Jan 23 - Despite the early morning cold temperatures there was a nice turn out of members for our weekly work party.

Ski was busy handling several small tasks that just plain needed being performed. First he checked the status of the recently modified Dead Reckoning Tracer (DRT) bug light. Yep, it's still awake. Next, with the help of Rich, a Model 35 Teletype machine that once adorned the top of the Univac navigation computer in Fwd IC is now back in its home port. This machine had been removed, in 2001, to make room for restoration of the ship's 1MC announcing system.

Rich and Ski then took on the task of providing a new antenna feed line to the O2 level restoration shop (aka John's World). The MARS antenna that feeds RF signals to the shop is in need of some TCL, which is prevented by the current weather conditions. We have known for years of a pair of coax cables that ran from the multicoupler in FACCON 1 and ended in the former FM radio booth. One of these cables has been redirected into the O2 level shop and provides access to all the ship's HF receive antennas.

Rich continued with his battle against another of the curatorial display monitors. As he mentioned to me, " I just can't close the case on a broken monitor".

John reports that the R-390A receiver, owned by the USS Requin moored in Pittsburgh, has been restored. He has been working most Saturdays since June 2009 and a number of weekdays getting this piece of equipment back on line for that museum ship. Next is the timing needed to return the radio to the Three Rivers area.

Also on the O2 level we discovered that Bill L had taken over the Battery Charging Room for the workday. He has taken on the job of rewiring the keyboard cable used with the CEC plasma display. Using what little technical info is in the users manual he is tracing wire colors and functions of a de-milled 41 pin connector/cable in hopes of bringing the plasma display system back into service.

Ray continued his methodical inspection, cleaning and repair of the WWII TCK-4 transmitter. He reports that all of the rectifier cabinet (power supplies) and the upper portion of the RF cabinet are completed. He is now pulling each of the modules in the lower portion of the transmitter looking for any conditions that might cause the gear to fail a smoke test.

The NJ2BB shack was busy thanks to 2 guest operators who had contacted me a couple of weeks ago, wanting some airtime from the ship. Chris and Doug made 36 contacts on 20-meter SSB using the HAM-3 section of the station. During some of the deep fades in the incoming signal we found that using one of the ship's Harris R-2368 receivers to power headphones worn by the logger helped with the QSO. Known as "space diversity", this setup used a second receiver (the Harris) connected to a second antenna (the starboard 35' vertical) to capture signals that were being missed by the primary receiver (TS-430s) using the Truss vertical. This separation of antenna, almost 600' in this case, is often the answer to these deep fades in signal strength. Doug, who had been to the ship last December, along with his buddy John from Peoria IL, also brought along a Heathkit SB-110 6-meter CW/SSB rig as a donation to the Ham Shack. The rig did pass the smoke test but a broken antenna connector center pin prevented me from giving the rig an on the air test. The addition of this radio completes the band coverage of NJ2BB for 160 meters through 70 centimeters. Thanks Doug, this rig will get a work out now that 6-meters has been waking up in the early evenings.

Jan 21 - One of the Transmitter Room gang members mentioned that the Racal HF receiver was not working and that he hoped it wasn’t the rig that was dead. Later in the day when the scheduled work was completed a troop of two ventured down to 3rd deck to investigate the loss of signal comment. After doing a couple of cable and patch panel checks it was decided the problem was closer to the antenna. Next stop, FACCON 1.

In FACCON 1, more cable and patching checks were completed with the results still indicating that the troops should look closer to the antenna. So, next stop was the Starboard 35’ vertical.

Located adjacent to the O5 level Open Bridge, this antenna and connection looked fine from a distance. However, when the coax connector was touched it basically expanded on its own. It appears that the very wet and very cold weather of recent times had pushed the internal nylon insulator of the “N” connector in a lateral direction, hard enough to cause the connection to separate. Yes, the connector disconnected it self despite all the mechanical items used to maintain it in place. Removing the errant insulator allowed for the connector to be re-inserted into the antenna base. Aka temp fix.

Now for a 7-deck trip back to the Transmitter Room for a successful test of three of the HF receivers residing there proved that all is well again. A complete replacement of the antenna base connector is scheduled for the next fair weather day.

Jan 18 - Much like the postal service motto "neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night.......", BNJARS volunteers have continued their work at the Battleship New Jersey. I admit that I have been amiss with the weekly updates and therefore can not include details of each project in this single attempt at informing you as to what has happened onboard the BB-62 so please do not feel slighted or ignored if I fail to include a job or two. Please!!!!

