# Marconi Challenger



## Michael Oceanspan

I'll admit straight away that I am not an ex mariner, but I do look after the Marine Radio Collection at Internal Fire- Museum of Power in West Wales. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has any knowledge or experience or perhaps sailed with the Marconi Challenger. There won't be many as, to my knowledge, Marconi only sold about 12 units fro and 18 - 20 production run.
Its a 1.5KW SSB/CW/MCW transmitter, probably technically the best Marconi made, but a marketing disaster! (too much, too late!) The Challenger we have together with the console came from the "Pride of Calais". We have next to no do***entation - with so few units being sold manuals are very rare. The Instruction manual we have is missing some essential pages. The Conqueror, apart form the finals is very similar, some circuits are identical, so the Conqueror manuals have helped. We are within an ace of having it working, and as mentioned above, I would be very interested to hear from anyone with any knowledge, anecdotal or otherwise, of the Challenger. Many Thanks - Michael.


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## R651400

Welcome to SN Michael and hope your search is successful. 
1.5Kw transmit power for a cross Channel ferry? 
The mind boggles!


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## Michael Oceanspan

I thought it seemed excessive at first, but Board of Trade regulations apply. Vessels over a certain displacement, carrying more than so many passengers (I don't have the actual numbers at my fingertips) were required to carry this equipment.
Michael.


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## Paul Braxton

Thanks for your private msg, Michael. Glad to know you got your namesake working. If I ever get my hands on an Apollo, I'll be sure to drop by, look at your manuals. Thanks again.

Paul


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## R651400

Michael Oceanspan said:


> I thought it seemed excessive at first...


The radio regs circa Oceanspan Mk.1 time was British registered ships on 500kc/s communicate with the nearest UK coast station on low power and from memory for the Oceanspan that would've been 25 watts.
Note the engine side of your museum is well represented on you-tube. Any chane of same for the Marine Radio side?


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## P.Arnold

To Michael Oceanspan.
Can’t help too much with tech details.

I commissioned 3 Challengers on Southern Shipping Corporation of India, at KSEC shipyard in Busan S.Korea 1985.

The aerials were AS9 vertical with wire emergency across the Monkey Island space. Using the manufactured internal MF taps, you could set up loading for the AS9 aerial MF 410 through to 512khz, but could not get the full range on the wire aerial. You could get 410 to 480 or changing internal taps 454 to 512. Long story short, I added an internal tap between the fixed ones. It did seem to be an easier transmitter to tune, though on MF during sea trials the MF gonio did creep.
The associated RX was the Oceanic, with keypad channel entry as well as the classic rotary tuning knob.

Beyond that I am afraid memory fails me

I used to sign off with No use getting older if you don’t get wiser.
I think I used to be wiser

Peter

Revisited your photo, I think the Oceanic RX is in the bottom left of your console.


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## Michael Oceanspan

*Commissioning Challenger*

Hello Peter,
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I do intend to write an article on the restoration of our Challenger, and will cover the Challenger history in general by way of background.
With your three for Southern Shipping Corporation, we can account for 6 out of the 12 (or so) Challengers actually sold. However, the provenance of the one in Australia is unkown.
Our antennas are a 40 metre Inverted L for Transmit and a slightly shorter Long wire for receive. We have a stainless HF vertical to add to the antenna farm at some time in the future.
You are right about the Oceanic, although the one in the picture is a fully working example, I am very nervous about using for extended periods. I know this is contrary to shipborne use where it would have been on 24 hours every day. However, at the risk of digressing - we had (still have) another Oceanic, a dead one. Breifly, I believe the pathology before we obtained it was, 1) Stopped working one day, owner probably checked a few obvious things, turned it off and on a few times, 2) Finally disovered that the 5Volt rail had gone sky high, 3) Replaced the 5Volt pass transistor, 3) Still didn't work, sold it to us. I strongly suspect that the 5Volt Pass transistor failed short, rather than open, thus dumping 20(ish)Volts across the 90 odd TTL ics, all of which are soldered in - a nightmare to repair. According to my research, this is not an uncommon failure point with Oceanics. The pass transistor on our working one does get very, very hot, so rather then invite failure I avoid using it at present. A single TO220 style pass transistor for over 90 TTL devices is bound to be struggling. The long term intention is to fit an external, more substantial 5Volt supply with over voltage clamp and current limiting (both omitted from the Oceanic design). Aside from this shortcoming, it is a very capable and pleasant receiver to use.
Michael.


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## Michael Oceanspan

R651400;
Note the engine side of your museum is well represented on you-tube. Any chane of same for the Marine Radio side?[/QUOTE said:


> The Radio side is not prominent on YouTube. However see www.gb2mop.org for the Museum's Radio web-site. (MOP: Museum of Power), The Museum's main site is www.internalfire.com
> Both sites are in need of some updating, but with only 24 hours per day!!!! For instance, the Oceanspan is now fully operational and inegrated with the associated Atalanta and Mercury receivers.
> If you read Practical Wireless, the April 2017 and April 2018 issues have a bit more background on the Museum's Radio activities including the Oceanspan's story.
> 
> Michael.


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## GW3OQK

I've been several times to the MOP and operated from there on CW. Fantastic smell of hot oil and wonderful sound of those engines, one must be 6m tall. I'm also a musician and ex sparks. Here's a video of me and my best butty at the museum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkrFgSGdICM
73,
Andrew GW3OQK


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## sparks69

Visited there last summer. Magic place and the coffee was good too.


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## Paul Braxton

Have you legally changed your name to Michael Oceanspan, I wonder?

Such a weirdly wonderful juxtaposition of names!


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## Michael Oceanspan

First of all Andrew, thanks for your response. Hazel waxes lyrical about your performance at MOP, for some reason my wife and I were not present on that occasion, I can't remember why, but I have seen the YouTube clip before and recommend it to anyone who wants to escape the modern phenomenon of digital Tape) loops for rhythm section - brilliant. Michael


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## Michael Oceanspan

Paul, I'd spent so much time up to my elbows in the Oceanspan's insides that it was first thing that came to mind when asked for a username! Next username will have to include Challenger as over the last few months I have become intimately acquainted with its insides! 
Michael.


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## Paul Braxton

Hi Michael. Oh, I can relate to that. So much time, immersed solidly inside the 'Span at college, trying to find the faults which the instructor had put on; little bits of screwed up paper in relay contacts, missing valves, dud valves; the list went on and on, but boy, did we know all about it by the end! (Well, yes, we did...)

Funnily, on actually sailing with the thing, which I did every trip for the first several years after I started out, with the exception of my first, junior trip when I had the Crusader to try and figure out, there were hardly ever any reasons to go back inside it again. Even when it ran hot after hours of keying, trying to raise Portishead on 12 MHz from the South Pacific. Only fault I can remember was a dud 8MHz crystal, inserted into the spare position on the front panel for working R/T into the agents at Matarani, in Peru. Last thing you might suspect as being faulty. I still have the offender, in a bag of other memorabilia. Strange, what you retain.

You had to be very aware of the weight of the transmitter section, before allowing it to come all the way out at you. 80lbs, if I remember rightly. And you had to be very aware of the lethal 600 volt HT on the three O/P 807's topcaps, of course, which, although thankfully I never had to verify, could apparently throw you across the room, as in the story of some luckless student gleefully and somewhat cruelly, (usually when you were at the teetering point of it coming out of its cabinet), by the instructor, Frank Mayoh, for those who may remember him.

Cocky sod, sometimes, Frank. (Sorry, but you know it's true, if you're listening!) Let me find out the hard way, how hot Z77's in the Salvor actually run, by standing close behind, watching my inept attempts at fault finding, letting me burn my fingers, getting one out: "just to check if it's a dud..." Good days.

I wish you luck with the Challenger, a beast I hadn't heard of until your thread. The Commandant/Conqueror was a beaut, especially after I'd done the 2 week course up in Govan, Glasgow on them. What a joy to have all that power and especially stability after the 'old girl' with the red and blue knobs!


