Derritron Mayday Radiotelephone

The Derritron Mayday Radiotelefone is a solid state Naval distress radio . No infos are found in the internet. An OM who contacted the enterprice Derritron in the 70s, sent me some details. Thank you very much!.

It is a radiotelephone that uses the old Naval distress frequency on 2182 kHz. This fact explains the long antenna and the microphone.

Switched to "Alarm", a standardized two- tone- signal was transmitted for some seconds before the spoken distress message.

Special receivers were always active aboard ships and at coast stations: filtering out these two- tone- signals and playing them via loudspeaker. On ships this receiver was on the bridge.

The two- tone- signal sounded like the German firefighter siren...

In Germany the company "Flugfunk Becker" © built a similar radio.

In the past, Derritron did quite a few special jobs for the British Sea Rescue Association RNLI, (Royal National Lifeboat Institution in Poole, Dorset).

Nowadays Derritron builds no SAR radios anymore (?)
The circuit boards are watertight by a special plastic coating (see picture gallery).

Frequency:

2182 KHz

Channels:

1

Voltage:

24 V

Antenna length:

277 cm

Measurements:

Diameter 180 mm, Height 385 mm

Weight:

3 kg (without batteries)