# Radio room



## TonyAllen (Aug 6, 2008)

This is to clear my mind not to insult any member of the radio room
I know what deckies did, and the engineers, officers on the bridge,
stewards cooks ect. but I never really understood the radio room and 
what they did while on watch, and if there was only one how did he cover his hours while he was asleep, if there were two was it 12 hour watches.

The reason I ask is becouse reading posts from the radio forum they talk about contacting places from all over the world sometimes a thousand miles away, where they able to listen in to other ships talking or was it all done in morse code, and in the event of satellite and mobil phones faxs ect, has it deminishedthe the responsabilty of a radio operator aboard ship.

I am Interested to hear the views from members Regards Tony


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

There is plenty of relevant information elsewhere on several threads in the Radio Room forum but for a start you could go to Post #1 on the following thread 

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=23880&highlight=Radio+watches&page=7


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## TonyAllen (Aug 6, 2008)

Ron Stringer said:


> There is plenty of relevant information elsewhere on several threads in the Radio Room forum but for a start you could go to Post #1 on the following thread
> 
> http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=23880&highlight=Radio+watches&page=7


Thanks Ron.Post no7 was quite informative but still left questions unanswered so I will read all over the next few days as time allows 
Regards Tony


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## charles henry (May 18, 2008)

Tony, a very good question and one that most of the ships crew also wondered.

We kept watch on 500khz which was the frequency that one used for calling other stations after which you moved to a different frequency to pass any traffic.

More importantly it was that frequency that a distress signal (SOS) was sent on it having
the largest potential audience .

When not on watch there was a device called the automatic alarm, when not on watch this was tuned to the distress frequency (500khz) and if it picked up the auto alarm signal (Which was a series of four second dashes) it would ring a bell in the radio officers cabin.

Difficult to explain but 500khz would often sound quiet but depending one the location it could be a noisy bedlam of signals. Quite often the R/O would have his feet up on the desk and be reading a book. Apparently not paying any attention, however although difficult to explain if his callsign or a distress call was included in the bedlam he would notice it immmediately.

No magic just training and practice which allowed you to "filter out" (Not notice or listen to) the bedlam but immediately hear what you were paid to listen for.

Hope that explains the age old mystery of why a Sparks never seemed to do any work...

regards Chas


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## RayL (Apr 16, 2008)

Don't forget that there was the small matter that the R/O on watch was required to insert a valid entry in the log every ten minutes (something heard on the airwaves) to prove that he was listening and alert.

I found that quite onerous; it's amazing how quickly ten minutes passes!

I loved Morse, and I always felt that the worst part of the job (if the ship's Radio Room was equipped with radio telephony apparatus) was the occasional requirement of arranging a call in advance via Portishead so that the captain could hold a secure (scrambled) conversation with Head Office. Say the ship was in the middle of the Indian Ocean - one needed to inform Portishead where it would be two or three hours hence so that Rugby could arrange its aerial array to produce the elongated beam necessary to serve that spot thousands of miles away. If the quoted position was more than three miles adrift then the call was missed, so it was a stressful business.

I was thrilled when I found that my next ship had no telephony!


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

RayL said:


> ...the worst part of the job (if the ship's Radio Room was equipped with radio telephony apparatus) was the occasional requirement of arranging a call in advance via Portishead so that the captain could hold a secure (scrambled) conversation with Head Office. Say the ship was in the middle of the Indian Ocean - one needed to inform Portishead where it would be two or three hours hence ....


[Adopts broad Yorkshire accent] 

Two or three hours in advance? That were nowt. Yer shud 'ave been at sea afore Portishead handled R/T calls.

Prior to that, HF R/T calls were routed via Rugby with the receiving taking place (depending on the era) either at Baldock or Brent. You had to send a (morse code) SVC message to Rugby *at least 24 hours in advance* of the call, giving the required time and the frequencies to be used plus details of the subscriber required. You then received a SVC message confirming the arrangements - the minumum booking was for a half-hour slot. If your call was short and sweet the channel then lay idle for the remainder of the slot.

Of course by the time your booking arrived, changing radio conditions might mean that your earlier guess, at what would be the most suitable frequencies, could be well out of line and you might not be able to establish contact. In that case you sent another morse code SVC message and waited a further 24 hours etc. to repeat the process.

When you did make contact with the radio operator at the receiving station and established as good a connection as possible, he passed you on to a GPO telephone operator, usually female, at the overseas telephone exchange in London. She contacted the subscriber and put the call through.

