WB6FZH's TCS Recollections

My first TCS recollection was puzzling over a receiver circuit diagram in 1964. I was 14, and purchased a TCS-5 Receiver at the Marin Amateur Radio Club auction meeting in Larkspur,CA. It did not look anything like my other equipment, and certainly was heavy. I got it apart, looked inside and found the inside still looking like 1943, the date on the identification plate on the front panel. I used tube socket pins to slide over the power socket pins to make connections, and was able to apply 12 volts to the filaments and 250 volts to the reciever B+ input. The reciever came to life and familiar voices on 3885kc AM were heard. The sensitivity was not great and the bandwidth of the receiver allowed you to hear other stations that came on nearby frequencies(Not always a desiriable feature...) The receiver was used for shortwave listening for a while and eventually gathered dust in my large walk-in closet.

At that time my receiver was my Hallicrafter's SX-110. Licensed in 1963, my station transmitters at that time were a Ranger 1, DX-40, 3-4mc ARC-5 converted to DSB, and a Homebrew 6AQ5 5w AM Transmitter on 3885. I had contacted a few TCS stations, most as fixed stations, but a few on shipboard and eventually I contacted one on a boat at a local marina. I visited the boat, and was given a TCS tour. It was a complete station, Speaker- Remote, Antenna Coil, Transmitter, Receiver, Connecting Cables, T-17 Carbon -Microphone, and Dynamotor Power Supply. The Dynamotor Supply was humming along as I tuned the dial of the receiver, that was it, I had to find a TCS Transmitter and the rest of the TCS Radio System.

It took a year or so for the station parts to materialize. My part-time job at Marin Radio Supply, in San Rafael, on Saturdays and after College classes at the College of Marin, in nearby Kentfield financed school and Ham Radio. The job at the wholesale/retail radio-television store was great for getting parts for building things, and meeting Hams and others that furthered my life-long interest in electronics. A water-damaged TCS technical manual helped understand the radio. My Dynamotor Power Supply went up and down in pitch as my 50 watt lightbulb dummy load began to light and my voice came through the speaker of my Drake 2B accross the room. I built an AC power supply to run the radio, and could hardly wait to check into the Sunday morning Red Cross Net on 3885 with my "Boat-Anchor" TCS Radio Set. The last time I checked in was in 1994 from Trinity County on SSB and it had moved to 3905khz.

I enjoyed working the Marin Hams on their commute home from San Francisco and beyond in the late afternoons and early evenings on 3885 AM. Some had homebrew AM radios, others converted surplus, and commercial radios. I had purchased a used 1968 Cheverolet Van in 1969 for my Electronic Installation and Repair business. A Webster Bandspanner was installed on the side, and a VHF 1/4 wave whip on the top. I quickly modified a Heathkit MP-1 Transistor Mobile Power Supply to work with the TCS. I remember a big aluminum box with remote control and power cables coming out of it, with terminal strips, relays, and dropping resistors to make the TCS work with the modern power supply. I briefly got to be part of the 3885 AM Mobile Gang as it moved to SSB and 2 meters. My TCS radio radio was in the back of the Van and was operated a little mobile, but more operation was done from portable locations. Often a picnic and the company of young ladies that were introduced to radio. Later, more room was needed in the back of the Van for work, tool boxes and other activities, so the TCS was removed.

I went to College in Sonoma County, in 1969, I took my stereo equipment, and I remember installing an FM beam antenna on the roof of the apartment house, with special 33' & 66' guy wires (disguised antenna). I think I listened to the stereo more than I operated my small homebrew 80/40 TX and Heathkit 80mtr SSB transciever modified for MARS. I started a small business and moved a few times within the Northbay. In the next few years, the TCS was not used as much because I always seemed to have something new from the Ham Swapmeets.

