rca radiotelephone/radiomarine

[radioal]

This is actually a ship-to-shore marine radio on the old (pre-SSB HF or FM-VHF) AM band. These became obsolete for shipboard use with the mandatory introduction of SSB and band reassignments, if I recall correctly in the 1960s. Hams have sometimes adapted them for 160m AM use. It has sockets for 4 sets of TX/RX crystals which are empty on this one- probably removed to prevent accidental keyup on the obsolete and now illegal marine band. Since the old marine band was directly above the BC AM band, most of these sets also included a tuning cap for broadcast reception. Because the receiver was designed to receive relatively weak 2 way transmissions, sensitivity should be rather good.

I have a somewhat later Pearce-Simpson Bimini radio which is very similar, but uses a solid state HV supply rather than the vibrator supply that this one uses.