Of course she knew nothing about ships or radio, so if the channel started to fade, or if there was interference from another ship, she would interrupt with GPO telephone jargon words like, ''Sorry tech, there is a problem on the line, can you try another circuit?'' Confused the hell out of me at first. 

Meanwhile A.T.&T's Ocean Gate Radio/WOO had been accepting direct contact on the working channels for decades - no booking, just call in.


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## RayL (Apr 16, 2008)

Actually, I think the call was booked SIX hours in advance, so you see my point about accuracy of position. Still, that was the domain of the Master and I'm sure he made darned sure he was at that designated spot at the specified time.


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## RayL (Apr 16, 2008)

My apologies, Ron. My afterthought was posted without my having read your interesting reply.

I was describing the situation I experienced in 1966. Perhaps you were covering an earlier time.

Thanks and regards.


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

Some years ago, I had a radio that could pick up ship to shore transmissions locally, ie living in Wirral, I could listen in on Anglesey Radio talking to ships in the Irish Sea.
I was always amused by the way the operators addressed each other as 'Old Man'
was this a radio operating convention?


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## Treborvfr (Feb 22, 2010)

Pat Kennedy said:


> Some years ago, I had a radio that could pick up ship to shore transmissions locally, ie living in Wirral, I could listen in on Anglesey Radio talking to ships in the Irish Sea.
> I was always amused by the way the operators addressed each other as 'Old Man'
> was this a radio operating convention?


Yes, it was the norm to use 'Old Man' on R/T, for morse we used to abbreviate it to OM.


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

RayL said:


> I was describing the situation I experienced in 1966. Perhaps you were covering an earlier time.


Yes Ray, my comments refer to the early 1960s, when the marine HF R/T service was provided as part of the GPO's point-to-point (i.e. fixed, not mobile) service. There are a number of ex-GKA people on SN so one of them may be able to say when Portishead began handling the calls. 

I remember visiting Burnham and Somerton and seeing the R/T operating positions there, but think that was in the 1970s. By then they had Selcall (the multitone system, not DSC) to contact ships and for R/T call set-up there was also on-channel calling - just like the USA had many years before.

When working on ships in the '70s and '80s I was much appreciative of the improved ease of access for HF R/T via Portishead. Gone were the days of panic when carrying out a refit or major repair in a foreign port and the Old Man or the owners insisted on the HF R/T being proved by means of a call back direct to the UK. Since you had a 24 hour delay before you could get another call (and the ship was usually sailing within 24 hours) there was no way that you could afford to miss the pre-booked call that had usually been arranged before you even boarded your flight from the UK.

So if the radio station was not ready for the pre-arranged time, there could be big trouble. In the worst event you had to face sailing with the ship on the first leg of its next voyage to carry out proving calls and so obtain approval from the owners for the work done. If that happened, you had to ask your boss/bosses to arrange your repatriation from the first port of call and try to persuade them that you were not responsible for the cock-up. Worse still, you had to convince the missus that you were not just having a skive back at sea for a few weeks, leaving her at home with the kids. (Jester)

OK if the work went as planned, but not so good if your fine calculations were wrecked because the ship missed the tide, the Customs delayed releasing the equipment from the bonded store, there were no cranes/labour at the berth to get it aboard, or if during the installation the ship had a prolonged blackout or work was stopped for some hours while they shifted ship to another berth, or the carpenters/shipwrights/welders etc. decided that they had more urgent things to do than prepare the radio room changes....

Oh how I have sweated to get things working by the time booked for the call and oh how easy it became once the pre-booking system was abandoned!

Nostalgia!


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

RayL, Ron,

we took over the radio telephone at GKA in April 1970.

If you would like to read more about the history of GKA we have an excellent web site.

www.portisheadradio.co.uk

Hawkey01


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## RayL (Apr 16, 2008)

Thanks Ron - your description backs up my remarks about not liking that side of the job. Worra palava, as Cilla would put it.

Hawkey01 - thanks for the link. Will take a look with great interest.

Regards to you both.


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

When the time came for a call I made from the Indian Ocean through Rugby, conditions were fine.......except the overheat cutout went on the transmitter because it didn't like being on duplex for more than 5 minutes !!

