# Oceanspan VII



## duncs

Hi folks,
I sailed with the span for long enough, but, can anyone tell me if the 7 had HF R/T. I have vague memories of link calls with Mombasa on either 4 or 8 megs. Is it my memory playing tricks on me? Maybe it was on IF.
I sailed with a version called a 'Transarctic', and am sure that one was IF R/T only(plus 500).

Thanks,
Duncs


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## richardwakeley

G'day Duncs,
Can't remember if it was the 7, but definitely some mark(s) had H/F R/T. I remember sending svc messages to Portishead for H/F link calls via 'Poradbaldock' on my first trip - GHZZ. That was a later model. I also sailed on Bluies built in late 40s and early 50s that had Oceanspans without H/F R/T.
Brgds,
Richard


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## duncs

Hi Richard, the span 7 had IF R/T, but, I'm damned if I can remember whether it had HF R/T or not. That's what's bugging me. The span 6 was very common, no R/T, but with the Atalanta rx, was mimco's workhorse.

Regards
Duncs


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## richardwakeley

You're right Duncs. Now I'm also not so sure. Falaba/GHZZ was a newer vsl and may have had a Globespan. I bet some of the Mimco guys on this site will remember.


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## Keith Adkins

I can't remember any Oceanspan having HF RT, but there will be someone out there that will put me right!


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## jimg0nxx

Keith Adkins said:


> I can't remember any Oceanspan having HF RT, but there will be someone out there that will put me right!


I agree, never saw an Oceanspan with HF RT.


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## Bill Greig

Sailed with the VIIE on two ships, definately no HF R/T.
Regards
Bill


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## Hugh Wilson

The Oceanspan 7 did indeed have HF R/T and a very complex push/pull frequency selector switch on the bottom right hand side of the front panel. Very rarely used HF R/T and in those days, we had to sent a svc msg to GKA to request a time slot for the call.


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## Hugh Wilson

Further my earlier reply, the selectior switch was on the bottom left front panel, not bottom right. Clink on the link.

http://www.radioofficers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Oceanspn-VII.jpg


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## Dave Woods

Hugh Wilson said:


> The Oceanspan 7 did indeed have HF R/T and a very complex push/pull frequency selector switch on the bottom right hand side of the front panel. Very rarely used HF R/T and in those days, we had to sent a svc msg to GKA to request a time slot for the call.


Agree with Hugh, I definitely used HF R/T on one of the Spans when we were in the Far East at the end of the 60's. A bit of a pain getting a time slot via a SVC message.


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## Arthur O'Malley

I trained on the Oceanspan 7 in Dublin in the late 60's and I spent 11 months with one on the Dartbank in 1971/72. I don't remember making any long-distance phone calls with the 60 watts output. I recall getting the mate to turn the ship in the middle of the Pacific to get a better signal from GKA, just to get rid of a few Xmas telegrams and SLTs. I had already sailed on Shell tankers with the Commander and the Commandant, both of which had SSB at 2,000 and 1,500 watts, so I knew about long distance phone calls home to the UK. The Oceanspan only had IF RT.
Arthur O'Malley.


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## King Ratt

The 7 had only IF R/T. Here being operated by my JRO in RFA Pearleaf/GGHA in 1967.


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## Dave Woods

A quick Google for Oceanspan 7 and I found this http://jproc.ca/britishmarconi/oceanspan.html


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## Chris Jenkins

Arthur O'Malley said:


> I trained on the Oceanspan 7 in Dublin in the late 60's and I spent 11 months with one on the Dartbank in 1971/72. I don't remember making any long-distance phone calls with the 60 watts output. I recall getting the mate to turn the ship in the middle of the Pacific to get a better signal from GKA, just to get rid of a few Xmas telegrams and SLTs. I had already sailed on Shell tankers with the Commander and the Commandant, both of which had SSB at 2,000 and 1,500 watts, so I knew about long distance phone calls home to the UK. The Oceanspan only had IF RT.
> Arthur O'Malley.