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## Michael Oceanspan

Paul, While not wishing to stray too far off topic, you mention the front panel crystal socket on the Oceanspan. What I've done with ours is feed an Arduino based VFO output into the external Crystal socket, that puts us on the Amateur Bands, but not 14MHz as this falls in the cracks in the 'span's tuned driver circuit. Ours was a VIIE (Emergency) which I reverted to Main Transmitter status. It had the 24VDC Dynamotor which was noisy, so built a 650VDC mains supply which is a bit quieter and doesn't drop 100Volts when transmitting. Both units are heavy, unfortunately we don't have the very rare Marconi extension rails which means we can't work on the transmitter when it is live which is fine for Health and Safety but it make it very difficult to adjust the tuned circuits which, if you remember, are on the bottom of the transmitter. If I could do that it could be put onto 14MHz quite easily! 
Back on topic, I think I mentioned that do***entation is rare for the Challenger, fortunately we have a full set of manuals for the Conqueror which, apart from the final stages is remarkably similar to the Challenger - sufficiently so to enable me to sort out its last mysteries. (The main console is now giving me headaches!) We are now waiting for parts and hope to have it gracing the airwaves in a few weeks time. 
Thanks for comments - Michael.


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## Paul Braxton

Must be quite a blast, working with all that gear from the venerable Marconi Company. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on some of that again, for old times' sake. Funny you mentioning the extension runners on the Oceanspan. I don't remember them, but I guess we must have had something similar at college.

Hope you get the Challenger up and ready to transmit again soon.

Paul


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## Michael Oceanspan

*Progress Report*

After a short holiday I found that an MRF393 had arrived at the museum to replace the unobtainable CTC BAL0000L10 (Dual NPN power transistors). This was fitted to the driver section and when fed with HF from my signal generator now produced a much greater voltage swing which increased a little with frequency. I was a little uneasy about this transistor as it is only specced from 30 to 500MHz and I am going to use it below 30MHz, they still cost nearly £100.00 and it's the museum's hard earned money. On the other hand the MRF393 and 392 are the only bipolar NPN transistors I could find in a 744A-01 package. The other option of using two separate power transistors, while technically feasible would require an unacceptable (at this stage) amount of hardware modification. However, it seems to have worked out OK. 
Also 4 x 4cx350s arrived. after carefully setting up screen voltages (400V) and bias (-27V) with the old valves still in place, I replaced one of the old valve with a new one and nothing bad happened, in fact a considerable amount of antenna current was generated. Emboldened, I replaced a second old valve wiht a new one and was rewarded with and even more considerable amount of RF into the dummy load. The anode current on the two old valves is just a little below that of the new valves so I think they are probably contributing something to the output. After quickly trying to load into the antenna (45 Metres of inverted L), I found it wouldn't load. I suspect there is a minor fault in the antenna circuit that I will address on Friday and fit the remaining two new valves.
A further update will follow on Friday/Saturday.

Michael


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## Paul Braxton

Welcome back, Michael, and hope your holiday set you up for further work with the transmitters. Sure it has. I only wish I was there to give a hand and have some fun doing so, but it's a bit of a long haul. The one thing I remember about any of the Marconi gear was how well built it always was, and how (at least as far as I was concerned) rewarding it was to work on it. I know some people have other memories, but I must have become a 'good Marconi Man', or something, because I always staunchly defended the company and its equipment, and still do. Having recently had to go inside my Atalanta to replace a screen feeder resistor to the two RF valves, I welcomed the floodgates of memory lane opening. For a few minutes, as I tried my best to emulate the beautiful work done by the original builders of the set, I was back there, at sea again, even having the same adrenaline rushes as I did then, knowing that if I cocked up, I would be without a receiver, at worst, or having to 'make do' until we finally berthed somewhere where some 'real engineers', as I sometimes thought of them, Radio Holland in the Caribbean, or good old AWA in Australia, could come down and repair my repairs, so to speak. (It never happened, fortunately, but there was always that frisson of concentration at the forefront of the mind, possibly a throwback echo of the ridicule and scorn seemingly heaped on one at college for cockups).

Having names assigned to pieces of equipment was an interesting move by the company. Who could forget the Lifeguard, or the Salvor, Reliant, Globespan, et al. Wasn't sure about the Commandant, though. I suppose it harked from the Commander, but Commandant? Hmm.... But it was a really neat transmitter, if you weren't after the higher power of its big brother, the Conqueror. It was one of the best equipment courses I ever did, the Commandant, and then Spector, telex equipment. Riding the Glasgow subway every morning over to Govan and surrendering oneself to a hard day's work with a very enthusiastic tutor... Way to go! My only regret now is that I chucked my carefully annotated Marconi Equipment Manuals for both that gear and also the Apollo and Radiolocator radar. Beautifully (if I dare say so) drawn waveform diagrams and tiny printing all over those lovely pull-out cct diagrams and blocks, lost forever to the weather's vagaries at the local tip. A work of art and something I was proud to have been a part of. Why I did that, I'll never know. There was plenty of room, after all, up in that dimly lit attic.

All that information, yet we never even had access to an oscilloscope at sea, at least I never did. The old 'diode probe' was a good substitute, however, especially if you'd taken the trouble to go through the test points on the cct boards, carefully recording the readings. Almost as good. I sometimes wonder at the frugality, if that's the right word, of some of the shipowners, not supplying such things, as well as the short-sightedness (as I saw it) of only having an Alert, or only slightly more useful, Monitor, as 'reserve receivers', both of which would have been totally useless for any serious work. Another Atalanta would have been a real luxury.

I know there was the requirement to have 24V emergency capability, but even so, an Alert, for Goodness' sake? Crossing the Pacific, all those thousands of empty miles, filled with nothing but static and lightning crashes at night, and an Alert, listening hopefully and doggedly out on 500kHz. Yes, I do wonder.

All those tales, from cocky Greek-employed R/O's and the like: radio rooms filled with wondrous racks of state-of-the-art, gleaming and very sophisticated and powerful transmitters and receivers, and a handsome, film-star salary for the privilege of having to make do with all that. But I wouldn't have changed a thing, thinking back. Not even the Alert, or the inadequate Monitor. Who could fail to be comforted, sitting there listening to the rythmic clicking and whirring of the cams on the Autokey, for example, as it went through its cadence of deliberate distress keying sequences, watching the pretty-coloured front panel lamps blinking in time to the mechanisms inside? Knowing it would faithfully key away into the old Salvor until the batteries failed and you went out to board the last boat away:

(Old joke): R/O, standing on the disappearing boat deck, watching the lifeboats pulling away, seeing the Captain in one. 

"I thought you were supposed to be the last one to leave a sinking ship!!"

"I am..."

Best of luck with your transistors and soldering iron. (Or do they just fit into a base socket, I wonder?)

Paul


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## Michael Oceanspan

Hi Paul, 
My, we are waxing lyrical tonight (today) aren't we! Interesting you mention the old 1097(?) Autokey. We have one in the 1959's radio room and one of my Winter projects will be to get it going. Another is the Autokey 2X in the Pride of Calais radio room. That, of course, is all TTL sequenced by and EPROM. The idea is to reprogram the EPROM to send out "CQ CQ CQ de GB2MOP". Shouldn't be too hard. Actually, the projects aren't that hard, the problem is finding the time!
Best Wishes - Michael.


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## R651400

Second the waxing lyrical of the wondrously equipped Greek/FoC flagged radio rooms..
See *here*

ps I did have an Avo8


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## Michael Oceanspan

I am pleased to announce that the Museum's Marconi Challenger is now working! Reports received on Saturday morning following the VMARS' 80 metre net indicate that signal strength is very good and excellent audio, so all in all a very pleasing result. 
There is a fly in the ointment: the drive protection circuit trips out randomly and for no apparent reason, which is annoying. There are five lines going to the protection circuit and they are the same status in both fault and no-fault conditions. It's not overheating, which would worry me, as I can see the bi-metallic strip that detects valve box air temperature >125DegC is still open. So far I've only checked the input lines with a voltmeter. On Monday I'll a) check them with a scope incase there is noise on one of the lines and b) failing that I will check the circuit backwards from the trip relay to see where the fault is registering.
Picture attached.


