June 23 - Saturday the 20th was a small turnout type of day for the workparty but the activity in the shack was abnormally high thanks to three visitors.First there was Wally, WB5ILK, who was part of the general tour groups. He noticed the sign above the shack scuttle and stuck his head inside to say hello. We did convince him to get on the air for at least one contact. His efforts landed a QSO with a group in Texas operating as a demo station for some local emergency management officers. Oh, by the way, Wally is from Texas.

Next came Dave, K3FT, and Mark, N3GNW, from Bucks County. Dave had stopped by the Dayton booth looking for info in general and operating the station in particular. While in the NJ2BB shack these two Hams did a Bravo Zulu job of getting the ship on the air and representing the ship in the highest manner. Mark and Dave added 39 contacts to our logbook.

The story of the Pittsburgh R-390A deepens with the finding of two blown crystals, a shorted AC power switch and an open in the audio transformer secondary circuit. On the good news side John was able to "reform" the bad high voltage filter capacitors.

Tom found the answer to where some cable mounts are attached inside the WRT-2 transmitter but this means that the two drawers that have been wired need to be de-terminated in order to install the mounts. This is a perfect example of two steps forward and three steps backward. Keeping a safe eye on Tom, in the Transmitter Room, Ray installed silicon repalcements for some selenium diodes in the power supply for the TCK transmitter. For historical visual effects the selenium diodes were left in place and the repalcements hidden out of sight.

Some more good news is that the SITE Studio was found very dry. The system has also received the donation of another digital to analog converter for use with the TV headend.

The first job of the day was the repair of the A/B switch for the First Class lounge TV. It was found that two of the four "F" connectors had been pulled apart. Tom made the needed repairs before heading to the Transmitter Room.

Margaret and Ed spent most of the day recovering from a hard drive crash of the TTY Office computer. The machine is back online but some file recovery remains to be accomplished. In the way of near future work for the group, we have been asked to add two cameras to the security video system and the installation of another, special, viewing station.

June 18 - Over the last couple of weeks the SITE Control Room has again been experiencing water pooling on the deck. This has been an on again / off again condition for years even though we had found at least one source of leakage; namely one of the portholes in the compartment. Well, last weekend while Brian was working on the CCTV head end and Bill L was inside the video racks, Bill noticed water running on the deck. Brian did a quick look at the thru-wall air conditioner he had turned on about an hour before and found water exiting the condensate pan. Now in our own defense, we have looked at this unit in the past and found nothing. This time Brian found the water flowing down the backside of the power cord, into a gap behind the bulkhead insulation and down to the deck. A trip to the weather deck showed that the unit was installed with an outward slop, but apparently the ship had shifted its list slightly, due to a westerly wind, causing the drainage into the Control Room. We increased the slope slightly, well maybe a little more than slightly, and watched the water flow where it should.

Also from the SITE Control Room, Al reports that the system has been waking up for the overnight encampment groups, without hassle. It appears that he has managed to work through each of the dozen or so items that were begging for some TLC (tender loving care). Good work Al.

Bill L was inside the video racks working on the cable tracing of the SITE System. Brian was "re-scanning" the digital converters as needed after the national change to digital TV on Friday. He spent the rest of the day straightening out the insides of the head end cabinet and installing the channel 14 converter and processor. The Ship's TV channel 14 now carries the "ThiS" network movies and older TV shows.

Down in the Transmitter Room "Too Tall" Tom and Doug reconnected the internal wiring harness for the AN/WRT-2 transmitter. They have a couple of questions as to wire locations which will be answered this coming weekend, thanks to the photos taken as the unit was dismantled while it was sitting in Tuckerton NJ.

Ed was kept busy in the shack acting as AO for his group of visitors from Atlantic City area clubs. Once again the Museum Area speaker was used to let general visitors hear both sides of the NJ2BB contacts.

The next time you see Ski, do not mention the hair loss he is suffering due to some troubles with the digital remote control for one of the security cameras.

John and Ray have been working overtime on the R-390 receiver that belongs to the USS Requin. Not only are they fixing some "sailor repairs" they are also installing some standard upgrades and modifications to the rig. Rumor has it they may energize the radio, for the first time in years, this Saturday.

