I was going to choose Ryan as my lifeboat item for dark humor and random knowledge, but you're right Libby is also required so I guess they'll have to drastically increase the lifeboat numbers and food/water rations to accommodate an extra 2 people per every lifeboat in existence 🤔 I think it's a cost effective solution.
That bad boy is a classic, and thanks for doing a video on it. Nowadays you use something called a EPIRB (and I wonder if there's one kicking around from the 80's deployment. The EPIRB will activate and send out (hopefully) both the SOS and your position to a satelllite (hopefully) but even in this day and age, ships still disappear with no trace or SOS despite having water activated rafts and EPIRBs. That Gibson Gal transmitted on 500 kHz (or kcs on the case) and 8364 kHz, which were the distress frequencies at that time. 500 kHz (aka 600 meters) was always a Morse Code (CW) frequency and all ships and shore stations had to maintain a watch on it, or have something called a Autoalarm when the Sparks (don't eat me) was snoozing, etc. and would activate a alarm on the bridge if it detected someone leaning on the key making long dashes (how you set it off, should be on the Gibson Gal) and then that would alert every sparks hearing that to a incoming CW message. Problem is, you need your location and if you got off of the ship in a rush, that could be a problem (I'm over here!) But if you were lucky someone would be nearby and you would get direction found (DF'ed) and pulled out in time for supper. The German version that was copied was called a Notsender NS2 and the Gibson Gal was a SCR-578 (early version) or AN/CRT-3. Both bags weighed 33 pounds and you had hoped the balloon worked, the cylinder of gas did it's thing, and that a gust of wind didn't take it away. 500 kcs was a very long wave frequency and required a LONG antenna to really put out. Also, it worked better at night, being limited to a couple of hundred miles in the day, if you were lucky. The watch on 500 kcs was ended at the end of the 90's, and now they use GMDSS on higher frequencies or 406 MHz with the satellite.
I imagine a good Sparks could get a bearing if the people in the life raft or boat kept a constant SOS going. Then he (Sparks) would signal other ships and then once you get 2 or more good "cuts" for bearing, you know where the life raft or ship's boat is! Part of me is wondering why they didn't have these things near the various boats and life raft locations in something like a watertight (ammo) ready locker that could be quickly opened. One locker with both bags per "Gal", just to make sure that someone didn't end up with 2 radios while the other guy didn't end up with 2 balloons!!!
@@dominichines9996 kinda hard since the Japanese had basically control over the mass majority of rubber (due to conquest) and the crank would be difficult to do even with rubber. This would have let moist air into the unit... Easier to keep it in a sealed "Ready Locker" by each boat and perhaps 1 in 4 life raft stations... just undo a few dogs and you have both bags for your boat or life raft!
My father was a Signalman in the Canadian Armed Forces. He would not be offended by the term Sparks. Jimmies (after Jimmy, what Signal Regiments call the god Mercury on their cap badge) wore monikers like that like a badge of armour. _Velox, versutus, vigilans_
Ryan's dry humour is so fantastically sprinkled through these videos, that I honestly don't know how we don't hear Libby rolling round in the background in hysterics sometimes 😂 On a serious note... it would be interesting to know of they still do use radios like that for emergency equipment. I'd have thought probably waterproof automatic beacons and satellite phones instead, these days?
When we pulled the rafts off of Ranger in 1969, we found those in each 60-man rafts. In addition, there were cigarettes (we smoked those. They were stale after 40 years.), distillation kits, C-Rations, cards, and some other things that I just can't remember now. Assuming the crew had time to release the rafts and get into them, the Navy had tried to think of everything the men would need. They used one of these in John Wayne's "Island in the Sky (1953)."
They also came with a kite to haul the antenna up in the south pacific, it used the antenna line as securing line for the kite. The items and Gibson girls lived in lockers Under the thwarts in the solid lifeboats as part of the lifeboat survival stores. There was also an aluminium segmented pôle that could be mounted on the foredeck area of the lifeboat. They also had a counterpoise that was dropped into the ocean underneath the raft/lifeboat.
I think it's because of all the WW2 german fanboys who are turbo white supremacist lovers of germany nuts back in the earlier days of the internet history sphere. But last five years or so I don't see those nuts anymore, now it seems like *every* nation and part of history now has passionate fans and the truth has mellowed the post war mysticism. Same thing happened with historical interest and samurai swords/japanese culture from hentai addicted weirdos now is a broad interest in history by many many people. I think internet history people have seen a change to now a better understood picture of history overall that includes all the good and bad and brave and foolish from every story. Rather than a few obsessed to the point of spreading propaganda who "control" the narrative taught, now it is in the hands of museums, educated experts, people with direct experience, and professionals. And I think it's just really refreshing. But anyway I think that anyone who came up during that weird time of internet military history has a knee jerk reaction ready just waiting for the hyper-fans of germany in ww2 and japan in the feudal time to hit. But I really doubt Ryan has any real reason to hate on the Kriegsmarine. Probably just used to some weirdos coming aboard fanboying and propagandizing germany.