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## Paul Braxton

Nice work, Michael, and nice photo (liked the white mug inclusion, adds a bit of homeliness). Nice to see a decent photo of the equipment in all its glory. 

Hope you have success in locating the fault you mention. How does one select the exact frequency? Is it just keyed in via the keypad at lower right, or is there a variable control, as in the older sets?

Best of luck with the TX, and well done with your work so far, especially in finding a replacement which works for the power transistor you mentioned.

Paul


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## GW3OQK

Excellent indeed. I'll be in touch about a visit. My arm is twitching at the thought of keying that transmitter. 

Can you tune up on 472.5 KHz? I made a few contacts on that band using my T1154, including Finbar ex EJM. 

Ah, tripping out. The Oceanspan never did that even if it wouldn't tune up because of the salt spray in a cyclone. At least it's not blowing the HT fuse.
73
Andrew


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## Michael Oceanspan

*Challenger now fixed - fingers crossed!*

The Challenger has two protection circuits: 1)the HT protection trips if the bias supply fails or the airflow through the valve box fails, a drawer is opened, or excessive current is drawn; 2)the drive protection circuit, the one giving me problems, trips if final valve air temp exceed 125DegC, critical controls are moved after tune up, frequency data input is incomplete, or the PLL drifts out of lock. If any of these last four faults occurs the drive trip LED illuminates, but it doesn't tell you which of the faults have occurred. Another annoyance is that not all of the fault lines coming into the protection circuit are, for instance, low for no fault, Hi for fault. Some are high, some are low. Anyway I made a simple table of the status of all four lines under no-fault conditions, measuring them again under fault conditions gave the same readings on a meter. So was it a transient fault or noise on one of the inputs, or even a fault in the protection circuit itself?
The whole thing was frustrating on Saturday as I was able to make some good contacts on 80Metres, but the drive would trip out part way through. 
I decided to spend today (Monday) sorting it out. I made a small board to fit onto the header for the drive protection circuit with four LEDs to monitor each of the fault lines. Powered up the transmitter and it behaved perfectly for about 2.5 hours. It did trip while I was probing after everything was well warmed up. I decided that it was time to apply the Mk1 test strategy and give it a good thumping! A healthy tap in the PLL area caused it to go reliably out of lock and trip the drive. Some gentler tapping with the plastic end of a screwdriver indicated something sensitive in the area of the divider chip, gave it a push into its socket and the problem went away. To make sure I removed and reseated both the divider and the synthesizer chips. It was obvious from the condition of the pins that they had been removed before a few times! That seems to have fixed it. It behaved itself for about 2 hours this afternoon and would not suc***b to any amount of abuse.
Picture of synthesizer draw attached. PLL in screened box on right, drive protection circuit on large board right of centre under long shaft with two UJs.
If anyone is able to listen in, I intend to join in the VMARS 80 Metre USB net on 3.615MHz on Wednesday evening between 20:00 and 21:00. 
Michael (GW7BBY/GB2MOP)


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## Michael Oceanspan

Andrew, I did tune it into the dummy load on 500KHz this morning, didn't try it on the antenna. Our Antenna will not be very efficient, its an inverted L, 45metres on the top section and 15 to 30 metres on the vertical part depending upon how high the mast is cranked up! However, the losses will probably be enough to keep it within legal limits!
Michael.


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## Paul Braxton

That's a nice-looking piece of kit, Michael. Takes me back. Glad you were able to at least temporarily sort the tripping problem. Might need to solder the IC's into the PCB, without the sockets, which as we all know, can give problems occasionally. Quite surprised that sockets for IC's were in use for sea-going equipment, come to think on it. 

Thanks for the photos you post from time to time. Appreciate it.

Paul


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## Troppo2

Michael Oceanspan said:


> Andrew, I did tune it into the dummy load on 500KHz this morning, didn't try it on the antenna. Our Antenna will not be very efficient, its an inverted L, 45metres on the top section and 15 to 30 metres on the vertical part depending upon how high the mast is cranked up! However, the losses will probably be enough to keep it within legal limits!
> Michael.


How's the earth system? That is the most important thing...


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## Ron Stringer

Michael Oceanspan said:


> Our Antenna will not be very efficient, its an inverted L, 45metres on the top section and 15 to 30 metres on the vertical part depending upon how high the mast is cranked up!


Michael.

That's a hell of a lot better than the antennas presented by most new-builds in the 1990s when that transmitter came out!

Make sure you have good earthing and with that transmitter, the World's your oyster.


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## GW3OQK

Yes, excellent work Michael.
They don't make transmitters like that any more, that is, something you can fault-find on and fix on the pcb. Those pcbs were laid out by draughtsmen with tape and pads, whereas I went straight to CAD in 1987 when I started my own business, and I abhor wiring soldered to boards. 

UJ puzzled me for a while but you have lots of those in the museum. I call them flexible couplers. 
73 
Andrew


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## Paul Braxton

Hang on! #18 : The Marconi 'Alert' receiver didn't have 24V capability, did it? My memory must be going a bit off. Just can't remember much about it now. Obviously you had the 'Salvor' on 24V but the receiver? Don't think so. In that case, did you have the capability of receiving anything at all without the ship's generator being operational? Anyway, the rude comments about the 'reserve' receivers stands. They were heaps of c..p! (In my humble; don't want to hurt anyone's feelings!)


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## Paul Braxton

Michael: Just re-read your posting a few weeks back on the 'Oceanic' receiver, of which you have two at MOP. Now that set has all the IC's embedded firmly into the PCB, by the sound of it. Why didn't they do the same with the associated 'Challenger', I still find myself wondering. If you want the board fixed, just send it out here, along with all the IC's... love doing work like that. And for such a good cause!

Paul


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## Troppo2

Yes, the alert was the em rx, so it must have run from 24.

Junk, indeed...


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## GW3OQK

Mike, last night about 2020 you were weak and unreadable in Penllergaer but I heard the loud and clear reports you were getting from Holland and France. By 2052 the ionosphere favoured you and I thought the quality of modulation perfect. A previous station with heavy AVC, clipping and filtering was unpleasant to copy, but no doubt effective in army communications.

As for the Alert, somebody remarked that switched on or off the result was the same. However, it met the specification for a watchkeeping receiver, and if ships used CW instead of MCW it had no chance. Auto Alarms were more sensitive. I often used the DF for 500 watch whilst away on HF. 
73, Andrew


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## Ron Stringer

As has been said, the _Alert_ operated from 24V and met the regulatory requirements (if maybe not the operational requirements) for a 500 kHz emergency and watch-keeping receiver. It was designed to receive MCW signals only, on the assumption that stations would comply with the the current ITU Radio Regulations requiring use of that type of signal on 500 kHz. Transmitters of the same era, such as Oceanspan, only produced MCW signals when 500 kHz was selected. Later designs would permit the operator optionally to select CW.

I was a firm believer that MCW was the mode to use for distress and safety calling and never used CW on 500 kHz - the purpose of a call was to attract attention so it made sense to me to make as much noise as possible! I believe auto-alarm receivers were not required by regulations to respond to CW and some designs did not.

So although the Alert was rubbish as a communications receiver, it could serve in emergency for communication with nearby ships involved in providing assistance to your ship when you were without mains power. That is the function required by the regulations.

Having said that, I much preferred to sail with _Mercury/Electra_ rather than _Atlanta/Alert_ since I was happier having two decent receivers for MF use than one excellent one teamed with a dud. When the ship's power went down, I still felt capable of dealing with things and keeping the radio room operating.