Arthur, I was on Dartbank in 1971. Joined in Yokohama in dry dock, and left in Capetown. Those were the days ! Remember that incredible bloody radar with the transceiver in the radio room ?

Wasn't that an Oceanspan 6 on the Dartbank though ?


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## Ron Stringer

Arthur O'Malley said:


> I had already sailed on Shell tankers with the Commander and the Commandant, both of which had SSB at 2,000 and 1,500 watts, so I knew about long distance phone calls home to the UK. The Oceanspan only had IF RT.
> Arthur O'Malley.


Sorry Arthur but _Commander_ and its successor _Commandant_ were 400W pep transmitters on SSB. _Conqueror _was held down to 1500W pep by orders of the UK authorities but met all the extreme climatic and durability requirements at 1800W and was happy to run in excess of 2000W at normal temperatures. Trouble was, the rest of the ship's antenna system (suspension insulators etc.) often could not put up with the high voltages that resulted from such power being fed into to the short, mismatched and unsuitable antennas that had become the norm on most merchant ships by the time _Conqueror_ was available. 

So the authorities were probably doing the right thing, even if it was for the wrong reason (in a unilateral attempt to prevent high-powered ship transmitters from causing interference). In an approach typical of British civil servants, the UK tried to limit the power for their ships in line with international recommendations. Other countries just ignored those recommendations. Such so-called "Gold-Plating" of regulations by the British civil service is given as a reason why all sorts of activities are prohibited, or more closely monitored, here in the UK than elsewhere in the EU.


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## trotterdotpom

King Ratt said:


> The 7 had only IF R/T. Here being operated by my JRO in RFA Pearleaf/GGHA in 1967.


Can you remember the name of that Junior, KR?

John T


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## King Ratt

Yes, Trotterdotpom. He was David Smith aka Twiggy! He left to go on the radio ship Voice of Peace or something like that. Another pic.


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## King Ratt

Last post was of the chief engineer and RO D.Smith. Here is another of Dave on his own.


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## trotterdotpom

King Ratt said:


> Yes, Trotterdotpom. He was David Smith aka Twiggy! He left to go on the radio ship Voice of Peace or something like that. Another pic.


Thanks for that, not the name I was thinking of, in fact not even a lookalike in the 2nd photo.

John T


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## Troppo

R651400 said:


> Looking at the 777 thread I still cannot work out why today AM is still the preferred voice modulation mode on the commercial air-bands.


It is to do with doppler effect on supersonic flights, apparently.

Doppler is much less of a problem on AM.

Yes, yes, I know that the Concord is long gone...


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## King Ratt

I believe AM is used on VHF air band because of the "capture" effect of FM which might result in a weak transmission from an aircraft being over ridden by a stronger signal and not heard at all.


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## Moulder

Sailed with an Oceanspan VII on Benhope/GJZD in 1971 - capable of I/F R/T in 2MHz band but not H/F R/T.

(Thumb)


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## Ron Stringer

duncs said:


> Hi folks,
> I sailed with the span for long enough, but, can anyone tell me if the 7 had HF R/T. I have vague memories of link calls with Mombasa on either 4 or 8 megs. Is it my memory playing tricks on me? Maybe it was on IF.
> I sailed with a version called a 'Transarctic', and am sure that one was IF R/T only(plus 500).
> 
> Thanks,
> Duncs


The various versions of _Oceanspan _had MF 405-525 kHz W/T (MCW and CW) & HF 4-22MHz (CW only) W/T and some versions had what was referred to as IF (1.6-3.8 MHz) R/T - dsb only. I do not know of any that had radiotelephony on HF.

Cut-down versions for particular markets (e.g. deep-sea fishing) with no MF W/T or no HF were given names other than _Oceanspan _(eg _Seaspan _or _Transarctic_) although containing units of the _Oceanspan_.


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## duncs

Thanks all. My memory must be playing tricks on me, after all.

Duncs


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## trotterdotpom

Quote:
Originally Posted by King Ratt 
Yes, Trotterdotpom. He was David Smith aka Twiggy! He left to go on the radio ship Voice of Peace or something like that. Another pic.
Thanks for that, not the name I was thinking of, in fact not even a lookalike in the 2nd photo.