According to a U.S. Army Signal Corps World War II history, the British captured the German set the Gibson Girl is based on from a downed aircraft prior to Pearl Harbor and sent it to the U.S. several months before December 7, 1941 seeking a company to make them. Bendix won the contract, so after the Pearl Harbor attack, Hap Arnold let a contract for thousands of sets for the Army Air Forces, a process made much faster due to the initial British request jumpstarting U.S. production.
I was a parachute rigger for PC-3 aircraft with VP10 in Brunswick, Me 1970-1973. All of our aircraft were equipped with life rafts and an AN/CRT-3 “Gibson Girl radio strapped in by the exit door. The radio had its own parachute on a static line that could be deployed. It was in a water proof yellow case. Included in the case was a box-kite kit, a couple inflatable balloons with a salt water activated hydrogen generator and various other survival supplies. A very neat kit of survival equipment. The only maintenance I remember is repacking and inspecting of parachute on major maintenances.
I just sold mine a couple of months. it was complete with the kite and balloons. It had cans of carbide that with the intro of water it made hydrogen with a probe (inflator tube) that stuck into the can to transfer the gas to the balloon. it had a spare reel of antenna wire.it all fit into one bag. BEWARE if you set it up the channels still monitered and if you set it in the one position and you crank it it will dit dit dit dah dah dah dit dit dit, that my friend is SOS!!
I worked on them in a museum in the 70's-80's. There was also one version that had a switch that allowed automatic sending of just SOS when the crank was wound at the correct speed or switched to manual sending of Morse code.
Your review of this radio transmitter is interesting. And that's all it is, a transmitter only, no receiver for 2-way communication. I have the original box kite that was used with this transmitter. It folds up completely and is stored in a heavily waxed cardboard tube. The kite is made up of an aluminum folding frame with a nylon fabric type of material in bright yellow with instructions printed on the material on how to use it. When I was a little kid about 80 years ago, my dad bought the kit for me at a army surplus store for very little money. Being a user of Morse code, I would think that I would have trouble to crank it and send using the button (key) on the front! Today, I fly it with my great grand kids.
You are on a whole "nother" level! :) Love your videos and all the work you do. And I've been on board your ship! Tod :) By the way I am an amateur (Radio Operator) and I would have loved to be the one floating in the middle of nowhere cranking on that thing. Fun!
I see these from time to time on Ebay. When I was in the Navy the rumor was each life raft container had : X- amount of water, X- amount of Charms Candy, 2 packs of Camel cigarretts, a PRC-90, and a .45.I believe the part about the Charms.
Incidently... (from Wikipedia) 😎 _The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal of physical attractiveness as portrayed by the pen-and-ink illustrations of artist Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. The artist saw his creation as representing the composite of "thousands of American girls"._
Just picked up a fill Gibson Girl Kit from Japan. Mine came with hydrogen generators that react with sea water to generate hydrogen for the baloons, It also comes with a kite that can be used instead of balloons. Cool bit of kit!
I have a wind-up Russian flashlight. I haven't charged it in years (squeezy method - mechanical charge, like the radio) and it shines bright everytime I switch the on button.
500 kilocycles commonly chased by an ADF automatic direction finder. The Gibson Girl had an auto SOS sending or you keyed a message with the rubber button. The argon light told you the generator was producing enough electricity for the tube filament. You had to crank while sending.
I used to have one of these as a complete kit back in the early 80's and along with a box kite and a balloon there was a Hydrogen gas generator that the operator would lower into the water and attach it to the balloon.
I love these videos and thank you for doing them. Although this is not the Iowa class near and dear to my heart, U.S.S Missouri (BB-63), I love you showing us the inner workings of the four most bad (insert censor here) warships ever conceived. I understand their high operating and maintenance costs keep them out of service, but I am still saddened that they just now sit. Hard to believe that these four ships were created so fast from blueprint design to keel laydown to commission as fast as they were. Also hard to believe that four heavy ships built in the 1940's have the ability to keep up with and possibly out pace modern day U.S naval vessels. Only downside is they are not nuclear powered in current day. I saw this post in another video. It would be interesting to see you zoom chat with the curators of the other three Iowa class battleships to compare your notes with each other. Also, I would love to know how it was decided to convert the open to air pilot bridge design that was on the Iowa and NJ got changed and converted into the enclosed glass pilot bridge that Iowa and NJ were not originally constructed with. Again, I feel U.S.S Missouri the BEST of the class!!!! No Offense, but I live in Missouri and WWII surrender was signed on her deck thanks to President Truman. If I was on the open seas and saw an Iowa-class approaching me, I would turn tail and run. LOL Regards
Power output is around 5 watts, uses a long wire antenna held aloft by kite or (chemical generator) hydrogen balloon - German and US variants; the British set uses only the kite (but, uniquely, launched by a Very pistol device). All the set types include a simple antenna tuning unit (ATU). There's also a 12ft stainless steel wire counterpoise and weight which is dropped in the ocean to provide the signal ground plane. German/US/British sets all signal on 500kHz, the US model also has a high frequency (HF band) output option. Rotating the generator handle produces automatic, mechanically generated Morse keying (SOS + a series of dashes for DF purposes), the American set also has an option to send Morse by hand key. This is a modulated carrier wave signal transmitter, not CW, meaning the signal can be picked up on an ordinary AM receiver. All three models are TRANSMIT ONLY, there's no radio receiver provided. All 3 nation's radios are internally simple using only 2 vacuum tubes - doing multiple duties as oscillator, modulator and power amplifier. Interestingly the British and German sets use a crystal oscillator (which provides a very stable frequency signal) but the American SCR-578 'Gibson girl' uses an LC resonant circuit instead. This might be for technical reasons but is most likely because of America's dire shortage of radio crystals in WW2, normal peacetime production being insufficient to meet a huge wartime demand. These little emergency transmitters saved a lot of aircrew, British, Canadian, American and German as well as countless sailors, naval and civilian in WW2. Even with a modest antenna, at 500kHz, over the good conductivity of the ocean, the radio signal can be picked up hundreds - and on occasions, thousands - of miles away.