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## Michael Oceanspan

*Challenger Transmitter Working - Replies.*

A few of you have raised points about Challenger and associated equipment. 
Andrew, I am pleased that you were able to listen in on VMARS on Wednesday evening, Conditions were atrocious, not just atmospheric noise, but adjacent stations overlapping our transmissions and tuning up nearby. However, it was a great pleasure to run the Challenger for an hour and to get some very encouraging reports. Oddly, and this applies to my home station in Llangeler as well, there are a number of stations in the Swansea and Merthyr area that are barely audible at the best of times, yet at the same time we have no trouble with the rest of the country or even northern Europe - geography I guess. Will we see you at the Crank-Up this weekend, Sat and Sun? ( I doubt I will be able to demonstrate the Challenger as with everything else running in the Museum, there won't be enough amps left for me!)
Earthing: At present it is earthed to the lattice mast, which is in turn well earthed. A good method I found with the Oceanspan was to connect the ground side to the tin roof covering the Radio and Telehone areas and about 10 metres or so below the horizontal part of the inverted L. I tried it briefly with the Challenger, but didn't seem to be any improvement. It is something to be addressed during the winter shutdown as there is scope to improve the antennas, in particular the receive side. We can get out far better than we can receive.
Paul: Oceanic and IC sockets. Most of the more common (cheaper?) ics in Challenger are in fact soldered directly to the boards. Only the bigger ones such as the 40 pin Divider and Synthsizer chips are in sockets and, guess what, these are the ones that cause problems! It is actually the same in the Oceanic: most ICs are soldered, but the processor, EEPROMs and a few larger chips are socketed. I might take you up on your offer and send you the Oceanic boards and a bucket-ful of TTL.
As you like my pictures so much, attached are left, right and top views of the RF unit.
Finally, I must mention that this project has only been successful through the generosity of EIMAC (now part of CPI) who actually donated the four 4CX350s to the project. The museum would have found it difficult to justify the cost of £1000.00 + worth of valves.
73 all - Michael.


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## Paul Braxton

Bring it on! Very willing to help out with the boards. I worked for many years in various types of electronics factories, after I left the sea in '82, manufacturing equipment and doing lots and lots of PCB work, including the dreaded surface mount types. In fact, was still working at all this as recently as 2007, until we emigrated to NZ. Soldering in the 80-odd pin surface mount IC's by hand onto a brand new board was quite challenging (no pun intended). So the offer is a genuine one. Thanks for the photos as well, and taking the time out to reply to all these posts.

Best regards, Paul


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## Troppo2

Ron Stringer said:


> As has been said, the _Alert_ operated from 24V and met the regulatory requirements (if maybe not the operational requirements) for a 500 kHz emergency and watch-keeping receiver. It was designed to receive MCW signals only, on the assumption that stations would comply with the the current ITU Radio Regulations requiring use of that type of signal on 500 kHz. Transmitters of the same era, such as Oceanspan, only produced MCW signals when 500 kHz was selected. Later designs would permit the operator optionally to select CW.
> 
> I was a firm believer that MCW was the mode to use for distress and safety calling and never used CW on 500 kHz - the purpose of a call was to attract attention so it made sense to me to make as much noise as possible! I believe auto-alarm receivers were not required by regulations to respond to CW and some designs did not.
> 
> So although the Alert was rubbish as a communications receiver, it could serve in emergency for communication with nearby ships involved in providing assistance to your ship when you were without mains power. That is the function required by the regulations.
> 
> Having said that, I much preferred to sail with _Mercury/Electra_ rather than _Atlanta/Alert_ since I was happier having two decent receivers for MF use than one excellent one teamed with a dud. When the ship's power went down, I still felt capable of dealing with things and keeping the radio room operating.


Hello Ron

I sailed a lot with the next generation of rx'ers: Apollo/Sentinel/Lifeguard N.

The Sentinel was good as a MF working rx, and I used the Lifeguard N (with BFO) as a 500 watchkeeping rx.

I was only thinking of your comments re main tx'ers not being powered from the emergency gene circuit the other day...what a great advantage that would have been - run the whole radio room on that circuit....

On my first ship, both rx'ers automatically switched to 24v if the mains failed....another excellent idea, way ahead of its time...

But, of course, typical parsimonious shipowners....and an IMO dominated by Panama and Liberia...


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## Varley

In my experience the radio room supply was from the Emergency switchboard. Not by regulation but pragmatism.


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## Troppo2

Varley said:


> In my experience the radio room supply was from the Emergency switchboard. Not by regulation but pragmatism.


Problem was that the main tx often needed a 3 phase supply...


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## Ron Stringer

Troppo2 said:


> Problem was that the main tx often needed a 3 phase supply...


Once I became technical manager at MIMCo I stopped all that 3-phase nonsense. It had never made sense to me - after all, the _Crusader_ required less power than our kettle at home and we didn't have a 3-phase supply to the house. All new designs started for me had to be single phase devices capable of running from the ship's emergency generator supply. The _Challenger_, our most powerful transmitter was just the latest and last "traditional" (i.e. manually-tuned) design the company produced.

I suspect that MIMCo went down the 3-phase path accidentally, in the early days post-WW2, simply because design of their transmitters (and most other equipment) was carried out by engineers of Marconi Wireless Telegraphy - producers of high-power broadcasting, point-to-point and military transmitters. They were familiar with such techniques and would have felt happier using existing designs rather than starting from scratch. Big commercial organisations can resemble VLCCs in that it takes a lot of time and effort to turn them round once they have adopted a policy. MWT, with its inherent assumptions - that because they were the first, they were the best and could not be wrong - was an almost unstoppable force. 

I failed to stop _Conqueror_ being 3-phase but persistence made it the last of our transmitters to be designed that way. Everything from _Commander_ onwards was single-phase but we still had little success in persuading many builders and owners of newbuilds to connect the radio room supply to the ship's emergency generator - they were even more difficult to convince than MWT. If it wasn't a regulatory requirement, it wasn't going to happen as far as they were concerned.


----------



## Troppo2

Ron Stringer said:


> Once I became technical manager at MIMCo I stopped all that 3-phase nonsense. It had never made sense to me - after all, the _Crusader_ required less power than our kettle at home and we didn't have a 3-phase supply to the house. All new designs started for me had to be single phase devices capable of running from the ship's emergency generator supply. The _Challenger_, our most powerful transmitter was just the latest and last "traditional" (i.e. manually-tuned) design the company produced.
> 
> I suspect that MIMCo went down the 3-phase path accidentally, in the early days post-WW2, simply because design of their transmitters (and most other equipment) was carried out by engineers of Marconi Wireless Telegraphy - producers of high-power broadcasting, point-to-point and military transmitters. They were familiar with such techniques and would have felt happier using existing designs rather than starting from scratch. Big commercial organisations can resemble VLCCs in that it takes a lot of time and effort to turn them round once they have adopted a policy. MWT, with its inherent assumptions - that because they were the first, they were the best and could not be wrong - was an almost unstoppable force.
> 
> I failed to stop _Conqueror_ being 3-phase but persistence made it the last of our transmitters to be designed that way. Everything from _Commander_ onwards was single-phase but we still had little success in persuading many builders and owners of newbuilds to connect the radio room supply to the ship's emergency generator - they were even more difficult to convince than MWT. If it wasn't a regulatory requirement, it wasn't going to happen as far as they were concerned.


Fascinating, thanks.


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## Varley

I don't think I have been with an emergency supply that was not three phase although I had one with a battery supply which switched the three wire AC lighting into one two wire DC battery supply (not VG when fluorescent lights had been added to the lighting network!).

If you take the 'old' list of equipment that must be capable of being supplied from the emergency supply it is true that to some that meant 'only' the emergency supply - we had an amusing but expensive exhibition of how that, when applied to the rudder angle indicator, could precipitate excitments.

On more 'sophisticated' ships the reverse mistake was made. Anything is more secure if run from the emergency supply. But when, for instances running steering gear telemotor pumps from a supply not also capable of supplying the steering gear pumps themselves or when, similarly, supplying the thruster controls from the emergency supply then in both the possibility (actuality) of crippling the ship occurs in the event of an emergency supply (only) outage that would have otherwise left the vessel seaworthy. On the knockings of my career we also finally worked out why the standby generator would not start for the surveyor during a routine docking. The luboil priming pumps were fed from the emergency supply and the primed luboil pressure was interlocked with the start-up. The emergency generator was secured for surveys of its own again making outage of the emergency switchboard a potential 'fatal' single failure mode. 