John T

On second thoughts, there was a Dave Smith at Grimsby Tech who also wore glasses and went to the RFA. I had contact with him a few years ago and he was living near Napier, NZ. Could that be him? The one I was thinking of was a lad called John O'Brien who I happen to know had the nickname of "Flash" in the RFA. He was a good friend who I shared digs with in Grimsby.

John T


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## holland25

I sailed with Flash on the either the olmeda or olna 69/70.


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## trotterdotpom

Thanks Holland. Last I heard he was living in Fareham. Probably retired now.

John T


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## King Ratt

For Trotterdotpom and Holland25. Twiggy (Dave Smith) is definitely in ZL land. He tracked me down via internet many years ago but I have lost contact with him. Flash left RFA also yonks ago.


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## GBXZ

The air band is crowded, you get more AM channels that FM channels.
GBXZ


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## Searcher2004

Does anyone know of a Oceanspan (any model) that might be restorable and for sale?

(K)


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## Searcher2004

R651400 said:


> Are you a member of the ROA?


Afraid not, as I was never at sea as an R/O.


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## Searcher2004

R651400 said:


> No worries.. Tony Selman SN member and ROA president has a list of redundant marine gear but not sure if an Oceanspan is part of the list.


Any idea how to get hold of a copy of the list? I have a couple of 'Span-sized TXs here but not a marine type and I'd like something that covers MF CW, as the powers now let us use a small portion for ham purposes, although it's mostly narrow-band data stuff I gather.


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## Searcher2004

R651400 said:


> I've found a copy of the list which is rather lengthy but there are one or two transmitter possibilities eg Salvor III emergency tx/rx.
> All the kit is from the HMS Collingwood museum now stored I believe somewhere in Kent and the person to contact before 1st September 2014 dumping is georgecliveevans(at)yahoo.co.uk.


Many thanks, will try and follow that up! 

73

Searcher2004


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## Paul Braxton

Hi Ron. Referring to your post #25, I seem to remember the Oceanspan 7 had HF R/T. I know I definitely sailed with one in 1970 that did. It also had a crystal fitted to a position on the front panel which one could use for a dedicated sort of 'add on' frequency'. Ours (on the "Port Lyttelton"/GLPJ) had one for calling and chatting with the agents in Callao, Peru. It was on the 8 MHz band. 

It was quite a useful tool, but variable results, unfortunately. Eventually the crystal itself went O/C - my first bit of fault finding on my first trip on my own! I still have the crystal, tucked away in my souvenirs of the sea box.

It was a long time ago, but I do seem to remember using the Oceanspan for the dreaded HF R/T a few times.

Paul


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## duncs

hi Paul, maybe my memory isn't quite so bad. As my earlier post, I was sure I worked Mombasa on HF RT on BI's Sirdhana with span 7 and Mercury/Elettra. But! I still don't know whether I'm right or wrong!
Re the extra Xtal slot on span, it was very handy. Mimco supplied extra xtals for Pacific working with GKA. Ex Bankliners will surely remember the Pacific xtals. I think GKA also participated, but my memory is fading.

regards,
Duncs


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## Moulder

Hi Duncs, I seem to remember that GKA did have skeds for ships in the Pacific area and used their GKG series transmitters for this.

(Thumb)


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## Chris Jenkins

Moulder said:


> Hi Duncs, I seem to remember that GKA did have skeds for ships in the Pacific area and used their GKG series transmitters for this.
> 
> (Thumb)


Yep, you are right....remember that too. Came in some time after the area scheme folded (circa 1971 ?) didn't it ?


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## Dave Woods

Chris Jenkins said:


> Yep, you are right....remember that too. Came in some time after the area scheme folded (circa 1971 ?) didn't it ?


Remember being sent down to GKA to see how it worked and that was in 1973.


