Another TCS 12 set lives again

[W1QWT]

Bruce, K1CWS and myself got another Navy TCS-12 set working and installed in the Navy replica
operating position I built for the K1USN Radio club in Braintree, MA. on the Fore River.
It cleaned up nicely, fixed a little here and there and when finally wired up to a modified
HW101 power supply it seems to works ok. Very exciting when we made our first contact today with
KA1CU on 75 meters. Below is a picture of me talking to Michael while Bruce gets ready to re-adjust the receiver tuning.

I am on the right. When I was a radioman in the Navy our ships TCS12 set was my PMS assignment.
PMS was Planned Maintenance System back then I believe.

We have to work on the antenna system and its feeding but will probably hang out on 40 meters due to the
PW nature of the beast. (10 watts of carrier) Also need another 0 to 3 AMP antenna current meter.
We have additional Navy receivers and transmitters to get operating also.

Regards
Q, W1QWT

[WU2D]

Congrats to you guys! A converted TCS was my first AM station and I have a stock setup now. It is a blast to operate on AM or CW.

Mike WU2D

[Carl WA1KPD]

Q,
You had a nice sig in to South Central CT this AM. I was in NJ but listening to the SDR at home via the web while doing some work.

Very strong audio, which if it is stock sounded  strong. I have heard some TCS rigs that had little modulation. DId I recall that you said you had 8 watts out?

Mike, I also ran one on CW. The sound of that big relay clanking along was great. I have a rcvr and Xmtr on the "to repair" list one day
73
Carl
/KPD

[W1QWT]

Hi Carl,
TNX fer the report.

DId I recall that you said you had 8 watts out?

Well we have to figure out the best way to do an antenna system. What we had was a so-239 connected between chassis ground and the antenna terminal. We had one of the clubs swr/watt meters in line feeding a G5RV. It read 8 watts of carrier. The dipped plate current seems low as it only shows slightly less than half of what the meter claims what it should be on fone. According to the book it is only rated at 10 watts on fone and we were just about there even with the low plate current. We are running 400 VDC on the plates and it showed around 25 ma so thats 10 watts input power I guess. Can't believe it is that efficent. The meter is marked at 80 ma for fone and 170 ma for cw. Also when switched to CW it does not increase in power so we have to look into that. It is stock with no mods. The antenna current meter does not seem to move so either it is broken or it is looking into an extremely low impedance. I should put a 50 ohm dummy load on it as it should show .4 amp or so. I suspect the meter is bad since it didn't even wiggle.

Anybody know what to do with the  Series/Off/Parallel Antenna Condenser Switch?

We have a Navy type beach use set to work on next. Judging by the tubes in that it looks like it will be real PW.
A cake pan radio!
Have to get the number off of it to investigate it.

Regards
Q, W1QWT