Great explanation. We have three units manufactured between 1941 and 1945. They not only broadcast on 500 kc but on it’s harmonics so we picked up the signal on 1000 kc. All three can be seen at the March Field Air Museum in Southern California.
Would be nice to hear the radio broadcast. 500 KHZ is just low of the AM band and 8364 KHZ is the standard emergency frequency. With all those ham operators on board I could see this operating.
Probably puts out a really nasty spark signal... I can't imagine there being tubes (or transistors!) in there... about like a Model T ignition coil I imagine.
I could be wrong about this, but the radiomen did get a distress call out before the Indianapolis sank. Many at the expense of exiting the radio room in time to save themselves. The call(s) were received but disregarded by the Navy as a Japanese fake because the ship was not where she was “expected” to be. (A Navy SNAFU). There were not many radiomen in general who survived a sinking and many didn’t regard maintaining a life vest as a worthwhile endeavor.
My abandon ship additional stuff was to bring a bunch of first aid kits and a large first aid bag. They got stored in a locker we had for medical supplies up on the main deck near the helicopter hanger. IIRC, their was no medical supplies in the life rafts or boats. I had resolved to also bring stuff like the morphine syrettes from my battle dressing station. But, If an abandon ship situation did happen, I probably would have been busy getting casualties evacuated to the lifeboats.
I was an RM on a DD from 1960 to 1962 and only saw a Gibson Girl once. All I remember is if you were the guy cranking it you would soon wish you had gone to Radio School and knew Morse code as it's easier to push a button than to crank that handle.
Interestingly enough I have one of these that I disconnected the modulator and set to work on 472-479khz. There's a few local hams that did the same once 630m was opened up. Most of the hams that do go that far up are running tubes anyhow so no one cares about the purity of the signal 🤷
Were there c-rat provisioms ready to go? im thinking there were lots of basic survival gear that would have been pre provisioned in the event of "abandon ship" and each crewman had specific duties in the event of such a command. weapons, first aid, food, radio, etc.
Something on my mind that I've wanted to ask Ryan was about Iowa's original pole mast placed on the aft funnel What was it used for and where is it today?
Such a great device and why in the world didn't the USS Indianapolis rock this. Sounds like they didn't have the appropriate procedures to get this out in a catastrophic emergency.
That and the Indy went down fast, it's hard scrambling for your life to grab something when you expect rescue to quickly follow. Life, radio... Life. I'd have done the same.
Thanks Ryan! I’m a bit surprised preparing the boats (and placing these radios in them) - wasn’t part of the procedure when going into an action? I’m sure there is a reason - perhaps you don’t plan on sinking when preparing for action!
Any sort of prep for the life rafts would get in the way of sailors trying to do things to prevent the life rafts being needed in the first place - manning AA guns, damage control, fire fighting, etc. There's only so much deck space available after all. And of course ships often got sank while not at action stations due to submarines, such as the Indianapolis.
@@usnusmcret You don't transmit without RF, dude. I looked it up... the very first ones were spark-gap, then they added tubes... the early tube ones were not crystal-controlled. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_radio
Just had a thought for the balloons: instead of a flask of helium they could have had a simple electrolysis cell and used the hand crank generator to make hydrogen gas for the balloons. Use the saved weight and space for more balloons and wire. Unlimited lifting gas from sea water.
Does it still work??? I see the frequencies on the box… easy to put a dummy load on and test it. Love to get my hands on one to try it out on the ham bands after re crystal and slight mod to the coils!!! Looks like fun!! DE N2JYG
Maybe something else that can be in a life boat is Food. Then the Guy that " Draws the Short Straw" should be Placed in Charge of making sure the Food Stays Safe. Best Wishes! M.H.
The john Wayne movie, island in the sky is the first and only time I've seen one. Got the movie. Brian, I like the whole donner party shit with the bone marrow thing . Keep it zombie!