I am happy to say that current rules mean, in simple terms, that such essentials now 'find' an available supply if there is one.

In general terms three or single phase is decided by consumption but I would not like to rely on that criterion alone as lots of little loads might end up on one phase over time leading to unbalance. In the same way that houses are fed from alternate phase with neutral down the street (in an urban supply) unbalance is better avoided. I cannot immediately think of a 440V single phase load and to run the whatever from the domestic supply (main or emergency) usually introduces a set of transformers into the FMEA.

(Sorry - this is a hobby horse of mine, or was).


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## Rvator

Hello Michael, Paul and others
I have been absent from SN for quite a while but finally decided to reset the password and login and I am very glad I did.
I was a MIMCo man probably because of their East Ham depot being just up the road from the college.
I have been fascinated by the exchange of messages and suffered quite a nostalgia hit recalling Commandants, Crusaders and Conquerors and even the Alert and Auto Key and the Monitor that was not much good as a reserve receiver but quite able at picking up AM stations as I recall when on route to ZSC.
I never came across the Challenger or associated equipment although I did have the Spector/Apollo on one ship.
I recall attending Glasgow depot attending a Crusader course the tutor whose name I don't recall had a favourite saying 'doom, gloom and despondency'.
Apart from a very short coastal voyage on the Thos Harrison's Defender/GTRT I never had the pleasure of serving with any of the Oceanspan series with the separate Mercury and Electra receivers or with the Atlanta.
My time being mostly Commandants and Crusaders with the Atlanta, Apollo and Nebula or that trusty Redifon R408 (?) something or other job.
Apart from one trip on the Denholm's Joya McCance/GPDA which had Swedish gear I didn't get my hands on a kilo watt transmitter before my one only experience with the Conqueror on the Texaco Rome/MSLJ.
I recall the Conqueror with Nebula being capable equipment that is until it suffered a fault in the power supply for which we carried no spares.
I managed to get a MSG to MIMCo HQ and my relief brought out the necessary items.
I spent many hours requesting QSP on 500 using the Reliance.
It was probably the rugged even basic build quality of Marconi equipment pre seventies that allowed us to keep things going.
I recall on the Texaco North America/GNEL transiting the Malacca Straits when the transmitter whip antenna on the funnel was struck by a lightening bolt which fried, frazzled or melted items in the Salvor, Monitor and other sundry gear in the ancillary rack, curiously the Auto Key was unaffected with just a few burnished contacts.
I managed to survive the bolt from the blue as it chose to go down the earthed reserve antenna switch route in the aerial box and not that for the main antenna which saved the Apollo and Crusader.
I remember quite a few happy weeks rebuilding everything with it all working when I paid off in the gulf thanks to sturdy Marconi kit.
I only came across more sophisticated equipment during my last few years at sea when on the Esso Mersey/GPUY which had Kelvin Hughes gear the main transmitter and receiver having synthesised units any frequency at the turn of switches.
Fortunately as I recall nothing failed as I might not have had much chance with the AVO and terminal screw driver although I managed to acquire an oscilloscope.
Thanks again Michael and others for the forum post and maybe there will be future instalments.
A visit to MOP will have to be done if only for another nostalgia fix and maybe even the chance to get personal once more with the Oceanspan as I am sure Michael you would be able to plant a few devilish faults much like the lecturers once did.
Hopefully I will catch GB2MOP or yourself Michael and QSO.
Many thanks
73's
de Rvator
M0ITR


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## Troppo2

Ron Stringer said:


> Once I became technical manager at MIMCo I stopped all that 3-phase nonsense. It had never made sense to me - after all, the _Crusader_ required less power than our kettle at home and we didn't have a 3-phase supply to the house. All new designs started for me had to be single phase devices capable of running from the ship's emergency generator supply. The _Challenger_, our most powerful transmitter was just the latest and last "traditional" (i.e. manually-tuned) design the company produced.
> 
> I suspect that MIMCo went down the 3-phase path accidentally, in the early days post-WW2, simply because design of their transmitters (and most other equipment) was carried out by engineers of Marconi Wireless Telegraphy - producers of high-power broadcasting, point-to-point and military transmitters. They were familiar with such techniques and would have felt happier using existing designs rather than starting from scratch. Big commercial organisations can resemble VLCCs in that it takes a lot of time and effort to turn them round once they have adopted a policy. MWT, with its inherent assumptions - that because they were the first, they were the best and could not be wrong - was an almost unstoppable force.
> 
> I failed to stop _Conqueror_ being 3-phase but persistence made it the last of our transmitters to be designed that way. Everything from _Commander_ onwards was single-phase but we still had little success in persuading many builders and owners of newbuilds to connect the radio room supply to the ship's emergency generator - they were even more difficult to convince than MWT. If it wasn't a regulatory requirement, it wasn't going to happen as far as they were concerned.


Once I ascended the lofty heights (entered the sheltered workshop...) and became a Gov't radio regulator, I was continually annoyed at the parsimonious attitude of some shipowners re radio. 

Running the radio room from the emergency generator (main tx power supply issues notwithstanding), and providing two main rx'ers that ran from mains and 24v would have cost absolutely SFA in the scheme of things, but would have provided so much more flexibility....as companies like P and O demonstrated...

Forget about the distress side (shipowners didn't care about that, in the main) - a more flexible radio room config would have meant improved company comms....but, oh no...

It took the execution of the R/O to make some shipowners spend money on proper comms.

Am I bitter and twisted.?....yes, but it is borne of direct experience with the IMO, et al.

The terrestrial side of GMDSS (DSC) is a debacle - a classic camel (horse designed by a committee). 

Inmarsat C, COSPAS SARSAT and (much to the chagrin of Inmarsat and the UK) Iridium work well, and are a great improvement over 500.

Oh, and don't get me started on GMDSS Coast Radio Stations...(MAD)

Thank goodness I'm out of it.

/rant over.


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## R651400

Wonder if any of your 20th century camel committees gave a thought to this *here*.


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## Troppo2

Ha..nope....


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## Michael Oceanspan

*Marconi Challenger - Rvator*

Hello Rvator, nice to have you join the forum. Since the Challenger has been operational, there's not been a lot more to report, partly because the museum is closed for the winter and doesn't re-open until next Easter with a weekend crank-up. Also this is the time when maintenance, new displays and infrastructure changes can be done. As to the Challenger another reason for not using it much is that our 3 phase inverter is not quite up to the job and will trip out if I am not careful! The museum's electricity supply is right on the limit when the museum is open so this is another issue to be addressed over the winter. More interesting things: as it stands the challenger can only be used on 3.5Mhz and 1.8Mhz Amateur bands on USB, the higher amateur bands fall in the cracks between marine bands. I'm going to make a small modification to the band oscillator which generates the MHz component of the wanted frequency. It runs at between 41.7 and 66.7 MHz and is then mixed down to the required frequency. I shall pull the crystals out for the upper marine bands from 6MHz to 24MHz and use a DDS module controlled from an Arduino to inject the correct frequency for the higher amateur bands according to the band switch position. 
The MHz component of the digital display is hard wired by diode or gates to the bandswitch so to get the correct digital display the diodes will have to be reconfigured. Nothing major and nothing irreversible.
For LSB operation I shall use a spectral inversion technique. A very interesting device was described in Practical Wireless in January this year. It is fitted in the microphone input and audio output and converts USB to LSB and vice-versa. When you think about it, the reason you can't resolve LSB with a receiver set to USB is that the carrier insertion is on the wrong side of the sideband resulting in unintelligible audio. With a clever bit of signal processing that a PIC processor can do, the audio spectrum is transposed to make it intelligible to a USB receiver. Conversely, if the transmit USB audio is transposed it can be resolved on a LSB receiver. Its not an unknown technique, but Ron Taylor (G4GXO) developed this PIC based device for users of commercial and military equipment which is usually limited to USB. If it is successful then I will make another unit for the Kelvin Hughes Zealand M-1250 transmitter which is my big winter project.
Finally, for Paul who like pictures, here is one of the challenger in action.