Jason Hall, BB-62 Curator, stopped by to introduce the Manager from the USS Texas. After some positive comments about the recent Museum Ships Weekend Event the two of them headed off for other places in the ship.

Speaking of Museum Ships Weekend, NJ2BB worked 42 states, 17 countries and 26 ships. This is the first time we have been eligible for our own weekend certificate.

May 31 - This past Saturday was a very, very busy workday for all persons present.

First, we had a group of visiting Hams from the Cape May ARC. With Ed acting as their Authorized Operator (AO), this group of four managed to snag 120 contacts during their time in the shack. Operations were mostly 20 meter SSB, but CW activity was logged. They even took a break from HAM-2 when a Ham on a paid tour popped his head into the shack. This particular Ham did not know of the existence of the NJ2BB station but went away with a big smile on his face after making a dozen or so contacts.

Out in the Message Handling Area Dave C. continued his project of stripping ship yard bounty of usable parts.

The SITE Control Room was crowded with Dave W and Brian who were converting the TV head end equipment from the old analog TV reception to the new digital TV signals. Most of the "Off Air" channels are now converted to the new technology with only 2 channels left to be finished next time. Also in the SITE Control Room was Bill L who was finishing up with his long-standing job of documenting the wiring of the 6 equipment racks that comprise the video production area. Once he has traced and marked every wire and cable, drawings will be produced in an effort to increase our understanding of the operation of the system.

Walking aft from the SITE area we find John and Ray working on the restoration and repair of the R-390 receiver that belongs to the USS Requin, berthed in Pittsburgh. As mentioned many times, this repair work is part of the "horse trading" of last year that landed a WRT-2 in our Transmitter Room. Once it is completed, some of the Pittsburgh gang plans on a visit to our ship and shack then heading back home with the R-390.

Also on the O2 level, Too Tall Tom dug into a donated Heathkit SB-230 1KW amp hunting for the cause of some non-acceptable noise inside the cabinet. He was able to locate the source of the rattles (several large flat washers) but not their origin. He also converted the AC wiring to 120 volts. Remember, Naval ships do not have 220 volts available.

Further back on the O2 Level Rich was fabricating the new Tally Light terminal plate for the SITE video switcher. This job is an extension of the new 20-switch panel that allows the security cameras to be used by the encampment TV station visitors.

Just to make sure everybody felt needed we had piles of donated equipment to move from the pier to storage inside the ship. Not just one move, but twice, once in the morning and a second donation after lunch. The first pile included the aforementioned SB-230 along with miscellaneous Ham shack items from the estate of an area Ham.

The second adventure was Dan's donation of a 500 watt linear that is part of the Harris RF-350 transceiver that resides at the HAM-4 station. The lack of proper AC power prevents this amp from being used for this weekends Museum Ships Weekend event, but the near future will hopefully find this amp in service by NJ2BB

April 11 - Jean added some contacts to the NJ2BB logbook, including one with a member of our counterpart group from the Light Ship Huron, berthed near the Mackinaw Bridge. During last year's Dayton Hamvention these guys stopped by the booth for a long visit and, according to Saturday's QSO, will do the same this coming May. While Jean was on the air, Lou helped Terry fasten the sheet aluminum plating located under the Ham-2 and 3 operating stations. This plate was installed in an attempt to make this "foot space" a more comfortable place for the feet of our operators.

In the Transmitter Room Dave W and Tom exchanged the chassis for the "Transmitter Room Receiver Antenna Patch Bay". The new chassis, minus the back plate, is another step toward increasing the number of available receiver antenna patch points. Currently we have a number of receivers that do not have access to an antenna. By days end the number of patch points had been doubled. The back plate is awaiting punching by the ship's machinist, after which it too will be installed.