In the best Traditions of the Sea, one or two lightweight implements for the cracking and extracting of bone marrow should be in every lifeboat !:-) 😂 ⚡️🙏⚡️
Nope. The British captured two of the German emergency transmitters, used one to develop the similar British T1333 lifeboat set (which doesn't have the Gibson girl narrow 'waist' - the German and American ones do) and donated the second captured set to the USA.
Hi Ryan, this is off topic, but I'm hoping you can give me a good reference. I have been hunting for Adm King's actual report on anti-aircraft deficiencies. Got a link? Thank you in advance and thanks for these excellent videos! I've been trying to make a donation, but the site hangs after I click to check out. Any suggestions?
An enema bottle should be placed in the life raft. I am a long distance blue water sailor. My mother who was a nurse told me this. A salt water enema will hydrate a person, the intestines will filter out the salt, and absorb water and prevent dehydration.
@@BlackSoap361 shure, all depends on what you want to know. While I haven't completely gotten mine moved to the new frequency yet, 472-479khz (28khz from its original setting) . It's easily done via the variable capacitor. You do have to somehow remove modulation capabilities form the modulator tube (as it's designed for mcw). Id have to look at the schematic to say for shure. That and trigger the oscillator via a straight key or the button on the front. No holes or anything would need to be drilled as there are plenty on the case such as the plug hole for the desiccant pack. There durable and simple curcuit wise, it's no wonder they kept them around so long!
There's something to be said for "low tech" solutions, and in some ways it's too bad that system is no longer, and too bad CW (Morse) is no longer... Three of my amateur radio friends were maritime HF radio operators in their day, two are gone and the last is now in a care facility.
Ryan: runner of marathons, spelunker of bilges and gun barrels, but still needs Libby's help to strap on a radio. What would we do without Libby? 🤪
and for a basic understanding of music lol
And for reminding Ryan to comb his hair
@@crinkly.love-stick and for reminding him to brush his teeth
I was going to choose Ryan as my lifeboat item for dark humor and random knowledge, but you're right Libby is also required so I guess they'll have to drastically increase the lifeboat numbers and food/water rations to accommodate an extra 2 people per every lifeboat in existence 🤔 I think it's a cost effective solution.
Libby wouldn’t drink the marrow from your bones to get extra calories either.
That bad boy is a classic, and thanks for doing a video on it. Nowadays you use something called a EPIRB (and I wonder if there's one kicking around from the 80's deployment. The EPIRB will activate and send out (hopefully) both the SOS and your position to a satelllite (hopefully) but even in this day and age, ships still disappear with no trace or SOS despite having water activated rafts and EPIRBs. That Gibson Gal transmitted on 500 kHz (or kcs on the case) and 8364 kHz, which were the distress frequencies at that time. 500 kHz (aka 600 meters) was always a Morse Code (CW) frequency and all ships and shore stations had to maintain a watch on it, or have something called a Autoalarm when the Sparks (don't eat me) was snoozing, etc. and would activate a alarm on the bridge if it detected someone leaning on the key making long dashes (how you set it off, should be on the Gibson Gal) and then that would alert every sparks hearing that to a incoming CW message. Problem is, you need your location and if you got off of the ship in a rush, that could be a problem (I'm over here!) But if you were lucky someone would be nearby and you would get direction found (DF'ed) and pulled out in time for supper.
The German version that was copied was called a Notsender NS2 and the Gibson Gal was a SCR-578 (early version) or AN/CRT-3. Both bags weighed 33 pounds and you had hoped the balloon worked, the cylinder of gas did it's thing, and that a gust of wind didn't take it away. 500 kcs was a very long wave frequency and required a LONG antenna to really put out. Also, it worked better at night, being limited to a couple of hundred miles in the day, if you were lucky. The watch on 500 kcs was ended at the end of the 90's, and now they use GMDSS on higher frequencies or 406 MHz with the satellite.
I imagine a good Sparks could get a bearing if the people in the life raft or boat kept a constant SOS going. Then he (Sparks) would signal other ships and then once you get 2 or more good "cuts" for bearing, you know where the life raft or ship's boat is!
Part of me is wondering why they didn't have these things near the various boats and life raft locations in something like a watertight (ammo) ready locker that could be quickly opened. One locker with both bags per "Gal", just to make sure that someone didn't end up with 2 radios while the other guy didn't end up with 2 balloons!!!
@@timengineman2nd714 Or even find a way to waterproof it
@@dominichines9996 kinda hard since the Japanese had basically control over the mass majority of rubber (due to conquest) and the crank would be difficult to do even with rubber. This would have let moist air into the unit...
Easier to keep it in a sealed "Ready Locker" by each boat and perhaps 1 in 4 life raft stations... just undo a few dogs and you have both bags for your boat or life raft!
My father was a Signalman in the Canadian Armed Forces. He would not be offended by the term Sparks. Jimmies (after Jimmy, what Signal Regiments call the god Mercury on their cap badge) wore monikers like that like a badge of armour.
_Velox, versutus, vigilans_
how long could you keep the aerial aloft?
