Equipment specific to the 1950's period is listed in this document. Equipment not described elsewhere in the web page will be featured here.

In the 1949/50 period, destroyers had a TBS set (60 to 80 MHz) for the principal manoeuvring circuit, and the TDQ/RCK (100 to 160 MHz) for the Plot/AIC/CIC circuit. There were other circuits for purposes of air communications.

Lt. Cdr. Frank J. Dunbar reflects on this period. "It wasn't until the advent of UHF that we had the equipment to guard several circuits. HAIDA was the first RCN ship to be fitted with UHF. We were assigned in the fall of 1949 (or possibly 1950) as the token Canadian presence in a USN Task Force that was to conduct an amphibious operation in Labrador. The arrangements for the exercise had been completed with the UK, but when Newfoundland became part of Canada, we had to at least take a token part. It was a 50/50 chance as to which ship was chosen, because only HAIDA and MICMAC were in commission on the East Coast. However, the USN had gone completely to UHF by then, so we were sent down to Norfolk Virginia to have a couple of UHF sets (URT/URR) installed just for the exercise.

I remember that we had next to no air information in the exercise, let alone shore bombardment circuits. But we did get fresh white bread from the freezers of the USN supply ships,  and fresh cod which came from jigging over the ship's side. Which leads me to think that only one TDQ/RCK was left in each ship during the UHF conversion in the early 50's in order to communicate with other users (primarily civilian) who were on VHF only. The major problem was always to get the right crystals, since the TDQ/RCK combo required the use of crystals".

Click on image to enlarge

Figure 1. This was the typical Radio 1 in a Tribal class destroyer in 1953. Since no 1950's layout is available for HAIDA, this one from HMCS Huron will be used for interpretive purposes. (Image courtesy RCN) On HAIDA, a 1952 drawing of Radio 1 shows the PV500 connecting to the forward port whip and the CM11 connecting to the forward starboard whip. This was in the era when both of the forward whips were used for transmitting.

Figure 3. illustrates the flow of outgoing radio messages.  (Image courtesy RCN)

RADIO 1  EQUIPMENT MANIFEST - September 1955

TRANSMITTERS
MODEL	REF NO.	SERIAL NUMBER
PV500 HM2  (HF)	3A/110	376
TDQ (VHF)	CRV 92328	2063
TDZ (UHF)  (See photo in table below)	CG 52342	2093
TED (UHF)	3A/118	364
RECEIVERS
MODEL	REF. NO.	SERIAL NUMBER
CSR5A (HF)	3A/107/1	871
CSR5A (HF)	3A/107/1	959
CSR5A (HF)	3A/107/1	922
CSR5A (HF)	3A/107/1	931
CSR5A (HF)	3A/107/1	840
RAK5  (LF)	3A/1219	199
RCK (VHF)	CZC 46223	2244
RDZ (UHF) See photo in table below	n/a	1803
RDZ (UHF)	n/a	1581
FM12 (MF/DF)	AP 5483 8A	176
Antenna Multicoupler T164D	3AU/68	50
TRANSMITTER/ RECEIVER
MODEL	REF NO.	SERIAL NUMBER
CM11 ( LF/HF)	3A/103	192
FR12 (HF)	3A/309	NIL
TBS 7 (VHF)	CG 52093 Transmitter CG 46068 Receiver	733 or 449 (?) 449 or 773 (?)
PORTABLE SETS
MODEL	REF NO.	SERIAL NUMBER
CRT-1/CPRC-26	nil	12574
CRT-1/CPRC-26	nil	12571
CRT-1/CPRC-26	nil	13016
REMOTE CONTROL EQUIPMENT
MODEL	REF	WHERE FITTED
QM11 (unidentified). Might be for the CM11.	3A/60	Three in Ops Room Two on Bridge
For TBS 7	CRV2315	Two in Radio 1 Two in Ops Room Two on Bridge
For TDQ/RCK combo	CCT 23211A	Two in Ops Room Two on Bridge
Speaker Amplifier Units  for TDQ/RCK combo	CMX 49620	Two on Bridge Two in Ops Room
For TDZ/RDZ combo	CCT23211A	One in Bridge
CQC (unidentified)	23496	One in Ops Room
RADIO TELETYPE EQUIPMENT
MODEL	REF NO.	SERIAL NUMBER
FSK Frequency Shift Keyer	XFK169	?
FSC Frequency Shift Conv.	Type 107   RCN 23AU/37	?
SFO Regenerator (see photo in table)	?	173
TD Distributor	59354	?
Teleprinter Model 15	122943	?
Reperforator Model 14	72797	?