During the week Tom repaired the power supply for one of the TV channel processors we had obtained for the conversion of the ship's TV system to be compatible with the new digital format. That leaves one, possibly two, that still need repair. Also during the week Al A started a new project that is designed to enhance the "SITE Experience" for the overnight encampments. The idea is to mount two security style cameras, one in the control room and the other in the studio, so that Al has more live video sources for the switcher. These cameras will provide the sort of scene tacked onto the end of newscast; views of the camerapersons and control room personnel. By days end Ski had the studio camera online and the control room camera mounted.

Now that the SITE System is being used more, we are discovering items that need correction. For example, the source of a pesky video noise was discovered in one of the camera remote control units. Card replacement solved the problem. Many of the troubles may be due to the fact the multitude of connectors in the SITE System have not been "cycled" for years.

Ed was a form of "gopher" on Saturday. First he was spotted at the Simulator hut working on the dial phone. Next he was in the SITE Control Room working with Al and the troubleshooting mentioned above. Sometime during the day he was also seen in the TTY Office helping Margaret gut some electronics prior to the sheet metal being sent to the recycle bin.

I do know that John finished something on one of the radios because I heard about his call for help to deliver the rig to WWII radio. I understand the rig has been delivered.

April 4 - In the NJ2BB shack, Ed and Gene fabricated the mounting system for the new VHF patch panel. Once installed in the overhead the work moved on to deciding the best path for all the RG-213 coax that needs to be re-routed into and out of the new panel. Next Saturday may well fine the panel being wired into service. As mentioned before, this panel will be "invisible" during normal VHF operations and should not be of concern with our operators.

Dave W fabricated and installed three mending plates needed by a 19" rack chassis. This chassis will eventually replace the existing "Transmitter Room Receiver Antenna" patch bay. Once the rear section of this chassis is finished, it will contain twice as many coax connectors as the existing chassis, therefore making electrical room for all the receivers in the Transmitter Room. Currently a number of the rigs in the compartment can not be used due to the lack of antenna patching connectors.

Rich returned one of the CEC missile launch video monitors to service while commenting that it is time to climb the Aft Stack to work on one of the cameras. This will have to wait for the fine weather day.

Up in the SITE Control Room, Doug P and family friend John (a new Tech class teenager) were busy giving the gear a bit of TLC. The main news from the space is that the hard drive that was reported as "crashed" last week has been found to have life in it. The problem has been traced to the rubber bumper that acts as the home position for the head drive system. Wear and tear on the material has shifted the start position for the head; therefore they do not find data where they expect to find images. Tweaking the bumper position brought images to the monitor, but not in a reliable fashion. Some more thought and tweaking is needed on this project. Also in the SITE area, the cable tracing and marking project has been revived. Even the interim drawings resulting from hand over hand cable tracing has improved our knowledge of the operation of the SITE video system, much to the delight of encampment groups who visit the system.

March 29 - Once again the Saturday gang was located throughout the ship doing what they do best - anything for the ship! Beth and Margaret spent the day selecting pictures and designing the layout of the "photo wall" to be used during the upcoming Dayton Hamvention. This wall is one of a couple of changes to the booth layout for this year. The new setup will get a try out at the May Open House meeting of the Old Barney ARC.

Bill B fabricated and mounted an adapter plate for the AN/URT-24 terminal box, then mounted the assembly behind #3 URT-23. In the future cables will run between the new box and the CA-1100 transmitter antenna patch panel.

Jerry is chasing a pesky gremlin that has taken up residence within the #2 URT-23 exciter. Warning to the gremlin: Jerry will find you!! Tom and Ray mounted and tested the rotary transformer inside the TCK transmitter. This marks yet another step towards returning this WWII vintage gear to service.

Mike spent the day chasing contacts from Ham-4 in his effort to increase our DXCC count and our presence on the air, although the weekend SSB contest did lead him away from his main project of earning NJ2BB the DXCC-CW award. Gene H used Ham-2 on PSK to extend his quest for WAS-PSK and DXCC-PSK.

Dave C continued with the fabrication of the new VHF patch panel, and then with help from Gene H and Mike formed a plan of how to mount the new panel above the shack's 12-volt power supplies. The purpose of this VHF panel is not for daily patching of VHF antennas, but instead the occasional switching of VHF antennas. This occasional usage allows for the panel to be positioned in a slightly awkward, but usable location.

