Radar Maintenance by Thomas C. Dailey, SA
First Division (at the time)
I chuckled at your story of the radar-repeater
(SPI-8A???) I had a similar situation happen on Guam. Even though I was an
RM, the ET's recognized that I'd made it 23 weeks in ET-A school, so "allowed"
me to carry a screwdriver (chuckle for you, there). I did lots of PM's, as
they knew I wouldn't blow up anything like a lot of the RM's. Among several
different types of SATCOM terminals, we had a portable SATCOM terminal called
an AN/SSC-3 (shipboard), that we were trying out for the Navy, and aside from
the fact that every morning, after it had rained overnight (regular thing on
Guam), you had to tip the dish over, to dump the water out, due to the
attenuation of the signal... typically on an FNG type, there were frequent
problems with TWT replacement. This was the output PA, so of course it was a
total bitch to get to, replace, and adjust. We had a rather disillusioned
fellow there, who really wanted out of the Nav', so when they finally sent him
stateside for "mental eval", he made sure that he stuck a pin in one of the
waveguides, on the back side, where you couldn't see it. Myself and 4 other
ET's were tearing our hair out, trying to figure out why this terminal was
eating so many TWT's. Even the Hughes rep' couldn't figure it out.
One night, after YET AGAIN, removing the
24 (7/16)" captive screws from one of
the four cover plates, I turned off all the power and just stared at it.
As I looked inside with the aid of a flashlight (this is outside, next to the
jungle, and very dark)... I saw a shrew (smaller than a mouse, and all over
Guam) run to the backside of the waveguide. Determined to get him out of
there (thinking that maybe HE was the cause of the problems), I sprayed some
rodent-repellant inside... he took out of that hole like a shot... I then
reached back to see if he'd built a nest, and by golly, felt the pin, sticking
in the thin-walled waveguide. By some strange accident of total serindipity,
Hughes had included that very piece of waveguide in our stock of GROSSLY
OVERPRICED spares. I told the Chief about it, and went to work. About 4
hours later, I had it changed, and lit it off with a new TWT... worked like a
champ.
I was given the rest of the watch off, so went over to the
Acey-Duecy and watched movies and drank beer.
Once-in-a-while, you get lucky.
A TWT is a Traveling Wave Tube. They used 'em in most
of the early SATCOM sets, such as the MSC-46, TSC-54, SSC-3, and a few
others. That damned "Sick Three" had 4 sidecovers, and each had 24
of these 3/8" captive bolts. (I'd forgotten that they were 3/8"
not 7/16") The Hughes rep used to get all bent out of shape
when we'd produce a "speed-handle" to put the socket on... said it would
gall the holes.. so I wore that 3/8" socket around my neck on my dog-tag
chain so he wouldn't find it, and when we needed it (which was often), I'd
pop it off of the chain, and slip it on the speed-handle, which we kept
hidden. No Way, were we going to unwrench those stupid things off with a
box end wrench... 24 times or more... with the fact that rain could come ANY
TIME, without warning. I still have that very socket in my car-tools!
Ahhhh yes, I still have my copies of RADAR
ELECTRONIC FUNDAMENTALS, BASIC ELECTRONICS, & BASIC ELECTRONICS
Vol. 2. ...and who can forget the AN/SPS-10 & AN/SPI-8A... I slept
with them.... and heck, I wanted to be an ETN, anyway.
I ended up working for King Radio Corp, as an avionics
engineering technician, and did a couple of Service Manager jobs, before
stumbling into the Fire Alarm industry. Now, I just do that - folks can't
argue with a Fire Marshal... if he says you gotta' have it... you gotta'
have it. Not very brain-stimulating, but still fun to razzle-dazzle the
other guys with talk of reactance and non-linear pulse
reforming... most of them don't have a clue, beyond a multimeter.
If you have any narratives of your life aboard the
Vega or pictures to contribute please email
them to: Admin@USSVega.com