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## Dave Woods

duncs said:


> hi Paul, maybe my memory isn't quite so bad. As my earlier post, I was sure I worked Mombasa on HF RT on BI's Sirdhana with span 7 and Mercury/Elettra. But! I still don't know whether I'm right or wrong!
> Re the extra Xtal slot on span, it was very handy. Mimco supplied extra xtals for Pacific working with GKA. Ex Bankliners will surely remember the Pacific xtals. I think GKA also participated, but my memory is fading.
> 
> regards,
> Duncs


In 1971 we sailed from NZ towards Panama and about a week after sailing I was asked by one of the engineers if he could talk to his girlfriend back in NZ. I had to set up a sked using a service msg, so I am sure at that distance I must have used HF. I did not see any TX other than a Span until 1973.


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## charles henry

*Curious*



Searcher2004 said:


> Does anyone know of a Oceanspan (any model) that might be restorable and for sale?
> 
> (K)


Am really curious.............WHY ????
Chas


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## PaulBarryG3RJS

Sailed with an O'Span VII in 1966 I think it was on MV Athelking a tanker. The O'Span VII I had on that ship had HF RT as well as 2Mhz RT. It worked well and I had two or three QSOs with Portishead from the Persian Gulf making phone calls back to the office. It was plain old fashioned AM of course not SSB.

Paul Barry (ex MIMCO and ex P&O) G3RJS


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## hawkey01

Paul,

on behalf of the Moderating team welcome to SN. You have found the right forum and glad to have your input.

Hawkey01


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## trotterdotpom

charles henry said:


> Am really curious.............WHY ????
> Chas


Probably for the same reason that you want a cap badge, Chas.

John T


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## King Ratt

If anyone is interested I have an instruction manual for the Nebula GP SSB receiver type EC 958/5.
Free to anyone who would like it. I will pay postage.

KR


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## duncs

PaulBarryG3RJS said:


> Sailed with an O'Span VII in 1966 I think it was on MV Athelking a tanker. The O'Span VII I had on that ship had HF RT as well as 2Mhz RT. It worked well and I had two or three QSOs with Portishead from the Persian Gulf making phone calls back to the office. It was plain old fashioned AM of course not SSB.
> 
> Paul Barry (ex MIMCO and ex P&O) G3RJS


Hi Paul, I think you've confirmed for me, that some versions of the span 7 had HF RT. Thanks,
Duncs


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## Ron Stringer

duncs said:


> Hi Paul, I think you've confirmed for me, that some versions of the span 7 had HF RT. Thanks,
> Duncs


Although it is over 50 years ago, I believe that (in spite of my earlier posting) you may be correct. Somewhere in the mouldy reaches of my memory I seem to remember aboard the _Golfito _making one or two passenger calls to the UK that were not via MF R/T. She only had an Oceanspan I.

Most (I had the feeling that it was all) of the UK HF link calls I made were on other ships fitted with _Globespan_ or later transmitters but something sticks in my mind about the difference in the receiving station. The calls had to be set up by a SVC message to Rugby sent via Portishead. But when you called in on your agreed sked, at one time you were answered by Baldock and at another time by Brent. Which of the two was the earlier I cannot remember at this distance but as there was an interval of some years between being on the _Golfito_ and any ships with _Globespan_, _Crusader_ etc., I suspect that I may have worked one of the two from the _Golfito_.
But I'm not sure.


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## duncs

Hi Ron, I was on the E.Africa/India run on the Sirdhana and remember making passenger link calls via Mombasaradio to Kenya. I was sure it was HF RT, with the span 7, but then I wondered if my memory was playing tricks on me. I just couldn't remember if the 7 had HF RT or not. BTW, I think the span 7 was retrofit, but the rx's (M&E), were original(I think), about 24 yrs old at the time.

Duncs


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## richardwakeley

Ron,
On my first trip as 2nd R/o, in 1970, we made a couple of R/T link calls with the Oceanspan, and I distinctly remember we had to send a svc message through Portishead one day in advance, addressed to Poradbaldock.
Richard


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## King Ratt

These messages to Baldock/Rugby were called Atels. It was a pain in the stern for setting up an R/T call. What a difference when GKA's R/T service came available.