David
+


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## TonyAllen (Aug 6, 2008)

Now listen guys all this is going over my head so if you don't mind try to put it in a layman terms
Traffic ;is it the same meaning as road traffic or do you mean ships passing 
booking ; did this apply to to all messagers 
When ships passed; did you identity nationality 
can you explain please;all initial letters 
did Portishead handle all radio messegers for any nationality 
I think that will do for starters to keep me going between reading posts 

Regards Tony


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## TonyAllen (Aug 6, 2008)

Thank you yes it is becoming clearer, so keep dropping little nuggets becouse it is very interesting,Its helping to put the radio room in to perspective.the reason I wanted to know is becouse when I was on the Elpenor in 1955 I bought an amplifier for my guitar but it was 110 not 220 found out on the return trip but the sparks fitted and this my sound bizarre a bayonet fitting on the back and fitted a 150 watt bulb so I was able to use it I was one of the first in Liverpool to have one. so it was his expertise that let me play it ashore,so he was more than just a radio operator , trouble is I have forgoton his name but never forgot what he did for me Regards Tony


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## RayL (Apr 16, 2008)

Hi Tony,

It is really good having someone like you asking the questions you are interested to have answered because it helps draw out memories from we former R/Os that might otherwise have lain dormant. Thanks for your interest.

My reading of the 150-watt bulb incident is that your Sparks calculated that it would provide just the right degree of voltage drop to allow your amp to work on 220 volts a.c., but others might have a better explanation.

The work period for an R/O was eight hours per day, split into four 'watches' of 2 hours each, with 2 hours rest in between each watch, so his working day including breaks lasted for 14 hours. If there were two R/Os on board, they would probably interleave so that solid coverage of a 16-hour period was achieved.

Probably the most important part of an R/O's job was listening intently on the Distress frequency 500 kHz during two 3-minute periods twice each hour. Those brief periods were known as "silent periods" when all other traffic ceased. The purpose was to allow very faint signals (say those put out by a lifeboat transmitter) to be heard.

As soon as the silent period had ended, the clamour of traffic started up once more - arrangements being made on the Distress frequency for the two people involved, be it ship or coast station, to shift to some other frequency where a 'chat' could take place.

An occasional requirement was making direction-finding readings for the Captain and the navigational officers when radio beacons were in the vicinity. The aerial for the direction-fnding equipment was usually located above the bridge - two loops (Bellini-Tosi loops) set at 90 degrees to one another. You would take a bearing on two or more beacons and pass the information on so that a fix on the ships position could be made.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

The starting times of the two on/two off watches altered as the ship moved east or west. Starting and finishing times could be as diverse as 0600 and 0100 ship's time. To compensate for this, the world was divided into zones and on crossing the boundary of a zone the watchkeeping times reverted to a more normal ship's time routine. Only to get out of kilter once again as ship's time changed.

In the mid-70s ( I think), the two on/two off routine was replaced by 0800-1200 ship's time, any two continuous hours betwen 1800 and 2200 and two other hours at any time but consisting of minimum 30 minute sections. This gave a greater degree of flexibility for communications, maintenance and bar time. Continental ships had been using similar hours for years.

John T.


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## Vital Sparks (Sep 19, 2007)

During my time at sea, Portishead was running a multiple operator system on their morse service. Every even hour their GKA transmitter would send a list consisting of the call signs of all British ships for which they were holding traffic (telegram, telex or phone call). (The foreign list was transmitted every odd hour). Failing to copy the traffic list was a major faux pas. 

At first, picking out your callsign from the among the hundreds of others as the signal faded in and out was quite a challenge. The list was transmitted in alphabetical order of callsign so "lucky" vessels such as the QE2 (GBBT) didn't have long to wait but GYYB could have a 50 minute wait on their hands to see if they were on the list.

Ok, we're on the list but we don't call GKA, instead we re-tune our receiver and we listen to another channel called GKB. This guy is the gatekeeper, we don't get our message from him either, we call him up in morse and tell him which frequency we will use later on and in reply gives us a "turn" on yet another channel (usually GKC or GKD). Lets assume he hears us and replies GKC turn 70. Of course if he doesn't hear us we're stuffed.

Now we retune our receiver to GKC and we listen and wait. At first, what we hear is a bit mind blowing, and was something our training hadn't really prepared us for. At Portishead there are several operators all sharing the GKC transmitter and all talking in rapid succession. The ships they are talking to are all transmitting on different frequencies so we cant hear them, but what we can hear we are all of the replies to all of them, all happening at once.

Sometimes an operator will be telling a ship to stop sending and repeat the most recent word. Sometime they will be asking a ship to go to another frequency to receive a message, but sometimes an operator will say goodbye to a ship and then it's time to listen hard, who will they call next. When they call a new ship they will only send the callsign twice, miss it and you're dropped from the list. You may have been waiting for an hour and a half but that doesn't matter. 

At first picking out your callsign from the audio chaos takes complete exhausting concentration, eventually you can do it with your feet up on the desk while reading a book and holding a conversation with someone in the shack but when those call letters appear it's like you were smacked across the face. 