Ryan's dry humour is so fantastically sprinkled through these videos, that I honestly don't know how we don't hear Libby rolling round in the background in hysterics sometimes 😂
On a serious note... it would be interesting to know of they still do use radios like that for emergency equipment. I'd have thought probably waterproof automatic beacons and satellite phones instead, these days?
When we pulled the rafts off of Ranger in 1969, we found those in each 60-man rafts. In addition, there were cigarettes (we smoked those. They were stale after 40 years.), distillation kits, C-Rations, cards, and some other things that I just can't remember now. Assuming the crew had time to release the rafts and get into them, the Navy had tried to think of everything the men would need.
They used one of these in John Wayne's "Island in the Sky (1953)."
My dad Was on the ranger in early 60's
"Alertness tablets "
@@321CatboxWA I wonder what they were zoom tabs
all practical inclusions ..
@@davidhudson5452 Amphetamines
Don’t forget to drink the marrow. Hilarious advice. Cool emergency radio gear. I’d be curious to see if someone can receive the signal today.
I had to double back because I was only half paying attention at this point and thought the radio actually had instructions for doing this LOL
Who'd of thought that some channel with some guy talking about his own personal battleship would be such great entertainment.
If you can broadcast the signal you can receive that signal I'm sure. Have a great day sir!
Ham radio operators are found monitoring any frequency you can transmit on.
They also came with a kite to haul the antenna up in the south pacific, it used the antenna line as securing line for the kite.
The items and Gibson girls lived in lockers Under the thwarts in the solid lifeboats as part of the lifeboat survival stores. There was also an aluminium segmented pôle that could be mounted on the foredeck area of the lifeboat.
They also had a counterpoise that was dropped into the ocean underneath the raft/lifeboat.
Ryan constantly throwing shade on the Kriegsmarine is pretty hilarious lol
I think it's because of all the WW2 german fanboys who are turbo white supremacist lovers of germany nuts back in the earlier days of the internet history sphere.
But last five years or so I don't see those nuts anymore, now it seems like *every* nation and part of history now has passionate fans and the truth has mellowed the post war mysticism.
Same thing happened with historical interest and samurai swords/japanese culture from hentai addicted weirdos now is a broad interest in history by many many people.
I think internet history people have seen a change to now a better understood picture of history overall that includes all the good and bad and brave and foolish from every story.
Rather than a few obsessed to the point of spreading propaganda who "control" the narrative taught, now it is in the hands of museums, educated experts, people with direct experience, and professionals.
And I think it's just really refreshing.
But anyway I think that anyone who came up during that weird time of internet military history has a knee jerk reaction ready just waiting for the hyper-fans of germany in ww2 and japan in the feudal time to hit.
But I really doubt Ryan has any real reason to hate on the Kriegsmarine. Probably just used to some weirdos coming aboard fanboying and propagandizing germany.
@@Pozi_Drive To quote a former Austrian chancellor: "Learn some history, young man."
@@48917032 Austrians have ALWAYS been wrong.
According to a U.S. Army Signal Corps World War II history, the British captured the German set the Gibson Girl is based on from a downed aircraft prior to Pearl Harbor and sent it to the U.S. several months before December 7, 1941 seeking a company to make them. Bendix won the contract, so after the Pearl Harbor attack, Hap Arnold let a contract for thousands of sets for the Army Air Forces, a process made much faster due to the initial British request jumpstarting U.S. production.
I just got home and saw this video waiting. It's not even a minute in and Ryan is already spitting fire.
I was a parachute rigger for PC-3 aircraft with VP10 in Brunswick, Me 1970-1973. All of our aircraft were equipped with life rafts and an AN/CRT-3 “Gibson Girl radio strapped in by the exit door. The radio had its own parachute on a static line that could be deployed. It was in a water proof yellow case. Included in the case was a box-kite kit, a couple inflatable balloons with a salt water activated hydrogen generator and various other survival supplies. A very neat kit of survival equipment. The only maintenance I remember is repacking and inspecting of parachute on major maintenances.
I just sold mine a couple of months. it was complete with the kite and balloons. It had cans of carbide that with the intro of water it made hydrogen with a probe (inflator tube) that stuck into the can to transfer the gas to the balloon. it had a spare reel of antenna wire.it all fit into one bag. BEWARE if you set it up the channels still monitered and if you set it in the one position and you crank it it will dit dit dit dah dah dah dit dit dit, that my friend is SOS!!
probably why he had it in either manual or light mode from what i can tell.
The life raft should definitely have a selection of straw with one being notably short.
I worked on them in a museum in the 70's-80's. There was also one version that had a switch that allowed automatic sending of just SOS when the crank was wound at the correct speed or switched to manual sending of Morse code.
This could do that
I'm assuming that's what the Automatic setting marked between the two radio frequencies was for? 🤔
@@CybershamanX yes that's what it was for
@@MrJeep75 thanks! 😎🤘
Your review of this radio transmitter is interesting. And that's all it is, a transmitter only, no receiver for 2-way communication. I have the original box kite that was used with this transmitter. It folds up completely and is stored in a heavily waxed cardboard tube. The kite is made up of an aluminum folding frame with a nylon fabric type of material in bright yellow with instructions printed on the material on how to use it. When I was a little kid about 80 years ago, my dad bought the kit for me at a army surplus store for very little money. Being a user of Morse code, I would think that I would have trouble to crank it and send using the button (key) on the front! Today, I fly it with my great grand kids.