Ed tackled some reported troubles with the 1MC system speakers in the area of the Mess Decks and found a problem with an Action Cut Out switch. A correction to the ACO was performed and a recheck of the affected area found the speakers working again. John, after assisting with the 1MC ACO item, located an open filter capacitor in his version of a gremlin home, a RBC receiver. His report indicates that more eradication efforts are required.

Terry and Ski worked through lunch to continue their efforts at restoring TV signals to the forward port section of the Main Deck. Numerous defunct items and poor installation practices were discovered and corrected. The typical Saturday speed bumps, locked doors, prevent them from completing their tasks, again.

Now that the UYK-20 computers are back on display, Rich has turned his attention to the four missile launch video monitors in CEC; one of which is demanding some TLC. Doug P burned calories while trouble shooting and repairing concerns in the SITE Control Room. First, the hard drive in the "video still storage unit" has crashed making the Abakus A42 system useless. It appears that the OEM no longer provides support for the gear, at least not for the last 15 years. Therefore this system is retired to looking pretty in the rack. Next, a lingering problem with the #1 studio camera circuit was corrected by replacing the DCU (digital control unit). Ed gets a thank you here for his help with the DCU event. Doug still has a couple of items on his hit list before changing into the preventive maintenance mode for the TV equipment. While on the subject of the SITE System, it appears that Al A is becoming the new wizard on the video board, thanks to his time on the board during overnight encampment demonstrations.

March 22 - The first stop for this issue of updates is in the Message Handling Area where we find that both of the UYK-20 computers appear to be alive and functioning, thanks to Rich. The lower of the units has the appropriate front door lights operating. Now it's time for Radioman Jones to take his position as if to be performing maintenance on the upper computer.

Except for the sounds of Bill figuring out how to mount the junction box for the URT-24 transmitter, the Transmitter Room was very quiet Saturday.

Upon arriving at the ship Ed was greeted by three priority work requests for dial phone repairs. The phone in the FM booth needed some contact cleaning; the unit in the Battery Charging Station had a bad earpiece while the phone in the Forward Mess Deck only needed an educated kick in the proper place.

The job of tracing TV cables along the starboard side of the forward main deck was completed and documented. Now that we have a proper drawing for this portion of the ship system we can better maintain the TV service to these staterooms and the quarterdeck. The port side area documentation is nearing completion, at which time the search for a bad connector or tap will begin.

Most of the day's action was up on the O2 level in the SITE Control Room and John's World. 1) Doug P has isolated the trouble with the SITE digital slide storage system to a non- functioning hard drive. At present he is searching for more info and parts sources for an ancient Maxtor MFM style 135 meg drive .

2) Ray completed the re-assembly and bench testing of the rotary transformer from the TCK transmitter. The next workday may see this item returned to the transmitter.

3) John spent time repairing two "agile channel processors" used by the ship cable TV system. These repairs will be completed when the needed filter capacitors are in hand. John was also able to make advances with finding the trouble with the RBC receiver sitting on the bench. Something about the thing-a-ma-bob being catty-wopitz.

To date, those portions of the SITE head-end that have been modified for the new digital off-air signals are operating to spec. Next Saturday two more channels will be converted to the new format for testing.

March 15 - So, you ask, what has been happening at the ship during the last couple of weeks? On Main Deck, Rich's lighting project on the upper UYK-20 computer is mostly complete. The restored maintenance panel lights continue to flash in a seemingly random fashion as might have been observed during system maintenance activities. The lower computer will regain it's front panel door as soon as Rich is finished testing the rewire on it. This door, when remounted, will have only the Power and Run lights on.

Also in the area, Dave C fabricated what will soon become the VHF antenna patch panel for NJ2BB. Although not intended to be handled as often as the HF patch panel, we will be able to swap any of our VHF antennas as needed. A recent trip behind the Ham-4 2-meter rigs convinced us of the need for an easier way to realign these rigs and antennas

Main Deck forward still has its grip on Ski and his tracing of the ship's TV distribution cables. His task is hindered by several cases of wrong, missing or misaligned cable tags, not to mention that everything is in the overhead.