Phase 2 of the attack on the DRT (dead reckoning tracer) "bug light" has been completed. This involved replacing the 8-volt lighting transformer with a 6-volt 3-amp filament transformer. The reduced voltage still supplies a viewable compass rose on the Quarter Master's chart table but should increase the life of the bulb. Phase 3 will involve adding an infrared motion detector to the lighting circuit so that the lamp is energized only when visitors are in the area. This should have a major effect on the life of the lamp.

Also located in CEC was the 1984 version of a computer plasma display. I say "was" because it is now in one of the O2 level shops getting acquainted with the BNJARS team. After giving the unit a careful visual inspection with no signs of de-mill attempts the guys moved on to checking the electrolytic capacitors for signs of deterioration. Not finding any areas of concern, the display was powered up and to everyone's surprise it passed the smoke test. Now the restoration effort moves over to being able to supply information for display. The big problem is that this is not a modern, standard style of computer display which may need some creative thoughts before the display is back in CEC doing its thing.

The SITE system (TV system) has been successfully interfaced to a donated computer via a dual output video card. This card provides the standard VGA signal for the monitor while also suppling a NTSC video signal used by the SITE equipment. Al and his gang of encampment advisors can now use photos of the ship, events, visitors, etc as part of their demonstrations on video production. We still have hopes of rebuilding the Abakus A-42 storage unit, but not in the near future.

The restoration of a R-390A HF receiver for another museum ship has been a very rough adventure for the team. This particular rig has apparently been the subject of abuse, repair attempts and a lot of Murphy. It is now 99% completed as evidenced by the sounds of HF signals coming from the attached speaker. Another work day or two should find this rig ready for transfer back to Pittsburgh. Also in the shop is the donated SP-600 HF receiver which had not been operational since the early ‘60s. This rig has, as with the R-390A, had seen better days but has a bright future thanks to the work from the O2 level.

One ongoing job that is one day away from completion is the addition of an oversize VU (volume unit) meter to the 1MC equipment in Forward IC. The large meter is dictated by the age of the workers although the associated new rotary switch adds more test points to the system.

While doing the wiring for the switch two previously un-noticed coax cables, with N connectors, were discovered. This past Saturday a team traced both cables to their other ends which turn out to be very advantageous to NJ2BB. The smaller coax ends in the upper area of the Brass Team workshop. This line could well be used as a future antenna feed line. The second cable, RG-8 size, actually runs all the way to SSES, next to CEC. This cable is of very particular interest because in SSES it hangs next to the feed line for the Starboard 35 foot vertical antenna (receive only). By adding a navy zero loss splitter at this point we end up with a second antenna feed line being available to the WWII Radio Room project.

Before someone jumps up crying about all the work that it took last year to install a coax from the Transmitter Room to WWII for the receivers, consider this; we now have direct access to a receive antenna without the need for patching (or signal loss) at the Transmitter Room and we still maintain the use of the T/R switching function of the transmitters when used by WWII equipment operators. In short, we have a nearly optimum antenna situation, thanks to one person asking a question, "why is there an N connector hanging near an analog machine". Enough words on this subject.

This week marks the third month of operation of the new felt-thrust washers in the wind speed integrators. I would be tempted to call this a successful repair but am worried about tempting fate.

The VHF antenna patch panel in the NJ2BB shack has been completed and used at least twice to reconfigure our VHF equipment / antenna arrangement to optimize our signal for a particular event, after which the equipment arrangement was easily returned to its normal use. No more climbing over or reaching around the gear to change antennas.

The inspection of each and every wind speed repeater onboard the ship is nearly complete. Replacement bulbs for the back lighting of the indicators have been ordered but are still somewhere in the shipping process. Darkened areas such as CEC and CIC are the major recipients of this red back lighting of the indicators.

Down in the Transmitter Room the installation of the RBB and RBC receivers is complete as are the external speakers for these radios. The gang fabricated a frame for mounting two radio room style speakers to the overhead, above the radios. The area almost looks original to the ship.

This leads me to the results of an E-mail I sent out about the need for some Amphenol series 91 connectors. Thanks to 2 of our readers we have some connectors in the mail. But the story does not end here, it continues with one of our members re-posting the request to one of his other web sites. Two of his tech associates/friends have also offered this style connectors. As it now stands, we have enough series 91 connectors to finish up the Transmitter Room and WWII Radio. With humor in my mind I say "Now that we have connectors we can start with the install of cables and speaker for WWII radio. Just what we need, more work for the schedule". Please remember I said that with tongue in cheek. But we do now enter a whole new phase of restoration work at the ship.

Since my last update we have gained two new members / workers who have proven their worth. Everyone, say hello to Jeff and Rich!!