Best wishes to all - Michael (GW7BBY/GB2MOP)


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## GW3OQK

Hello Michael
I think you can label your speech inverter as "Privacy" equipment. Some passenger liners had that for AM, but an r/o could resolve it with judicious passband tuning and the BFO.

Latest project here is a homebrew 50w AM/CW valve vfo, buffer, PA rig with 5B/254s. I'm using it on the lower bands.
ATB, 73, Andrew


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## Michael Oceanspan

Yes Andrew, I believe the principle was used for the well known "Scrambler".
You, homebrew Tx sounds interesting, have to see if we can make an AM contact with the Oceanspan.

73 - Michael.


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## Paul Braxton

Happy Christmas, Mr. Oceanspan!

Just wanted to thank you for the Challenger photo you posted recently. I've been unable to log in for a while, so could neither access the photo nor reply until today, when those nice people at SN have given me a new password.

Thanks for all your work with the iconic Mimco equipment this past year or so. I have been really pleased to know the 'Span, in particular has had a rebirth. And the Challenger project has really interested me as well. Well done indeed. I guess you'll have some time over the winter months to get some more work done while the museum is shut. Good luck with all that you do, and keep the photos coming in!

Wishing you and yours a great festive season and a healthy, prosperous and very happy 2020.

All the best, Paul


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## Michael Oceanspan

Hi Paul, thanks for the festive greetings and apologies for not responding sooner. We have been away over Christmas and have just returned home. Over the winter shutdown I shall be modifying the Challenger for the higher amateur bands that fall in the cracks between the available marine bands, and will also add LSB capability.
The next big job will be the Kelvin Hughes Zealand M1250 transmitter (see picture). The receive side is working well, I've not yet tried the transmitter. I've provided a 3 phase supply, and the loom appears to be present to connect it to the console. We have all the manuals, the 4CX1500B is present but of unknown provenance, we also have a spare exciter also with its 4CX1500B present. I know a small PSU repair is needed. Hopefully it will soon be on the air, it is a 1.5KW transmitter, synthesized ( I don't think any mods will be needed for amateur bands, but will have to add LSB at some point) It provides for more modes than the Challenger: AM, ISB, DSB, USB, CW. However, before someone jumps on me, I'll be starting a new thread for this one shortly.
All best wishes to everyone for the New Year, we might even get to chat on the air!

Michael. (GW7BBY/GB2MOP)


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## Paul Braxton

Welcome back, Michael sahib. Nice picture of the new setup. Wondering what all that silver 'jewellery' is on the front of the TX. Looks quite alien, all those loops and bangles. I dunno, all this new-fangled stuff...

That looks suspiciously like a Nixie tube readout on the unit at the top centre, the one directly below the GURK callsign plaque. Incidentally, what was the ship which that one comes from? 

Being a bit of a freak for all things valve, I counted my blessings, receiving a Nixie tube clock kit from a U.K. electronics firm for Christmas. Just got it done, up and running and it far exceeds my expectations. So nice to see the rounded, gently glowing numerals again, first seen back in the late '70's, on the Marconi Apollo RX.

Good luck with the work upcoming. Paul.


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## Troppo2

Michael Oceanspan said:


> Hi Paul, thanks for the festive greetings and apologies for not responding sooner. We have been away over Christmas and have just returned home. Over the winter shutdown I shall be modifying the Challenger for the higher amateur bands that fall in the cracks between the available marine bands, and will also add LSB capability.
> The next big job will be the Kelvin Hughes Zealand M1250 transmitter (see picture). The receive side is working well, I've not yet tried the transmitter. I've provided a 3 phase supply, and the loom appears to be present to connect it to the console. We have all the manuals, the 4CX1500B is present but of unknown provenance, we also have a spare exciter also with its 4CX1500B present. I know a small PSU repair is needed. Hopefully it will soon be on the air, it is a 1.5KW transmitter, synthesized ( I don't think any mods will be needed for amateur bands, but will have to add LSB at some point) It provides for more modes than the Challenger: AM, ISB, DSB, USB, CW. However, before someone jumps on me, I'll be starting a new thread for this one shortly.
> All best wishes to everyone for the New Year, we might even get to chat on the air!
> 
> Michael. (GW7BBY/GB2MOP)


I sailed with a Zeeland. It worked nicely on the 20m ham band..B\)


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## duncs

Looks like the exciter/receiver used on NERA gear.


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## Michael Oceanspan

*Re Kelvin Hughes*

Just a quick reply, before staring a new thread. Paul, the "jewellery" on the kelvin Hughes equipment is KH's take on control handles - its different and feels good to handle! (Pic Attached)
No, there are no Nixie tubes, just good old numbers printed on a disk to give a "digital" readout - see pic of M1250 Synthesizer and Receiver.
GURK was "RFA Orangeleaf" - another pic.
Troppo - nice to hear someone who sailed with KH Kit.
And Duncs, I've heard of NERA, in fact I think we have a cannibalised Nera ATU from I don't know what in our store. I'm not familiar with it.
OK Really going to start that new thread for KH.
Best wishes to all - Michael.


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## Troppo2

Thanks for the pics. I sailed with the Zeeland on the Iron Kestrel/GUBX.

I never sailed with the rx - it has lots of features, but the lack of a VFO knob would have been a real pain for CW working...you can see the military heritage.


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## Michael Oceanspan

Sounds like one of the BHP ore carriers: Iron Kembla, Newcastle, Chieftain, Whyalla etc. 6 of these launched between 1981 - 86 had Challengers. (Not Chieftain, there was a much older Chieftain and a newer one launched in 1993)

Michael (GW7BBY/GB2MOP)


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## Troppo2

Michael Oceanspan said:


> Sounds like one of the BHP ore carriers: Iron Kembla, Newcastle, Chieftain, Whyalla etc. 6 of these launched between 1981 - 86 had Challengers. (Not Chieftain, there was a much older Chieftain and a newer one launched in 1993)
> 
> Michael (GW7BBY/GB2MOP)



Yes, the newer ones (Kembla, Newcastle - after about 85) had Challenger stations. 

The older ones (Whyalla, Spencer) had Conqueror/Apollo stations.

The Kestrel was a smaller, geared bulkie.


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## cajef

Michael Oceanspan said:


> GURK was "RFA Orangeleaf"


I can remember the Orangeleaf when the RFA first took her over she did a complete refit in Falmouth docks, I installed two radars on her a Decca Arpa and 16" True Motion.


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## Michael Oceanspan

Hi Cajef, thanks for the comment, R/O's experiences and anecdotes help to build up the history behind the exhibits at the museum.

I've now started a thread for the Kelvin Hughes Zealand if anyone wants to take a look.

Michael.


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## trotterdotpom

Did Iron Kembla have a Challenger? I don't remember that but it's been a while.

I sailed with that KH gear a few times and thought it was pretty good. Think it was a knock off from Elektrisk Bureau gear which I believe was Danish. Could be wrong on that too.

John T


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## Michael Oceanspan

Hi trotterdotpom, a lot of the historical information I have is cir***stantial or passed on by others and I am always pleased to receive corrections or supporting comments. However, I have it on good authority that 6 challengers were fitted to 6 Australian bulk ore carriers in the early to mid 80s. It is not hard to guess that these were BHP ships. A bit of digging shows that 6 ships, Iron Whyalla, Spencer, Prince, Pacific, Newcastle and Kembla were built in the period 1981 to 1986. These were built about the time that Challenger was being sold and so are the most likely to have Challengers installed. I also believe from another source that the Challenger and accompanying Marconi console in private hands in Melbourne came from Iron Kembla.
As I say, any information anecdotal or otherwise from the dim recesses of R/O's memory banks is welcome!
Best Wishes - Michael.