Had those in naval transport aircraft as late as 1980s as I recall. Oldie but goody.
You are on a whole "nother" level! :) Love your videos and all the work you do. And I've been on board your ship! Tod :) By the way I am an amateur (Radio Operator) and I would have loved to be the one floating in the middle of nowhere cranking on that thing. Fun!
I see these from time to time on Ebay. When I was in the Navy the rumor was each life raft container had : X- amount of water, X- amount of Charms Candy, 2 packs of Camel cigarretts, a PRC-90, and a .45.I believe the part about the Charms.
Incidently... (from Wikipedia) 😎
_The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal of physical attractiveness as portrayed by the pen-and-ink illustrations of artist Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. The artist saw his creation as representing the composite of "thousands of American girls"._
Shades of Monty Python lifeboat sketch. "I'd rather eat Johnson, Sir."
"Aha! I knew ye was a pooft!"
Just picked up a fill Gibson Girl Kit from Japan. Mine came with hydrogen generators that react with sea water to generate hydrogen for the baloons, It also comes with a kite that can be used instead of balloons. Cool bit of kit!
I have one of those in my collection and it is still functional.
Those currently on the hot seat will not be expected to draw straws.
That looks like fun, but I never want to be in a situation where I actually have to use one.
very informative video Ryan. Thanks!
I think I'd like for my lifeboat to be equipped with a spare battleship.
I have a wind-up Russian flashlight. I haven't charged it in years (squeezy method - mechanical charge, like the radio) and it shines bright everytime I switch the on button.
500 kilocycles commonly chased by an ADF automatic direction finder. The Gibson Girl had an auto SOS sending or you keyed a message with the rubber button. The argon light told you the generator was producing enough electricity for the tube filament. You had to crank while sending.
Very interesting! Thanks for your great videos, Ryan!
Thank you.
I used to have one of these as a complete kit back in the early 80's and along with a box kite and a balloon there was a Hydrogen gas generator that the operator would lower into the water and attach it to the balloon.
I don’t know about modern navy life boats but I know our aviation emergency gear had desalination hand pumps. Seems like a good idea to me.
I love these videos and thank you for doing them. Although this is not the Iowa class near and dear to my heart, U.S.S Missouri (BB-63), I love you showing us the inner workings of the four most bad (insert censor here) warships ever conceived. I understand their high operating and maintenance costs keep them out of service, but I am still saddened that they just now sit. Hard to believe that these four ships were created so fast from blueprint design to keel laydown to commission as fast as they were. Also hard to believe that four heavy ships built in the 1940's have the ability to keep up with and possibly out pace modern day U.S naval vessels. Only downside is they are not nuclear powered in current day.
I saw this post in another video. It would be interesting to see you zoom chat with the curators of the other three Iowa class battleships to compare your notes with each other. Also, I would love to know how it was decided to convert the open to air pilot bridge design that was on the Iowa and NJ got changed and converted into the enclosed glass pilot bridge that Iowa and NJ were not originally constructed with.
Again, I feel U.S.S Missouri the BEST of the class!!!! No Offense, but I live in Missouri and WWII surrender was signed on her deck thanks to President Truman.
If I was on the open seas and saw an Iowa-class approaching me, I would turn tail and run. LOL
Regards
Best line in any of the videos, the radio man drew the short straw and gets eaten
In the frozen land of Nador, they were forced to eat Robin's minstrel.... and there was much rejoicing. (yaaay)
Power output is around 5 watts, uses a long wire antenna held aloft by kite or (chemical generator) hydrogen balloon - German and US variants; the British set uses only the kite (but, uniquely, launched by a Very pistol device). All the set types include a simple antenna tuning unit (ATU). There's also a 12ft stainless steel wire counterpoise and weight which is dropped in the ocean to provide the signal ground plane. German/US/British sets all signal on 500kHz, the US model also has a high frequency (HF band) output option. Rotating the generator handle produces automatic, mechanically generated Morse keying (SOS + a series of dashes for DF purposes), the American set also has an option to send Morse by hand key. This is a modulated carrier wave signal transmitter, not CW, meaning the signal can be picked up on an ordinary AM receiver. All three models are TRANSMIT ONLY, there's no radio receiver provided. All 3 nation's radios are internally simple using only 2 vacuum tubes - doing multiple duties as oscillator, modulator and power amplifier. Interestingly the British and German sets use a crystal oscillator (which provides a very stable frequency signal) but the American SCR-578 'Gibson girl' uses an LC resonant circuit instead. This might be for technical reasons but is most likely because of America's dire shortage of radio crystals in WW2, normal peacetime production being insufficient to meet a huge wartime demand.