Down in the Transmitter Room, Bill B and Too Tall Tom installed a set of cables for the URT-24 HF transmitter. Next for this install is the mounting of the "J box" and extending the circuits into the Transmitter Room antenna patch panel (CA-1100). Jerry has been kept busy tracking down a gremlin that lives amongst the URT-23 transmitters.

Up on the 02 Level, John's shop was cluttered with the likes of Ray who was working on the variable transformer for the TCK transmitter. I did not hear of any smoke in the compartment or of any final success with the unit. John was knee deep into a RBC receiver in an attempt to find and correct what he believes is a "sailor fix", aka cold solder joint.

In the SITE Control Room, TV Dave and new guy Doug P began the conversion of the TV head end to be compatible with the upcoming changeover to digital off-air signals. They needed to strip the entire cabinet of equipment so as to make an otherwise simple mechanical change. They then reloaded most of the electronics back into the rack, but where needed, they substituted "agile processors" for the older "fixed" processors. These agile units, obtained via a long trail that started at the Dayton Hamvention last year, will allow for the use of simple digital to analog converters. As each converter is installed, a flip of a switch will shift the current analog reception to the newer digital (off air) signal. By the end of the day all equipment was back on line and one channel was actually doing the digital conversion.

In the shack, upon hearing that NJ2BB now qualifies for mixed mode/band DXCC, Mike decided to narrow his operating time to getting us DXCC on CW. As of today he only needs 33 more countries; then on to DXCC via RTTY.

Feb 23 - Rich let his UYK-20 front panel project operate, in the shop, for a week long burn-in period. The panel is now back in the Message Handling Area awaiting the final wiring to it's cabinet. By the end of his next work day the computer should appear as if on-line maintenance is being performed on it.

John has transferred his work station to WWII Radio and was seen performing some TLC on the RBB and RBC receivers located there. It is still a little strange to hear the sounds of live HF radio in the compartment.

Ski has been "reverse engineering" the TV cable system on Main Deck. After hours of hand over hand tracing of coax we hope to have an accurate drawing of this mess of cable. With a proper drawing we should have an easier time when troubleshooting problems with the system. Ed, "TV" Dave and myself helped Ski with the cable project.

Last week Ray tackled the bad "solder sealed can" module from the FRR-59 receiver. This week he re-installed the repaired module and was greeted by the sounds of lower sideband from the rig. Ray even put his auto body skills to work as evident by the absence of any marks on the repaired metal can module. Jerry had a 20-meter RTTY contact with a Canadian station, the first ever for this mode from the Transmitter Room. He used the repaired FRR-59 mentioned above along with the Model 15 teleprinter, a Navy URA-17 terminal unit and the #3 AN/URT-23 transmitter driving the Port 35' vertical. A very nice example of "All Navy, All Battleship" operation.

Gene H reports that the rebuilt wind speed integrator has been performing flawlessly since the ship machined pinon gear was installed a number of months ago. This gear was not available through any civilian channels so Gene ordered gear stock which, once machined by the ship's own Ken K, produced 18 of the needed pinon gears. All for a cost of less then $1 each. Not bad for a bunch of Amateurs. Yes, Ken is a Ham.

Jan 31 - Contrary to the work location of the past couple weeks, the Transmitter Room was not the center of activities this past Saturday. Most of the workers were located within the storage spaces that are outboard of Broadway compartments. The gang managed to pull the 300 feet of coax from the Transmitter Room, through 17 compartments ending with what has become known as "World War 2 Radio". In the near future we hope to be hearing the sounds of the RBB, RBC and other vintage gear that once again populate this compartment.

Next on the schedule for the cable pulling crew is the multi conductor control cable that will allow for the operation of Transmitter Room equipment from the WWII Radio Room.

The sounds of "RYRYRYRY TEST NJ2BB" could be heard in the Transmitter Room at day's end. The only trouble now is that the outgoing signal is inverted, But the cause has been identified and should be resolved during next Saturday's work party.

