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| MV QUEBEC (VCXL) radio room. The Oceanspan transmitter is at the left. (From the collection of Paul duMesnil by way of Spud Roscoe) |
There were seven Oceanspan transmitter marks. If anyone can provide info on any Mark, please contact: Jerry.Proc@sympatico.caSPECIFICATIONS for Mk 6:
The following extract from "Marine Radio Manual" by G.L.Danielson & F.C. Mayoh offers Oceanspan Mk 6 specifications data. Select this link to view the specs. Data provided by Andy Beales VK4KCS.
Circa: 1964
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| MV QUEBEC (VCXL) radio room. The Oceanspan transmitter is at the left. (From the collection of Paul duMesnil by way of Spud Roscoe) |
Sandy Blaize offers additional information on the Oceanspan transmitter. "The Oceanspan is a unique rig sporting a set of blue knobs for MF and a set or reddish-orange knobs for HF. Earlier “marks” did not have radiotelephone capability , just CW Later “marks” operated on “R/T” and “W/T” All used 2 MHz crystals and the harmonics of same for operation in the 2, 4 , 6, 8, 12, 16 and 22 Mhz bands.This rig too used four 807 valves in the PA stage and was VERY popular especially during the old “area scheme” Marconi had devised. This consisted of receiving stations around the world in various places before it was done away with. As a consequence, Sparkies had to go straight to Portishead for their traffic (GKB mostly as I remember to get a working frequency then get into the queue.) Once that “area scheme” was disbanded a Sparkie had to time his watch carefully to get HF traffic back to GKB with his measly 100 watts provided by the Oceanspan sets.
Even WORSE was the “Seaspan” junior W/T version of the “Oceanspan” which ran half the power! Ships equipped with the “Globespan” or the more modern “Crusader” didn't have this problem. The Sparkies that had “Crusaders” got spoiled very quickly having a kilowatt to play with which attracted attention very quickly and precluded long repetitive calls to GKB for what seemed like hours to get through. This was especially tough those operators who didn't fully understand radio propagation and dealing with the peculiarities of the ionosphere. As I remember the only really “oddball” thing about the “Oceanspan” was a large multi voltage, multi output stabilizer tube used in the power supply whose type number I do not now recall".
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| Oceanspan photo courtesy Ships Nostalgia web page. |
Contributors and Credits:
1) Sandy Blaize <ebjr37(at)charter.net>
2) http://philpott.de/Pdf_book/Marine%20transmitters%20and%20receivers.pdf
3) Oceanspan2 photo http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/search.php?searchid=1265418
4) http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/MERCHANT%20SHIPS%20AND%20RFA%20FITS.pdf
5) Andy Beales VK4KCS <adbeales(at)iinet.net.au>
Apr 9/13