These little emergency transmitters saved a lot of aircrew, British, Canadian, American and German as well as countless sailors, naval and civilian in WW2. Even with a modest antenna, at 500kHz, over the good conductivity of the ocean, the radio signal can be picked up hundreds - and on occasions, thousands - of miles away.
Great explanation. We have three units manufactured between 1941 and 1945. They not only broadcast on 500 kc but on it’s harmonics so we picked up the signal on 1000 kc. All three can be seen at the March Field Air Museum in Southern California.
Haha Ryan’s full of jokes today ! I love it !
Would be nice to hear the radio broadcast. 500 KHZ is just low of the AM band and 8364 KHZ is the standard emergency frequency. With all those ham operators on board I could see this operating.
Probably puts out a really nasty spark signal... I can't imagine there being tubes (or transistors!) in there... about like a Model T ignition coil I imagine.
@@scowell single tube plus a modulator tube. Not the cleanest signal but legal enough for us hams, if you disconnect the modulator that is.
Coastwatchers in the South Pacific area also monitored emerg freqs as one of their many contributions to the war effort.
never knew any of this. damn cool Ryan.
Thank you this was great!!!!
Great video from the battleship.
I could be wrong about this, but the radiomen did get a distress call out before the Indianapolis sank. Many at the expense of exiting the radio room in time to save themselves. The call(s) were received but disregarded by the Navy as a Japanese fake because the ship was not where she was “expected” to be. (A Navy SNAFU). There were not many radiomen in general who survived a sinking and many didn’t regard maintaining a life vest as a worthwhile endeavor.
Cause of Daylight saving time in the USA I can watch your streams while in bed
Never fall back !:-)
⚡️🙏⚡️🆙
Cool gear, and of course hilarious. (Please don't eat me...)
“Very specific instructions to take one to the boat…” Indeed.
Love you guys !
My abandon ship additional stuff was to bring a bunch of first aid kits and a large first aid bag. They got stored in a locker we had for medical supplies up on the main deck near the helicopter hanger. IIRC, their was no medical supplies in the life rafts or boats. I had resolved to also bring stuff like the morphine syrettes from my battle dressing station.
But, If an abandon ship situation did happen, I probably would have been busy getting casualties evacuated to the lifeboats.
I was an RM on a DD from 1960 to 1962 and only saw a Gibson Girl once. All I remember is if you were the guy cranking it you would soon wish you had gone to Radio School and knew Morse code as it's easier to push a button than to crank that handle.
Definitely need a bone cracker in the boat
Cool video! Great cannibalism tips as well.
Interestingly enough I have one of these that I disconnected the modulator and set to work on 472-479khz. There's a few local hams that did the same once 630m was opened up. Most of the hams that do go that far up are running tubes anyhow so no one cares about the purity of the signal 🤷
Better than a couple of the Professor’s coconuts!
Awesome. And remember, kids; make sure you crack his bones and drink the marrow, lots of calories in there!
Ryan the radio operator cannibal.
Were there c-rat provisioms ready to go? im thinking there were lots of basic survival gear that would have been pre provisioned in the event of "abandon ship" and each crewman had specific duties in the event of such a command. weapons, first aid, food, radio, etc.
Hey could you do a video of the teletype machines they used?
Is there a way to get rid of the over brightness on some of these videos
Fair Radio Sales, Lima, OH has them for sale.
Just wondering if they float and are waterproof? In rough seas I’ve heard where sailors are constantly being tossed into the water.
Noticed one of these on an episode of Black Sheep Squadron the other day. Season 1 episode 20.
Something on my mind that I've wanted to ask Ryan was about Iowa's original pole mast placed on the aft funnel
What was it used for and where is it today?
How do you key the code?
Is there a speaker to hear a reply ?
Such a great device and why in the world didn't the USS Indianapolis rock this. Sounds like they didn't have the appropriate procedures to get this out in a catastrophic emergency.
It's a bit chunky to put inside of a life raft. It's something you would put in a lifeboat. And the ships boats didn't survive.
That and the Indy went down fast, it's hard scrambling for your life to grab something when you expect rescue to quickly follow. Life, radio... Life. I'd have done the same.
The John Wayne movie "Island in the Sky" showed one of these being used, along with its limitations.
Eating the radio man! Lol. He got the short straw!
Thanks Ryan! I’m a bit surprised preparing the boats (and placing these radios in them) - wasn’t part of the procedure when going into an action?
I’m sure there is a reason - perhaps you don’t plan on sinking when preparing for action!
Any sort of prep for the life rafts would get in the way of sailors trying to do things to prevent the life rafts being needed in the first place - manning AA guns, damage control, fire fighting, etc. There's only so much deck space available after all.
And of course ships often got sank while not at action stations due to submarines, such as the Indianapolis.
I was a Radioman in the Navy and had to do a preventative maintenance on those “Gibson Girls”.
Was it strictly spark? No tubes inside?
@@scowell No tubes. Hand crank generates power
@@usnusmcret But what creates the RF signal? I know you crank a generator... is it spark? Or tube? Not transistor certainly.
