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[Towertalk] Beams on Ships

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [Towertalk] Beams on Ships
From: N6ZO@aol.com (N6ZO@aol.com)
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 22:55:07 EST
beams work well on ships.

I had a TH3 aboard my ship at Diego Garcia in the early 80's aboard the usns 
meteor and it worked well.  I saw several destroyers with trapped beams on 
the bridge.  One of the ammunition ships out there had a quad

I was the radio officer on the hospital ship comfort on all voyages between 
1990 and 2000.  Our 3 el cushcraft A3 tribander  tribander mounted on the 
bridge on 2 sections of rohn 25G 110 feet off the water worked well for over 
10 years with minimal  maintenance.  Turned it with a ham -IV.

I had a gyro feed in the radio room on the inmarsat terminal so ships heading 
was no problem to maintain or continuously monitor.

course changes except in high traffic areas were minimal.  Steaming in 
circles was a problem cause even the inmarsat would not track fast enough to 
keep up with the gyro.

We had two 35 foot whips at our disposal but preferred the beam for freqs 
above 7 mcs.

No problem working stateside from the med, off the coast of Iraq, gulf of 
oman, (GOO) or during the the thing in haitii.  We had a second A-3 as a 
spare but never needed it.

In those days Harris communications donated 2 hf xcvrs which worked well.

Last time I was there in  July 2001,  the hospital ship had 2 TS950's the  
Kenwood 
3--500Z ampligressor and all the accessories.

VHF beams?  You betcha,  I got the ship to purchase several 11 element 2 
meter beams which we mounted on the flying bridge with rotors. 

Typical situation for the hospital ship is to be anchored out 40 miles or so 
outside the harbor for a number of reasons. ever further out in "unfriendly" 
countries.  With the beams we were stronger from 40 miles out than some of 
the ships just outside the harbor.  With the beams we were able to keep in 
touch with forces ashore using walkie talkies.

when the ship shifted on anchor, it was necessary to swing the VHF beams 
toward shore.

While we were probably lucky with the trapped beam,  I think the F-12 
trapless tribanders would hold up pretty well at sea.



73

chet




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