Radio

World War II Radios
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Liberty Ships USS O'Bannon USS Cassin Young

Liberty Ships ANTENNAS.. .....Liberty ships had two main antennas. Regardless of wartime or commercial operation,
.....when the booms were operating it was necessary to disconnect one end of each
.....antenna, lower it and coil up the wire. Before getting underway, the antenna wires
.....had to be restored back to normal. In many ports ships were not allowed to use their
.....radio while in some ports, the radio room would literally be sealed.
.....
.....The new result was the Radio Officer had nothing to do while a ship was in port so
.....he was usually the first one down the gangplank and the last to return. Made a lot
.....of other shipmates jealous.

1) Motor generator
transfer switch.
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2) ET 8023-D1 high frequency
CW transmitter. VFO controlled.
Power output is 200 watts
between 2 and 24 MHz.
Built November 1944.
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3) AR 8506-B receiver.
Coverage is 85-550 kHz
and 1.9 to 25 MHz.
Built September 1944.
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....................1) Type 'C' Crystal Radio. Range: 350-515 kHz. It used a cat's whisker.
....................2) Model 8601 auto alarm receiver. Built August 1942.
....................3) Auto alarm master switch.
....................4) AR 8510 receiver. Range: 16-650 kHz. Built September 1944.
....................5) ET 8024A CW transmitter. Ranges 350-500 KHz. 200 watts, xtal controlled.
....................6) Battery charger.
....................7) ET 8025 low power, emergency transmitter. 350-500 kHz; 40 watts. Powered
.........................from a 12 volt source; crystal controlled. Built August 1942.
....................8) Antenna transfer switch.
.....
....................Each transmitter was equipped with RM28 keys.
.....

USS O'Bannon - Destroyer
..
The old timers (those over thirty) bolster moral by describing what a great ship we are on. This
destroyer is fast and hard to hit, it has lots of guns and torpedoes and submarines actually run
from us. This is good to know, so maybe we have a good chance of staying on top of the waves.
The ship is a beauty and everyone onboard seems proud of it. From the bridge, it looks great.
From up here you have a sweeping view of the full length of the ship and can see just about
anything that's happening on deck. It's really quite a nice view. Little wonder that the captain is
always up here.
..
The next deck down is the radio bridge where we radiomen hang out when not on duty. The view
is not nearly as good but still we are up and out of the deck traffic and if there is any breeze to be
had, you get it here. There is a nice big hatch that goes directly into the main radio room so it's no
effort to go in for a cup of coffee (always available) or to check the time (got to know when to go
on watch).
..
The radio room is a busy place where Morse code messages are constantly coming in from
Honolulu. If the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Area (Admiral Chester Nimitz) has orders for
our ship, we're on duty twenty-four hours a day so we'll receive them. Well, of course nobody's
perfect, we do miss a few. Static and an occasional dozing off by the radioman are the culprits.
And do we get the radio traffic, it never stops.
..
Of course all messages are encoded so you can't read them but it's up to the radiomen decode the
headings to see who they're addressed to. And if it happens to be to us, we pass it to the decoding
officer who takes it from there. We also have an emergency radio room located near the stern of
the ship which is activated any time the ship is set for battle. This is just in case the main radio
room is ever blown up or knocked out of action. Hopefully, this will never happen, especially if I
happen to be on watch there.
..
Sitting outside the radio shack in the shade from the bridge (directly above) and on the relatively
cool deck (over 100 degrees), it is easy to reflect on our ship's relatively short career before our
voyage to this battle area.

..
........USS CASSIN YOUNG
.. tour a WWII Destroyer at Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston
..
See: COMBAT INFORMATION CENTER
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