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## trotterdotpom

No worries, Michael, I'm sure you're right - my memory's not the best. I assume the Challenger is just an improved Conqueror anyway.

I also sailed on Iron Pacific and don't remember the transmitter there either. Pacific and Kembla were both pretty good ships, running from NSW with coal to Korea and Japan respectively and back loading iron ore in NW Australia for Port Kembla and Newcastle. I think Iron Pacific was the biggest ship in the world at the time (200,000 dwt).

Was I right about the Elektrisk Bureau gear? I sailed with that on Iron Baron - purchased by BHP from East Germany and nick named "Hitler's Revenge". I recall the equipment was very reminiscent of the Kelvin Hughes stuff. 

John T

PS Whereabouts in Wales is your museum?


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## Michael Oceanspan

trotterdotpom said:


> No worries, Michael, I'm sure you're right - my memory's not the best. I assume the Challenger is just an improved Conqueror anyway.
> 
> I also sailed on Iron Pacific and don't remember the transmitter there either. Pacific and Kembla were both pretty good ships, running from NSW with coal to Korea and Japan respectively and back loading iron ore in NW Australia for Port Kembla and Newcastle. I think Iron Pacific was the biggest ship in the world at the time (200,000 dwt).
> 
> Was I right about the Elektrisk Bureau gear? I sailed with that on Iron Baron - purchased by BHP from East Germany and nick named "Hitler's Revenge". I recall the equipment was very reminiscent of the Kelvin Hughes stuff.
> 
> John T
> 
> PS Whereabouts in Wales is your museum?


As far as I can see the Challenger met the same specification as Conqueror. Physically, the Finals are different, the Challenger has four 4CX350 ceramic tetrodes, the conqueror uses glass valves. Many other circuits are very similar, some such as the Band Oscillator are identical. The frequency generation strategy is the same, but Challenger takes advantage of the later technology.
At the time, early 1980s, the end of the "traditional" radio room was in sight, Satellite systems: Inmarsat etc were on the horizon,; GMDSS was scheduled to be implemented between 1990 and 1999. The design of another 1.5KW separate transmitter was superfluous, when a changing communications environment really demanded a "Black Box" transceiver that could be operated by unskilled personnel. 
As a result only 12 out of an initial production run of 20 - 24 were sold - half going to BHP!
I don't know about the Elektrisk Bureau connection but will explore it.
The Museum is Internal Fire - Museum of Power at Tan-y-Groes near Cardigan. Main museum web Site: https://www.internalfire.com/
radio website: http://www.gb2mop.org/
The museum is presently closed until Easter when it will open with a weekend crank-up of engines and radio activity.
Best Wishes - Michael.


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## Michael Oceanspan

trotterdorpopm, 
I've done a bit of digging around for a link to Elektrisk Bureau equipment and can't see a link to Kelvin Hughes, but that doesn't mean there isn't one! I did find the attached picture dated 1973 and so this equipment, the EB1500, would be contemporary with our Kelvin Hughes set up. I can see the similarity in general layout, also the synthesizer freqeuncy setting and display are similar although I suspect that the EB1500 used Nixie tubes. I also notice that we have a manual for the EB1500 in the museum archive.
Can't do more than that at present, but you never know what will turn up when one starts looking!
Michael (GW7BBY/GB2MOP)


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## Bill.B

KH Zealand station was built by Electromekano (spell) AS of Denmark. Sailed with the stations for KH on many vessels. Denholms, Jebsens, UBC. It was a good station generally. Reserve RX was rubbish. The Main RX had an FET front end preceded by a desense
relay which had a habit of going and taking out the FET. I inherited a couple of vessels where this went unnoticed. Bit of a pain to replace the FET as it was buried in the RX. Other major problem was the large band change relays and coils in the back of the TX. If the HT was left on and the relays activated they tended to arc and stick. Also their coils would burn out and so I had to rewind a couple as well. All in all it was a good station to sail with, especially after Atalanta, Electra and Mercury in the RFA. You knew when you dialed up the RX synthesizer if the station was there or not. Repaired a few as an RH tech as well.


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## trotterdotpom

#65 . Thanks Michael. Not to worry, I could be completely wrong. I sailed with the KH gear quite a few times and when I struck the EB stuff it seemed familiar.

Interesting that the advert says the equipment is "one fifth the weight" - I did think that it was a bit "tinny" looking but at least it wouldn't affect the ship's draft.

John T


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## duncs

JT, EB was Norwegian, a lot of it badged stuff.
Best station I ever had. It was on a tanker built for the Norskis.
A huge Norcontrol computer on the bridge, which gave you ACAS, which could be hooked to either the 3 or 10cm Selenia Raytheon radars. It was programmed by punched paper tape. It was also hooked to 2 'early' satnavs, as well as Omega and Loran. Navs would put in waypoints etc and it would steer the ship. When it reached a waypoint, an alarm would sound, the Nav would accept it and it would alter course on its own.
I think the vessel was built around '74.

Duncs


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## trotterdotpom

#68 . Thanks Dunks.

John T


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## Troppo2

Michael Oceanspan said:


> were fitted to 6 Australian bulk ore carriers in the early to mid 80s. It is not hard to guess that these were BHP ships. A bit of digging shows that 6 ships, Iron Whyalla, Spencer, Prince, Pacific, Newcastle and Kembla were built in the period 1981 to 1986. These were built about the time that Challenger was being sold and so are the most likely to have Challengers installed. I also believe from another source that the Challenger and accompanying Marconi console in private hands in Melbourne came from Iron Kembla.
> As I say, any information anecdotal or otherwise from the dim recesses of R/O's memory banks is welcome!
> Best Wishes - Michael.


Hello Michael

The Whyalla, Spencer and Prince had Conquerors
Pacific, Newcastle and Kembla had Challengers


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## Michael Oceanspan

Troppo2 said:


> Hello Michael
> 
> The Whyalla, Spencer and Prince had Conquerors
> Pacific, Newcastle and Kembla had Challengers


Thankyou troppo2 for that, it all helps to fill in the history. Whyalla, Spencer and Prince must be the earlier builds, as Challenger didn't come on line until 82/83.
Michael.


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## Troppo2

Michael Oceanspan said:


> Thankyou troppo2 for that, it all helps to fill in the history. Whyalla, Spencer and Prince must be the earlier builds, as Challenger didn't come on line until 82/83.
> Michael.



Yes, they were...


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## G4UMW

The main receiver in the first EB1500 picture looks like an ITT 3020.


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## Michael Oceanspan

I never cease to be amazed at how much stuff was badge engineered: Kelvin Hughes - Elektromekano; Marconi - Eddystone, Dansk and Dynatron amongst others. I daresay, Seimens and Telefunken stayed true to their roots?
Michael


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## G4UMW

IMRC too - the IMR 5000 main receiver was a rebadged Plessey PR-155. They also rebadged an Eddystone reserve receiver but I can't recall the model number.


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## R651400

Siemens definitely badged-out..


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## Ron Stringer

Badging. We all did it, whenever we had a delivery gap or a hole in the product range for whatever reason. 

A variation. Back in the late 1960s/early 1970s members of RAMAC (the trade's lobbying organisation) made an agreement that each member company would develop a specific product (e.g. reserve transmitter) which would then be bought and badged by all the other members for sale under their own name. The idea was to avoid the high development costs involved in producing a complete range of products.

The only such product identified for adoption under that scheme of which I am aware was a 400w pep (I think) SSB MF/HF radiotelephone tranceiver (skipper-operated) which was designed and produced by the French RAMAC member CRM (Compagnie Radio Maritime). I was involved in getting UK type approval for it, but I'm afraid I can't remember the year or the type number of the product. It was approved in France first, then the UK and was to go on to Germany and other countries. I don't think we ever bought any and the whole idea was not a success - everyone continued to develop and produce their own major equipments.


