I have used an analogue meter (an AVO when at sea) for many years to test transistors and have never had any problems. I use an analogue meter for all sorts of things as I can interpret the needle movement for things that a digital could not do! The analogue meter can test a capacitor for leakage very well and I am sure a lot of us on here have reversed the connections to a small capacitor on test to observe the almost imperceptible "kick" of the needle. A digital will often show voltage present when there actually isn't any and a blurred needle will indicate ripple.
The Coast Radio was very heavy and transport would have cost £23! I find that museums generally want things free and having paid £30 for the thing, really wanted to at least cut my losses and break even. I did feel rather aggrieved when I found it was mainly transistorized. I probably could have got the receiver going, but did not have sufficient interest.
At the same car boot sale, I purchased a 1926 three valver, also for £30. It has given me a great deal of pleasure getting it going. After clearing several faults, it burst into life yesterday morning with good speaker volume an excellent tone. I am a bit of a dinasaur
I don't mess about with radios all the time, neither do I search for them. But when I see them (occasionally) on car boot sales, I get them for old times' sake! The 1926 set was a pleasure to work on!
Bob


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

This is where I got the info that the QV06/20 was equivalent to 6146:
http://www.r-type.org/exhib/aaa0546.htm 
I know the set was quite rare because I could find no reference to it at all on the internet and had never seen one myself. Small vessels seemed quite keen on the sailor type transceivers!
Interest, however is at an all-time low and never likely to revive. The remains of it was outside on a table in the porch and we have had two visitors this morning, one paper boy and another delivery man. Neither of them showed even a flicker of interest in it! If it had been me, I would have been very interested in at least looking at it!
Same with the Merchant Navy in general. Most of the public have no idea what it is (or was) and even when I take model merchant ships to the local model ship society, they barely get more than a casual glance. You can almost see the eyes glazing over, but someone takes in their kit of the _Victory_ and you nearly get knocked over in the rush!(==D)
Bob


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Thanks for info on valve. I have amended info on it a few minutes ago. I just took it for read that the Valve Museum info was correct, but can see where it makes sense that the last number refers to the current!
Anyway, this morning, the Labour candidate called and an he was eyeing the set with some slight interest, but didn't comment on it!(EEK)
Bob


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

No, it doesn't look a bit like that. International Octal base with one top cap and 6.3 heater. This is it.
Bob


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

The driver valve is a QV03/12!
So it looks like the QV06/20 is equivalent to 6146, they look the same anyway.
Bob


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