@@scowell There is no RF signal. When cranked, the transmitter becomes a generator and that power is how the auto SOS is transmitted. It’s an AN/CRT-3
@@usnusmcret You don't transmit without RF, dude. I looked it up... the very first ones were spark-gap, then they added tubes... the early tube ones were not crystal-controlled. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_radio
Just had a thought for the balloons: instead of a flask of helium they could have had a simple electrolysis cell and used the hand crank generator to make hydrogen gas for the balloons. Use the saved weight and space for more balloons and wire. Unlimited lifting gas from sea water.
Ours in PC-3’s had a submersible hydrogen generator and a box kite!
Does it still work??? I see the frequencies on the box… easy to put a dummy load on and test it. Love to get my hands on one to try it out on the ham bands after re crystal and slight mod to the coils!!! Looks like fun!!
DE N2JYG
Maybe something else that can be in a life boat is Food.
Then the Guy that " Draws the Short Straw" should be Placed in Charge of making sure the Food Stays Safe.
Best Wishes! M.H.
The catfish stunner lol
The john Wayne movie, island in the sky is the first and only time I've seen one.
Got the movie. Brian, I like the whole donner party shit with the bone marrow thing . Keep it zombie!
The LED lights are messing with the camera. FYI. Thanks for the content.
(5:54) I've got this sinking (get it? 😉 ) feeling that I wouldn't want to be in a lifeboat with Ryan. You're not getting my bone marrow, buddy! 🤪
A spare battleship.
Where can I get one of these?
In the best Traditions of the Sea, one or two lightweight implements for the cracking and extracting of bone marrow should be in every lifeboat !:-)
😂 ⚡️🙏⚡️
Also used in larger aircraft
Is that a ground wire or a counter poise?
"Don't forget to crack his bones open eat his marrow." Thank you Dr Lector. ROFLMAO
I'm surprised they didn't leave one in each boat, that explains some loss with no report
that post war John Wayne film really spotlighted this.
Best Site on UTube !!
Speaking of abandoning ship. What are the large box like things you see mounted on the sides of some ships?
I think you're talking about the "canisters" for inflatable life rafts. Those look like rounded boxes.
@@darylmorning I was thinking about the wood pallet looking items you see on some ships.
I think all life boats should come with a Libby as standard a equipment !
i am familiar with incidents during WW2, where ships go down and people are stranded at sea for days at a time,
and don't call me Shirley...
awesome
Gee, thanks for the nutritional advice re: shipmate cannibalism, Ryan.
I think. 😳
Nope. The British captured two of the German emergency transmitters, used one to develop the similar British T1333 lifeboat set (which doesn't have the Gibson girl narrow 'waist' - the German and American ones do) and donated the second captured set to the USA.
Never heard of this item but strange the comments section is open before the stream has started
Nothin like a little high-seas cannibalism to remind you of your humanity.
Why did the call the radio a "Gibson" Girl? Was Gibson the name of the manufacturer of the radio?
The shape of the radio reminded people of the figures of the young ladies drawn by the illustrator Charles Dana Gibson in his Gibson Girls" series.
@@straybullitt I see.. thanks for the explanation!
Hi Ryan, this is off topic, but I'm hoping you can give me a good reference. I have been hunting for Adm King's actual report on anti-aircraft deficiencies. Got a link? Thank you in advance and thanks for these excellent videos!
I've been trying to make a donation, but the site hangs after I click to check out. Any suggestions?
An enema bottle should be placed in the life raft. I am a long distance blue water sailor. My mother who was a nurse told me this. A salt water enema will hydrate a person, the intestines will filter out the salt, and absorb water and prevent dehydration.
I don't wanna share though
Were one of these ever used?
Are there any records of the actual usage of this type of radio? I do a lot of naval history reading and this is the first time I've ever heard of it.
Yes, plenty of times. It would have been part of many air crew survival kits on large aircraft.
Many, and now us hams do a simple yet reversable modification that allows this beast to live on the airwaves once more.
@@notadream-tt3cn do you have more info on that?
@@BlackSoap361 shure, all depends on what you want to know. While I haven't completely gotten mine moved to the new frequency yet, 472-479khz (28khz from its original setting) . It's easily done via the variable capacitor. You do have to somehow remove modulation capabilities form the modulator tube (as it's designed for mcw). Id have to look at the schematic to say for shure. That and trigger the oscillator via a straight key or the button on the front. No holes or anything would need to be drilled as there are plenty on the case such as the plug hole for the desiccant pack.
There durable and simple curcuit wise, it's no wonder they kept them around so long!
Falls out of boat and drowns because metal radio is strapped to both legs lol
Lifeboat stores should include rolling papers ,"tobbaco" , matches , whisky, water , candy and alert tabs
and a saltshaker, half full of cocaine? Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff
6:00 “Raise full length of antenna by kite or balloon.”
And here comes the hate mail from the radioman section... Nothing like some cannibal jokes with a straight face .. lol
There's something to be said for "low tech" solutions, and in some ways it's too bad that system is no longer, and too bad CW (Morse) is no longer... Three of my amateur radio friends were maritime HF radio operators in their day, two are gone and the last is now in a care facility.