Check out these amazing shots of the Iowa-class battleship, USS Wisconsin (BB-64), as she currently sits at the Nauticus Maritime Museum in Norfolk, decorated for the holidays as part of the museum’s Winterfest.
The ship’s distinctive discone antenna on the bow makes a great artificial Christmas “tree,” although Charlie Brown may disagree.
Originally intended for the Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) and added during her final commissioning, the 44-foot tall discone/discage antenna coupler group on the bow is actually 2 antennas, each used for transmitting voice and data.
Navy Radio’s love affair with the composite discone cage vertically polarized antenna started in the mid-1950s and was full blown by the Vietnam-era, with most cruisers, destroyers, and escorts given one of these devices, typically on the bow or on the most forward gun mount.
These ranged in height from simple 20-foot cages built on 5-inch/38 Mark 30s and 5″/54 Mark 42s (later replaced with a simpler fan-type HF antenna) to mammoth 32-footers among the up to 82-foot masts on the converted Saipan-class light aircraft carrier turned command ship/NECPA, USS Wright (CC-2).
A starboard view of the forward section of the guided-missile destroyer USS Farragut (DDG 37) during an overhaul at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Visible on the deck are the ASROC (anti-submarine rocket) launcher and the Mark 42 5-inch/54-caliber gun mount with HF antenna. Above the bridge are the satellite receiving antenna and the Mark 68 gunfire control director, 10/6/1983 Don S. Montgomery, USN (Ret.). 330-CFD-DN-ST-84-00779
USS Wright (CC-2) Underway off the southern California coast, 25 September 1963, shortly after conversion to a command ship. Note her extensive array of communications antennas and their associated masts. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. KN-5885
Even 327 and 378-foot Coast Guard cutters got in on the act in the 1970s and 80s, carrying a cage atop their single 5-inch/38 Mark 30 mount.
Iowas first picked up their big forward discone in 1968 when USS New Jersey (BB-62) was reactivated for a tour off Vietnam and the other three class members would see them added in their later “600 Ship” Lehman Navy modernization in the early 1980s.
They still get some actual use, and not just as Christmas decorations.
The USS New Jersey Battleship Museum’s ham radio station, NJ2BB, in Camden operates at 800 watts from the ship’s bow-mounted discone antenna.