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## Troppo2

Michael Oceanspan said:


> I never cease to be amazed at how much stuff was badge engineered: Kelvin Hughes - Elektromekano; Marconi - Eddystone, Dansk and Dynatron amongst others. I daresay, Seimens and Telefunken stayed true to their roots?
> Michael


Indeed....strange.


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## R651400

My attachment #76was the Siemens E310.receiver.
The finest rx I sailed with before my final QTP and rated one of best for its generation.
The only other E310 contemporary I can think of in the same class was the Racal RA17 which must have made RN and wonder why Mimco and others didn't choose it as a fill-in.


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## duncs

I sailed with a DEBEG station, all of it was badged gear.


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## R651400

Fading memory but I could have had three or maybe four different nationalities under the SAIT badge!


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## Troppo2

The Eddystone rx that Marconi badged as the Sentinel em rx was very popular for badging...


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## duncs

R65, I sailed with a SAIT station. Danish owned, Bahama flag. What I remember is that the SAIT accounts were a pain in the backside. Yet, I cannot remember the gear. I know I had a telex for all my traffic, but, for the life of me, I cannot remember the gear. It must have been OK, otherwise, I would remember it.


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## R651400

Reverse for me Ds... Remember the gear but not the accounting. 
SAIT console withSiemens rx Swedish 400W tx's and some Refifon gear like the clockwork auto key etc. 
Oh and my Dentsu Seiki bug key!


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## Bill Greig

Worked for SAIT briefly after getting made redundant from Decca once I came ashore. Most of the SAIT gear was Skanti, generally decent equipment, never liked working for SAIT though, they seemed quite "Mickey Mouse" after the arrangements in place for stores replenishment etc. at Decca.
Bill


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## Troppo2

Skanti GMDSS gear was first rate.


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## Michael Oceanspan

*Challenger Amateur Bands Modification*

Just before the lockdown hit here in the UK, I brought home the synthesizer draw from the Challenger to do some mods for the higher Amateur bands. The only Amateur bands covered by the original maritime selection are 1.8 and 3.5MHz. I’ve made a minimally invasive mod using an Arduino driving a DDS synthesizer. It polls the bandswitch position and replaces the original Band Oscillator output with the correct base frequency (45.7 – 66.7MHz) to mix down to the selected Amateur Band.
The Arduino also outputs a BCD code via a Daughter board to create the correct MHz readout. Picture shows the synthesizer draw powered up on 14.5MHz and the Band Oscillator output at 55.7MHz. You can see that 14MHz come in at the old 12MHz position on the bandswitch. 2nd pisture shows the new PCB on the left cheek of the draw, amplifier and 2 line LCD display for diagnostics.
It remains to be seen how well it tunes up on these frequencies – should be OK.
The next job on Challenger ( and eventually for Kelvin Hughes) is to add LSB. I’ve prepared a PCB based on an article in January 2019 Practical Wireless that transposes the mic audio to create the correct audio frequencies for LSB, but relative to the USB carrier. It does the reverse process for the received audio. The beauty of it is that it is completely external to the original equipment and so requires no internal modifications.
Incidentally, if you get Practical Wireless over there the April and May 2020 issues contain the full story of the Challenger restoration. If you can't get it PM me and I'll email you photocopies.


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## Paul Braxton

G'day, Mr. Oceanspan, from the mystical land over the seven seas...

Got to say, first off, how amazed I am at the projects you're undertaking over there on the Welsh coast. Oh, and he casually adds, right down there at the bottom: 'Practical Wireless' did a feature on the Challenger restoration! Now that is a real wow factor for me. Yes, I will definitely attempt to get a copy of the issue, and thank you so much for offering to send me a p/copy. 

I want to congratulate you. Your obvious skill, dedication and passion is wonderful to witness and very inspiring. Lovely, when we see so often how so many people appear to have either given up on life or are just marking time in some dreary way. I take my hat off to you for what you're doing and may you have a lot of fun and take real satisfaction away when you leave the workshop at night. I hope you don't lie awake, thrashing away at problems in your head, as I probably would.

You have an enviable amount of expertise, Young Michael, an enviable amount. I wish I had had half of it, but even at my peak of working in the field, both at sea and afterwards, I couldn't have hoped to hold a candle up. Well done. Some of your technical account has me weeping, gnashing my teeth that I have lost any slight skills I might once have had in that field. I can follow most of it, but I freely admit that I was never one for the design side, only a mediocre but dedicated fault finder in the day. I enjoyed the challenge (pun intended) of working through equipment and getting the thing working again, or even better than it may have been in some cases, but it was sometimes a bit of time-consumer, that, when you had to do watches as well.

I love the accompanying photos in your letters (I call them letters now, to give them their proper title). You have another skill, that of putting down technical procedures into prose and illustrations, without errors, spelling, grammatical or otherwise, as well as the accompanying skills in the additions of notes and diagrams. All very much appreciated. 

Congratulations on your work, Michael, and hopefully when all these jobs are done, the equipment working away on your benches, you will find other ways of expressing your skillsets. I'm sure you will. 

The spirit of the good Marchese Marconi lives on! I'm certain that the unsmiling, austere photograph of the man, which once hung in pride of place at the home of that marine radio company, in Chelmsford, right there in the dining hall (I won't derail it by calling it a 'canteen'), would now have changed to a smiling one. 

I know what I'd do if I were you: write a book! You could call it something like: "From Poldhu to West Wales", and the next could be one about Kelvin Hughes, whoever that might have been...

Thank you again for enlivening the first part of my morning. Porridge never tasted so good! The so-called 'lockdown' has been really enjoyable for the two of us out here in the country. Such peace and quiet and the unlimited opportunity to just get on with all the things we do, without the distracton of having to go out, unless it's to the supermarket. Such joy. And the fact that we're enjoying the most wonderfully colourful and brightly blue-skied autumn days, with cold nights and a bright log fire at end of day is a real gift. I try not to let the prognostications, announcements and suchlike about this virus and its rampaging distress me too much. I find it gets really tiring, finding out on BBC News what all the world is doing in minute detail, as well as the half hour I stupidly sit through, watching the NZ News. Why I do it, I don't really know, as there's nothing I can do about any of it. Just let it be, and enjoy what you're doing, that's the way. Oh, and keep away from all those pesky party people...

Thanks once again for replying to my impudent prompting. But it worked!

(The sound of two hands clapping, Zen masters, trying to explain the 'one hand clapping' thing to saffron-robed acolytes, take note!)

Best regards, Paul


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## Michael Oceanspan

Hi Paul,

Thanks or the eulogy! Always pleased to bring happiness to my antipodean Fans! Incidentally, I lived in Sydney for 13 years and was first licensed there as VK2KMU. (I know you're in NZ and it's not the same - better according to my wife who has visited a couple of times)
If you are looking at Practical Wireless archives, April 2017 and April 2018 carry the Oceanspan story - happy reading!
All best - Michael.


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## maltesejohn

Michael Oceanspan said:


> I'll admit straight away that I am not an ex mariner, but I do look after the Marine Radio Collection at Internal Fire- Museum of Power in West Wales. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has any knowledge or experience or perhaps sailed with the Marconi Challenger. There won't be many as, to my knowledge, Marconi only sold about 12 units fro and 18 - 20 production run.
> Its a 1.5KW SSB/CW/MCW transmitter, probably technically the best Marconi made, but a marketing disaster! (too much, too late!) The Challenger we have together with the console came from the "Pride of Calais". We have next to no do***entation - with so few units being sold manuals are very rare. The Instruction manual we have is missing some essential pages. The Conqueror, apart form the finals is very similar, some circuits are identical, so the Conqueror manuals have helped. We are within an ace of having it working, and as mentioned above, I would be very interested to hear from anyone with any knowledge, anecdotal or otherwise, of the Challenger. Many Thanks - Michael.


The challenger is an upgrade on the commandant. It has ledex automatic switching for spot frequency tuning. 
John Cauchi R/O (ex sealing British ferries).


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