RADIO 2  EQUIPMENT MANIFEST - September 1955

MODEL	REF NO.	SERIAL NUMBER
CM11 #1	3A/103	368
CM11 #2	3A/103	381

RADIO 3  EQUIPMENT MANIFEST - September 1955

MODEL	REF NO.	SERIAL NUMBER
TBS 7	CG52093	?

RADIO 4  EQUIPMENT MANIFEST - September 1955

MODEL	REF NO.	SERIAL NUMBER
SHF DF Unit	AN/UPD-501	?
HF receiver - Hammarlund	SP-600	?

MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT  - September 1955

MODEL	REF NO.	SERIAL NUMBER
SRE	RCA Model 456 (need photo)	?
Two Whip Antennas 35 foot	3BA/16 3S1/347	n/a
Two TDQ/RCK Dipoles	CLS 66059	n/a
Two TDZ/RDZ Dipoles	General Electric	n/a
Manufacturer codes for equipment made in the USA: CAY - Westinghouse CCT - Stromberg-Carlson CFT - Federal CME - RME CNA - National CND - Andrea CPN - Panoramic CRV - RCA CWQ - Wells Gardner CZC - Scott

 

	TDZ - UHF Shipboard Transmitter. Circa 1944. Freq range  225 to 400 MHz; 30 watts output; Modes - MCW and AM. Click on photo for more photos and info.  (Photo courtesy Nick England's Navy Radio site)
	RDZ - UHF Shipboard Receiver. Circa 1944. Freq range - 225 to 400 MHz. Can be used with manual tuning or 10-channel autotune. MCW or AM only.  Weight - 150 pounds.Click on photo for more info. (Photo courtesy Nick England's Navy Radio site)

P1 Butch Bouchard in Radio 1, HMCS Athabaskan DDE219 taken sometime between July 1951 and February 1952. (Photo by Ronald Mark) As you walk into the radio room , the position shown was directly in front on the far bulkhead. It was the P.O. Telegraphist chair. It was where he transmitted messages by key, and did his paperwork.The operators positions were to the left of that position. and the PV500 transmitter was on the right hand bulkhead of the office. The equipment fitting in Athabee's Radio 1 was not identical to that of HMCS Huron which is documented elsewhere in this web page. .

Portable Radio

An Athabaskan crew member uses the WS-58 portable set. Uses included short term communication between ships for such jobs as jack-stay transfers, underway fuelling and practice shoots. (Crowsnest photo, December 1950)

The WS-58 Mk1/T set was the Navy's portable radio until replaced by the CPRC-26 set around the mid 50's. It was a man pack transceiver developed in 1943 for use by the Army.  Frequency range 6-9 MHz. RF output 0.3 watts. MO control. R/T only. Range up to 5 miles. (Photo courtesy Wireless for the Warrior)

A report on HAIDA's radios dated October 1955, indicates the following deficiencies. which are summarized below.
1) The ship has insufficient VHF/UHF channels for use in large scale exercises.  Any equipment failures only worsen the problem.
2) The antenna multicoupler (model not identified) is considered inefficient and the lack of an aerial patch board impacts reception capability.
3) Radio 1 and Radio 4 are heating excessively due to an inefficient ventilation system. This is believed to be inducing equipment failures. During summer months, temperatures of over 90F have been recorded with a consequent hardship on operators.
4) During major exercises, a 24 hour watch is maintained in the Crypto Office. At times it is necessary to have two operators closed up. Due to cramped quarters and poor ventilation, this has proved to be an unsatisfactory arrangement.
5) The intercom fitted from the bridge to the flag deck is inefficient due to the exposed position of the intercom boxes.
6) Light leakage from the two 10 inch signal projectors prevents the "Nancy" (IR) gear from being used.
This is just a small sampling of the pesky problems that were experienced aboard ship.

