“Prison Break”: Can you identify this device?

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Aaron Kuhn, who offers up this challenge:

Here’s a fun challenge for the SWLing Post readers. On the Fox show Prison Break Season 5 Episode 7, they show this “Marine Notification System” printing out a wanted message as the captain sits in his ship and looks on.

What is this gadget?

Thanks for the fun challenge, Aaron.

So I guess we first have to decide if this is truly a device that’s in service in the real world, or simply a prop made for the episode.

I’m willing to bet that someone in the SWLing Post community can ID this device!

Please comment!

Spread the radio love

4 thoughts on ““Prison Break”: Can you identify this device?

  1. Mike

    If I had to guess, it reminds me a great deal of a numbers station voice synthesizer, i.e., the kind of machine that governments would program to speak groups of five numbers at various times, like the Atencion! station that is operating still in Cuba. Just a guess…and I have no idea what the print-out part is all about. Cool stuff!

    Reply
  2. Charles Hargrove - N2NOV

    I believe this is a Navtex receiver (518khz) from about 20 years ago from Marine Navigation Systems out of South Africa. The design is similar to the JRC NRC300A. The newer Navtex receivers have big LCD displays and alot more features than a thermal printer shown in the TV show.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.