A chance trip to Foothill College Ham-Swap in the early '70s brought me face to face with some additional TCS equipment, and some other WW2 radios. I bought them and took them back to Marin County where as luck would have it, I had moved my business into a small wherehouse building. I had lots of space to store radios again. I found more black crinkle, gray crinkle, Olive Drab and not so shinny aluminum military radios needing a home. I tried to learn more and more about these radios with letters and numbers for names.

I had lots of other radios with more exciting names...Vikings, Chiefs, Rangers, Scouts, & Heath Indians of all kinds. I eventually needed smaller radios and my home decor changed from Popular Electronics with highlights of WW2 Surplus, to lower profile radios on a corner of a desk.

I stored most of the radios in Trinity County at my folks home in 1973, until a time that I knew would come when I had more time to devote to them. I built a nice storage area in the dry storage area under the shop building. It became a repository of WW2 radio gear, with a few Classic Amateur Radios too. Many other radios and accessories rested there... ARC-5, SCR-274N, GF-11, ATD and others.

I always had a reminder of the TCS at my home Ham Station, a homemade Antenna Tuner, with a TCS TX roller coil and variable capacitor(complete w/ original knob) on an aluminum box built in 1963. The TCS was never far from my thoughts.

1975 provided a short stint at the Trinity County Sheriff's Department for me, and I constructed a heavy-duty AC Power Supply for my TCS Radios. I repaired and restored several WW2 and Classic radios in my spare time there. 1976 found me back in SF Bay Area, starting Trinity Alarms, and working as a Police Officer.

In 1978, anther TCS TX turned up at a Ham Swap nearby and soon another compact AC Power Supply was constructed to power it. Various modifications were made to the TCS TX. Yes, holes were drilled and circuits improved (75w CW). I have prayed for dispensation for doing all those things subsequently, but I did enjoy the many happy hours the TCS provided on AM and CW. The CW hours were happy due to the changed keying, no clunking relay...and shaped keying with a built-in filter circuit on the R-F Amplifier. Eventually the TCS TX went up in "smoke", I parted it out so other TCS TX and homebrew projects could take advantage of the TCS parts "donor" program.

The majority of TCS operation was through the years on the many visits to Weaverville, where I had set-up a workshop, studio apartment and Ham Radio stations for different eras WW2, '50s, '60s and beyond. The TCS on 160 and 80 was always a favorite. Stations were contacted all over the Western United States. In recent years, there have been TCS to other WW2 and military radio contacts on the Military Radio Collector's Net on 80 meters. When the conditions were not good enough for the low power of the TCS, a 32V3 Collins transmitter at 100w from 1952 was fired up. The TCS receiver is very broad and usually with crowded band conditions and high-power stations a more modern receiver was usually the primary receiver, but the TCS RX was always checked from time to time too. The Collins R-388/URR or 75A2a receiver was used most often. Antennas used included: 80 mtr dipole, 265'longwire, trap vertical, and various temperary antennas. (That means it was hurriedly erected and the wind or snow helped bring it down...)

In 1993, I started a new adventure at a new QTH at the edge of Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii. I decided to take a working WW2 Radio Station there with me, after all just over the Pali from Pearl Harbor seemed an appropriate place to send signals with 1940s technology. I brought a 1944 HRO-W Navy Receiver manufactured by National Radio Company. It's Plug-In coils, and revolutionary 1930s technology courtesy of James Millen worked very well. Just in case, I brought along a 1968 R-390A Military Receiver for back-up.

As I write this page, I am across the room from the WW2 1944 Radio Station, in front of my modern SSB and Satellite Radios. But as many of us truly know..."real radios glow in the dark".. (1998)

UPDATED:
1999- The 1944 TCS/HROW WW2 station and I have returned to Northern California and to Weaverville.

2006- The TCS-8 station is being used more, and a Collins TCS-5 TX and RX are waiting in reserve should this old technology need repair.

2007- TCS-8 Receiver under repair, audio oscillation of unknown cause.

First Appears: 11/21/97

Last Update: 10/17/07

Receiver and Remote Diagram- TCS 12
Transmitter and Dyn PS Diagram- TCS 12