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## charles henry

trotterdotpom said:


> Probably for the same reason that you want a cap badge, Chas.
> 
> John T


You left me speechless.........go to the head of the class,,,,,,

I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you

Chas (Pint)(Pint)


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## Ron Stringer

richardwakeley said:


> Ron,
> On my first trip as 2nd R/o, in 1970, we made a couple of R/T link calls with the Oceanspan, and I distinctly remember we had to send a svc message through Portishead one day in advance, addressed to Poradbaldock.
> Richard


The first opportunity, using the Oceanspan, would have been in 1960 and I know that, in 1966 whenI came ashore, things had changed. So that suggests in 1960 and the early 1960s, although we arranged the call with Rugby by means an ATEL sent via Highbridge, the actual call was connected via somebody at Brent. I believe that the Brent concerned was the place in North London and nothing to do with Brent Knoll, near Highbridge. Maybe Brent was not a receiving station but just a telephone exchange that was designated to connect the HF ship-shore R/T calls to the PSTN. Perhaps some older ex-GKA man could elaborate on this.

I have to agree that things got so much better when everything HF R/T moved to Highbridge/Somerton.


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## hawkey01

Ron,

when I first joined GKA - 1970 - we had as you say Atels. These were then sent to Porad Baldock. We had no intervention what so ever with the call only passing the info to and from Ship/Baldock. I believe that the people at Baldock were Engineers who dealt with it and linked into the phone net. I would even suggest that Baldock and the previous stations were point to point telex/phone stations. When we had two RT sections whilst the new station was built the out station at Somerton was a point to point station manned by engineers - not the maritime section of course . Its claim to fame was that it was there that the first message originated advising of the invasion of the Falklands. They had the point to point net from Stanley.

Hawkey01


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## Graham P Powell

Somerton was a huge station with 1500 acres of aerials compared to 34 acres at Highbridge. I was told once that it was also part of the "hot line" back up system between Moscow and Washington. Besides getting superb HF reception , the phone lines were "operator trunk lines" which meant that countrywide phone access was easier via a special code book and the transmission quality was very high. The worst part was the journey over with "Crazy Ron" in a Post Office van which always left me feeling ill so I swopped off it whenever possible. Some of the guys lived over there so good deals could be had and sometimes you could swop an all day for a short evening and they would work less than you. ( Don't ask!) Now the building is a pile of rubble and site has been cleared of aerials. Hawkeye may remember when he was trapped over there due to the snow with "Mad Dog " Linaker and Al Usmani. The good, the bad and the ugly comes to mind........
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Ron Stringer

hawkey01 said:


> Ron,
> 
> when I first joined GKA - 1970 - we had as you say Atels. These were then sent to Porad Baldock. We had no intervention what so ever with the call only passing the info to and from Ship/Baldock.


That suggests that in the early1960s the earlier Rugby HF calls were handled on the reception side by "Brent". You called on the frequency and at the requested time prearranged in the ATEL and were answered by a radio operator who established the radio circuit. Once all was clear and interference-free, he then passed you on to a telephonist who asked for the number you wished to call and then put the call through to the subscriber. I recall was that during the setting up and at the end of the call, the telephonist (always female) would come on the circuit and address you as "Tech". Presumably that was the normal way the international telephone landline operators addressed the radio operators at the point-to-point (fixed) service stations.



hawkey01 said:


> When we had two RT sections whilst the new station was built the out station at Somerton was a point to point station manned by engineers - not the maritime section of course . Its claim to fame was that it was there that the first message originated advising of the invasion of the Falklands. They had the point to point net from Stanley.Hawkey01


When I visited Somerton in the mid/late 1970s (early days of setting up the GKA radiotelex service), I was shown around the fixed-service receiving arrangements in another part of the site from the maritime radiotelephone service's receivers and operators. There were racks of fixed tune receivers and interface equipment each marked with the name of the radio link - Nairobi, St Helena etc. The ones that I remember were places in the former British Empire.


