2 Comments Posted by vincentwade@gmail.com

Nope. It's an old mk1 radar set, built by Raytheon. They had a rather large dual band vaccume tube magnetron controller, but only put out 40 watts, which is why the screen was only 4 inches across. That other boat wasen't a "subchaser" or anything like that. They didn't have the 'walk wings" on each side of the bridge because it would have gotten in the way of fire control for the guns. They DID, however, have a need for them on harbor net tenders, (looking at the steel on the bow, I'd say it may have been a net tender) minsweepers, and YTB's (yard tub, big- used by the Navy or the Army. Yes, the Army had tugboats, more than the Navy did, believe it or not).
The black and grey buttons at the top right were to change the display color from yellow to red for night time use. No, they weren't green. The Mk 4's were green,and had a hoodscreen to look thru. The round control at the bottom right is the distance ranging switch, for high (12 miles) and low (2 miles). The toggle switch under the display was the power switch. it took 5 full minutes to warm up, ran on 125 volts DC power, and each magnetron tube only lasted 1000hrs before burning out.
I ws an ET in the Navy before I cross rated to OT. I really loved the chances I had to work on historical gear that still functioned.

I love this photography. Tell Carl that if he's not liking them, it's a free country and he can choose to close his eyes or move on. He's not impressing anybody here.
By the way, this old boat was a minesweeper, a tug, (YTB) or harbor sub net tender. not a subchaser or any other kind of escort. I doubt it had more than a single 20mm AA gun on it. at one time, then later had the steel added to protect the bow, probably after it went into civilian ownership. Thanlks for the wonderfull pics, and this very nicely done site. Wonderfully done.