RCA Radiomarine ET-8044 marine radiotelephone  

Radios of this type served multiple purposes. The crystal controlled transceiver could be used ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore, and ship-to-telephone service. With a land telephone account, boaters could make calls to a special marine operator, and place calls to regular telephones. A fourth crystal frequency was usually chosen as a local weather service. In addition, this radio receives standard AM broadcast.

I was hoping to find one of these radios, the precurser to VHF marine radiocommunications, for some time. I was surprised to see this one on eBay with a starting bid of only $9.99, and even more surprised that no one else bid on it. In the year or so since I got it, I haven't seen but three or four other marine band crystal controlled radiotelephones, and no other Radiomarine models.

This one is from somewhere between 1949 to 1954. I'm not sure how long they produced them, and they may have ended the model before '54. I got it without it's "Magic-Eye" tuning signal tube, or it's two 6V6 vacuum tubes... but these were easy to find. The RCA logo on the image above is simply a paper one I printed out. I intend on making or finding a correct logo badge. The unit is very grimy. You can see part of the front cleaned up. The paint is scratched and chipped. I've cleaned and sanded the case, and painted it with hammered finish paint. The original paint was just too far gone to keep.

Although the cabinet finish is in poor shape, the chassis and components appear (at least) to be fairly intact. I have not tried to fire up the unit yet. I still have to find a proper bakelite microphone for it. But it did come with crystals for  2390KC, 2638KC, 2670KC and 2738KC. The last was the frequency for the Gulf of Mexico's Swan Island station WSG... but after learning more about marine radio frequencies in this range, I found that 2738 was actually designated as ship-to-ship. This is the more likely reason 2738 is included here. Interestingly this radio does not include 2182, which was and is the "call and distress" frequency. Perhaps it was not yet designated as such in 1949.



        

Here an ad for the unit, from a 1949 issue of Yachting Magazine. The $197.50 would be something like $2,000 in today's dollars... so we are talking a major investment. But to have a unit like this was nothing short of miraculous at the time. I've seen marine band radiotelephones hawked as safety devices, business tools, and fisherman's friends. Unfortunately the image was re-touched so extensively for this ad that the original mic bracket was obliterated... and I need to make one from scratch! A little guess-work will be involved there... Click for larger image.




           And another ad, with customer feedback...

The face removed from the radio. The brushed aluminum edge detail is pitted in spots, and oxidized in others. I wanted to re-brush it, but needed to protect the paint. At first I thought I would not repaint the front, at least until I figured out how they silk-screened so perfectly to the raised lettering and detail. I actually silk-screened control panels for electronic devices (power supplies for US contract experimental laser weapons and fusion research) back in the early eighties. But this is different... the paint comes perfectly to the edges of all raised details.

At first I had masked the paint off to protect it. I experimented with a small brass brush in a Dremel tool, which mimics the original aluminum finish closely, and removes the oxidation. Then I tried to bring the existing paint back as well as I can by using automotive car cleaner and polish. As you will see below, this process was not enough to save the panel paint. It was just too far gone.

The "can of worms" opened: I needed to strip it all once I decided to re-paint the panel. My main worry was that I would not be able to properly expose the raised aluminum lettering. But I tested several of the letters by priming, painting and scraping them off... it turned out that with a small X-acto blade, when the paint was still soft and pliable, I could gently remove the paint over the letters. So I masked off the main aluminum areas, primed and painted over the rest, then scraped all the lettering clean.


The panel fitted back on, temporarily, after painting and "lettering stripping". The exposed aluminum is still pitted, and my brushing and steel wool treatment of it could not make that go away. I thought about filling the pitting with aluminum solder, but it is a different color anyway, and would have looked "blotchy". So for now, the brushed areas will just have to live with some pits.

The screws are phillips pan-head, s/s #8 x 1". Stainless is a bit duller than the original chromed screws on the face, but I had none of these outside panel screws with the radio when I got it.

Here the radio is almost finished, cosmetically. I cleaned the chassis, too, as well as I could without disassembling it. I still need to find the proper enamaled RCA badge, the proper mic, and I need to make a microphone bracket. I also confess I misplaced the "talk" button... just hoping the cats knocked it off the table, and under the couch or something. The possibility it got vacuumed I don't want to think about. The antenna is not original... it came with the unit, but was installed years ago by someone who wanted to make the unit more portable. Perhaps they were using it as a countertop AM radio... because the antenna was not hooked up to the transmit lead. It seems to be a late 40's to 50's automotive AM antenna. But rather than fill the holes, I put it back for now. Not authentic, but useful for testing the radio when I try to fire it up. Click on the image for a larger one.