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## Graham P Powell

That's right Ron. Somerton I was the receiving station on the point to point network with places like the Falklands and St Helena.
I think the transmitters were at Dorchester. There used to a directional transmitting site in Bridgwater and there is a still a road called Beam Lane. 
Somerton had a charmed life as at one stage all of GKA was going to be moved there but the staff and Unions objected and it was dropped.
I think shortage of houses and schools was the main problem.
Some of the Somerton engineers were retrained as R/O's but only one
stayed as an R/O ( Geoff Phillipson) . 
The radio reception had to be heard to be believed it was truly fantastic and those high quality operator lines were a real boon. 
The wife of a friend of an acquaintance of mine got very nasty with me because there were supposed to be 1500 houses being built on the site but when I go by these days, all I see is rubble and waste ground.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Bob Murdoch

I did 3 months of my first six on the Golfito. But I honestly cannot remember R.T. on the Oceanspan. However, that was a few years ago and also before Ron's time. (Sams b###### chief though).
When I did my first solo after the Golfito, it was on Ellerman's Wilson line's Tasso. She had a monstrous pre-Oceanspan Marconi main transmitter, with R.T. 2 mHz only. I was only a couple of days into my first solo and had to make a link call for the Old Man to our Lisbon agents via Lisbonradio. Established with a svc msg and when in touch with Lisbon, the Portugese guy had as much trouble with my Scottish English as I had with his Portugese English, but we made it!
That was the only RT call I made until I went ashore as a Radio Inspector in NZ. Yes, there were the occasional accent hangups there too.
Cheers 
Bob


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## trotterdotpom

Maybe we should have used Q Codes on RT, Bob. There were some humourous happenings on radiotelephone.

John T


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## CrossedFlags

The VII had MF/HF CW, but only MF R/T from memory. A deck boy once wanted to place a QRJ from Mid-Pacific but I had to tell him to wait until off the coast. He was a bit upset about the delay, so had to explain there were no paired wires hanging off the stern connecting to the exchange.


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## sparks69

I'm sure the 'span 7 had HF & IF RT but was total crap. Sailed with one where the R/O had put the sticker "Pond Span" over the name plate. 

Good old Smiffy - Happy daze at GCFE (Great Canadian Freight Enterprise aka Grimsby College of Further Education)


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## PhilB99

Very late on this thread but with the exception of my first trip in 1964 all ships had Oceanspans my first trip solo had a 5 (I think) which didn’t have an interlock on CW/MCW switch so you could “accidentally” leave the changeover switch on MCW when on HF, no problems raising a coast station on that.

I remember using HF R/T whilst off the Brazilian coast to speak to my parents and that ship the Athellaird was so old it didn’t have VHF so I’m guessing it must have been a Span 6. Later, on the SS&A Britannic we were mid Pacific heading to NZ and had a medical emergency, we were in ballast and played 5 aside soccer in the hold and we had a suspected broken leg and we got medical advice from the medics on the Northern Star via HF R/T and that was with a 7. I was also on the Athelcrest and we were involved in a distress off the US coast in the Caribbean and we were working with Miami CoastGuard both on MF & HF R/T during the night, kept having to swap between the two (2 & 4Mhz IIRC), so I think it was an option on both (6?) & 7.


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## R651400

Interesting comment on the Oceanspan MkV re CW/MCW interlock which was exactly the same with the MkI I studied at Leith Nautical and circa '55 with new regs MCW was forbidden on HF though GKL continued to transmit MCW on HF (superb signal) for quite a while after.
LNC's 'span MKI was replaced by a table-top mains powered Oceanspan VI so never knew if Mk's II to V ever existed.


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## PhilB99

I say Mk V but tbh I’ve forgotten which model it was, I do remember getting a letter from WSL complaining about me using MCW on HF. MIMCo wrote a covering letter telling me to get my Tx checked as there may be a fault on it!


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## R651400

We'll have to wait for SN's resident Mimco rep to say where you went off the rails.
Memory tells me from LNC days that MCW db boosted a CW signal between hear/not hear and when free-lance with Liberty ship gear I never had any compunction HF/MCW when working SVA from deep south Brazil.


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