The full report on the Communications Survey done in 1953 can be found here.

 

Hardworking Radiomen on watch. This scene was typical in Radio 1 in 1956. (Photo courtesy HMCS HAIDA archives) In this photo,  the vent trunking appears to be all metal and  lacks the wood veneer that is visible today. Out of view is part of the bulkhead for the Message Centre. The metal desks that we see today are not present. At each operating position is a goose neck lamp and a Remington typewriter.

1956: Seated from left to right are Jim Benson as ABRM - now deceased; Neil McAskill as PO2, now retired as CPO2. Jack Wells as ABRM, retired as LCdr and now deceased. (Photo courtesy HMCS HAIDA archives) In 1955, HAIDA carried a complete complement of eight CV's and eight CR's along with two CS ratings.

GUARDING THE SUBMARINE BROADCAST

Ronald Yaschuk explains how surface ships guarded the submarine broadcast.

"The LF setup in ships at sea was designed to copy the submarine broadcast. When the submarine was submerged during an exercise, it could not copy the broadcast since LF does not penetrate seawater very far. Hence, the Commander of the Task Force, Task Group etc., designated one ship as SUBMARINE GUARD.

This was also laid out in the OPORDER Exercise Book. If your ship was tasked with this duty, you copied the submarine broadcast as well as the fleet broadcast. It was not a pleasant job as I recall, but someone had to do it. When the submarine surfaced, the Guard ship would rebroadcast the information to the submarine. Low speed broadcasts were fairly reliable but the high speed burst could be obliterated or garbled by static or interference  If both the sub and the ship missed the broadcast, you waited until the next designated broadcast period.  If anything critical was missed that left the ship and the sub scrambling to obtain the required information for the next phase of the EXERCISE.  In addition, PL (plain language) sent to the sub had to be     buttoned up (encrypted) and sent by CW which took a considerable amount of time. Some of the traffic for the sub was of high priority (such as re-positioning for the next exercise) would have to be relayed immediately.

Meanwhile, during all of this, you had the C.O, OPSO a COMO hanging over your shoulder making things even more difficult".

Transmitter Key Board

The transmitter key board  held only the keys that belonged to the radio transmitters. Any radioman who had to perform maintenance on an antenna would take the key off the board, then use it to disable the transmitter thus making it safe. The man aloft keyboard (for radars) was held in the Wardroom and was controlled by the Officer Of the Day (OOD). A sign in/out log would  tell him who held the keys. By 1962, the both radar and radio transmitter keys were stored on the Man Aloft Board which was mounted in the Message Centre aboard HAIDA.

The transmitter key board or man aloft board in many ships was usually made by one the shipwrights in exchange for a favour like a few tots of rum. It was usually made from mahogany or any other wood which was handy. Key identifiers and numbers were etched on little brass plates and the inside of  the key board was lined with a green felt cloth.  Key boards were also made of aluminum with a lockable hasp. They did not look pretty but served the purpose. Later, they became known as Man Aloft Boards.

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Credits and References:

1) Library and Archives Canada File 7400 DDE_215 provided by Robert Langille <ewcs(at)ewcs.ca>
2) SFO photo - Courtesy TMC Commercial Manuals web page
    http://www.virhistory.com/tmc/tmc_pages/tmc_commercial_manual_page.htm
3) RDZ photo:  http://www.navy-radio.com/rcvr-ww2.htm
4) TDZ photo: http://www.navy-radio.com/xmtr-ww2.htm
5) Lt Cdr Frank J. Dunbar
6)  Ronald Mark <rondmark(at)shaw.ca>

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Sept 3/22