Back in WWII Radio the ship staff have agreed to get the welded floor mounted foundation that once supported the 400Hz generators removed. Removal of this item frees the deck area for a more historically correct placement of the Comm Officer's desk and other pieces of equipment.

We were also given support for the needed equipment for the upcoming conversion to off air digital television for the BB-62 TV studio.

Jan 27 - Let it be known from this date, that the battleship does make a good wind break. With the wind speed indicators showing upwards to 25 knots the inside weather was warm and the air still.

As with last weekend the majority of the day's work happened in the Transmitter Room and also like last week the space was filled with volunteers. Ed completed a couple of small jobs that due to their incomplete status were getting in the way of more important items. He finished installing "N" connectors on the cables that run from the receive side of the T/R relays to the receiver antenna parch bay. He also finished the install of the cable that supplies receive audio to #3 AN/URT-23 transmitter. Tom and Ray disassembled the vari-coupler style transformer that was removed from the TCK transmitter last weekend. True to Perry's findings, on the LST-325, the flexible rotor leads are suffering from dry rot and need repairs. Jerry located the trouble with the RTTY local loop and should be closer to real Teletype from the compartment by the next update.

Dave W tackled the stuffing tubes that need to be opened before we run the cables from the Transmitter Room to the WWII Radio Room near Sick Bay. He was able to open 50% of the 36 pipes needed for the project. He would have moved further into the job but ran across what is a standard Saturday work party speed bump; locked doors. Arrangements are being made for access next weekend.

Probably the biggest news from the compartment is that all the drawers for the AN/WRT-2 transmitter have been returned to their cabinet positions. The top most drawer, the RF amp, required that "Too Tall Ed" from the Brass Team lend us a hand, or two. Thanks Ed! There is still a lot of wires to be reconnected before live testing of this Viet Nam era transmitter can commence.

Meanwhile, four decks up, Rich was finishing the AN/UYK-20 panel and planning a mod for the lower AN/UYK-20 in the Message Handling Center.

I never really made it into John's World but I hear that he now has a proper hasp on his compartment's new gate as well as three radio room style speakers mounted for use with the stack of "RB" series receivers.

Jan 19 - Knowing that the weather on Saturday was the lowest temperature in 5 years, we were not very surprised as we entered an empty Clinton Street parking area. As we passed departing members of the overnight encampment gang we got the feeling that this would be one of those rare "have the ship to ourselves" days. Nothing could have been further from the truth. First John sticks his head into the shack, followed by Bill, Ray, Jerry, Beth, Gene and Tom. Well, so much for a quiet day at the ship.

Almost all of the day's activities took place in the Transmitter Room, which, thanks to the banks of 480/120-volt transformers, was very comfortable to work in, for a change. "Too Tall Tom" finished the installation of the HV bleeder resistors used in the TCK transmitter power supply. He than moved to the removal and inspection of the variable voltage transformer for the TCK. This transformer is different from a standard tapped winding unit in that it uses a movable primary winding to adjust the output voltage, by varying the physical position of the coils and therefore the output voltage. This inspection was in response to E-mail from Perry, of the LST325, giving us a heads-up about trouble he had with his TCK, the sister rig from the USS Des Moines, and the actions taken.

Jerry, John and Ray tackled the intermittent RF drive problem with the #3 AN/URT-23 transmitter. Again the source of the trouble turned out to be a loose internal connector. I say again because a few weeks ago a different internal connector was found hanging. After further testing into the dummy load, Jerry made contact with a Ham in Louisiana just to make sure the rig works. Please standby for more stories of loose connectors. JOKING!!!!

Just to make sure that the Transmitter Room was stuffed with workers, Bill and I fabricated and installed the bulkhead mount for the WRT-2 transmitter. Since the time that this style was last used on the Big-J a lot of structural changes have happened, therefore we needed to special mount to hold the rig upright and stable. Some final adjustments of the support remain to be finished but as of the end of the workday, "Drunky the Clown" stands proud and tall.

Once each year Gene H likes to verify his inventories of BNJARS gear that is onboard the ship, so on a cold day where is a good place to start, in the Transmitter Room of course. Yes folk, there were 7 of us in that compartment, working as four groups, but gabbing, joking and squeezing past each other and laughing the whole time.

But, you ask, what of the ladies? They continued their attack on Avionics and the TTY Office. The mass of stuff in these 2 compartments hides the progress that is being accomplished, but believe me they are doing a very good job with a task that no others would want to tackle. But be warned that if you found a part in a certain drawer last week, it may not be housed in that location this week. The location of things is changing as their number and size dictates.

As a side note I have to mention that I heard Mike, W2OF, operating NJ2BB on 20-meter SSB on Thursday afternoon. Hearing him work the resulting pileup made me smile from ear to ear. A big thank you to all who have worked on the NJ2BB station.

Jan 12 - Well now, we did not get the entire NJ2BB deck all bright and shiny but what did get treated looks good.

John continued with his redesign of a voltage regulator for one of the receivers. Jerry was found cleaning up the interface junction box for the AN/URT-24 transmitter. This box is interesting in that it eliminated the need for the shipyard or ship board person to build several multi-pin connectors. This also makes the job of tieing the rig into the ship's system easier.

Rich continued with converting his prototype YUK-20 display into the final product.

Jan 09 - Sometime last year the decision was made to try to relight the maintenance lights located inside the front door of the UYK-20 computers. After a short discussion on ideas, Rich took hold of the job and ran with it. My only demand was that the displays not have the “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” flashing light look. Last week I was presented with his prototype display. Using the existing panel of 30 lamps Rich added the guts from a $2 digital desk clock. The results are a nearly random, 1-second pulse rate, movement of lights representing register contents of a non-functional UYK-20 computer. After showing the new light display to Harry Carlson of Curatorial Support, he forwarded a request for a mannequin to be poised as if performing work of the UYK-20 once it is returned to the Message Handling Area.

Not long after the “super-cam” security addition was installed and turned over to the ships forces, it suffered a total loss of function. Ski ventured out to the Harbor Master tower and narrowed the source of the problem to the digital control board that allows the guards to operate the camera from their hut. He has bypassed the remote control features and transported the card to his shop for investigation and repair. Although functional without movement control the camera still has limited use because the loss of the control card also affected the environmental controls located inside the camera. In other words, during cold weather the camera housing suffers a case of condensation on its lens.

Jerry is still moving forward towards his goal of operating Green Keys, real mechanical Teletype, from the Transmitter Room using only Navy gear. I have not heard of any particularly serious problems in his way, just the normal tiny speed bumps that would be expected in a project of this size. Also in the Transmitter Room, “Too Tall Tom” has completed the installation of the interconnect cable for the TCK transmitter and its power supply cabinet. He is now working on installing the replacement high voltage bleeder resistors. There are three or four other items in this WWII transmitter that need some TLC before we try the first turn on in more than 40 years.

Upon arriving at the ship one Saturday it was noticed that a couple of the NJ2BB shack computers were in the middle of a nervous breakdown. Bill B. was able to recover the first 2 machines by a simple power down and reboot. But the Ham-3 computer was in a more severe condition and needed an operation, which Bill performed without complications. Having received its new power supply the Ham-3 computer was back on the job with little recovery time needed.

That stack of special receivers (RBA, RBB and a RCA) in John’s shop has been given an antenna system and speakers. Some minor power supply work remains before the rigs can be used without the need to move cables around. The stack looks impressive, sounds great and does draw the attention of members of the “City at Sea” tour as they pass the restoration shop, which thanks to the new gate is always viewable to the visitors.

Probably the most visible change to the NJ2BB shack is the latest cleaning of this compartment. All items, except for the chairs and wastebasket, have been permanently removed from the deck and all non-used items have been removed from the gray storage racks to be stored elsewhere. The deck was then stripped of old wax, dirt and grime then given a very light coat of new wax. After the Scouts are finished with the shack this Saturday the deck will be cleaned again then given a proper coat of wax. Hopefully by the time we lock up for the day the shack will have a true Navy looking deck. Keep your fingers crossed.