Sometimes you have to wait so long for your turn that the atmospheric conditions start to change, the frequency starts to fade out and when your turn comes they can't hear you or you can't hear them. Bad luck, start again and make a better frequency choice next time.

Now we start to send and GKC says something but was the reply for us or one of the other ships. At first it's hard to tell but eventually you learn to figure it out.

Lets assume they have a message for us. GKC will tell us to listen to yet another frequency (GKE, GKF GKG GKH etc). We quickly re-tune the receiver but when we get there he will allready be calling us, answer quickly or lose your turn. We reply and finally get to receive our message. Oh great "Maritius discharge cancelled, proceed Lands End for orders", looks like I'll have to go into hiding, again.

All of this time we have also been keeping an ear open for any activity on the distress frequency but when the even hour comes around, it's time to do it all again.


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## Klaatu83 (Jan 22, 2009)

After the Titanic went down a law was passed requiring all ocean-going ships to maintain a 24-hour watch in case of reception of a distress signals. Since most ships only carried a single Radio Officer, who couldn't possibly be expected to stand a 24-hour watch, ships' radios were fitted with an "Auto-Alarm". The Auto-Alarm bell was set to go off automatically in the radio room or the Radio Officer's stateroom if a certain particular CW code group was received on the 500 Kilohertz frequency. I no longer recall what that code group was because, as a deck officer, it was not something I ever had anything to do with; but I do recall that it was not triggered by the familiar "...---..." well known to laymen.

The auto alarms, and for that matter the Radio Officers as well, were done away with in February 1999 when the new GMDSS (Global Marine Distress Signaling System) came into effect.

Apart from distress messages, Radio Officers were usually kept busy sending and receiving normal message traffic involving ship's business, and with sending and receiving weather reports and weather maps. In addition, Radio Officers were required to observe designated 3-minute "silent periods", every quarter of an hour on the quarter hour, when only emergency messages were allowed to be sent. 

Apart from sending and receiving messages, Radio Officers were also in charge of maintaining the ship's electronic equipment, such as radar. Due to the proliferation of electronic equipment during the past four decades, that aspect of the job became more and more important, and even extended to the field of computers. I was actually on one ship where the ship's computer network acquired a virus, and the only person who possessed the time and expertise to deal with the problem was the Radio Officer. 

I think it was generally agreed that Radio Officers had the best job on the ship. They worked alone and unsupervised and, so long as they did their job efficiently, nobody bothered them. They were also the only member of the crew who had no duties in port. Not only was the radio not used in port, but some foreign ports actually required the door of the radio room to be sealed. Consequently, the Radio Officer was the only member of the crew who had no watch to stand or duty to do in port, and was free to do as he liked from the time the gangway went down till the ship was ready to sail!

One interesting aspect that I've noticed involves the use of the terms "Radio Operator" and "Radio Officer". On U.S. ships they were never referred to as "Radio Operators". Their official title was "Radio Officer", though they were invariably addressed as "Sparks". Radio Officers always lived with, ate with, dressed as, and were respected as, licensed officers. In the U.S. those licenses were issued by the Federal Communications Commission. As electronics became more important, many Radio Officers acquired additional endorsements on their licenses, to wit, the basic "RO" (Radio Officer), the more advanced "REO" (Radio Electronics Officer), and the highest rating, "MREO" (Master Radio Electronics Officer).


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## TonyAllen (Aug 6, 2008)

Thank you very much for all your posts. slowly slowly I am getting my head around the lingo,and I will say it now I never ever relised how much of a time consuming job it was to keep your ears tuned.I understand how you can read a book and still hear your call,I was always able to work and listen to a radio in the background and if Hank Williams drifting cowboys came on my ears would tune in and I was always able to hear a song once and be able to sing it verbaitim.slowly losing my touch now ,anyway to get back I 
hope you keep jogging your memories.so let me get this strait you could listen to portishead talking to a ship but you can't hear their reply, Yes??? if you were talking to portishead did they call on one freqency and did you answer on another or am I missing something to obvious,also I now know why the sparks went missing in port .
Re the amp it was something along those lines and I guess I was the only singer guitarist that had my own backlight and believe me it was some light.
anyway chaps its very interesting to talk to you Regards Tony


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Klaatu83 said:


> After the Titanic went down a law was passed requiring all ocean-going ships to maintain a 24-hour watch in case of reception of a distress signals. Since most ships only carried a single Radio Officer, who couldn't possibly be expected to stand a 24-hour watch, ships' radios were fitted with an "Auto-Alarm". The Auto-Alarm bell was set to go off automatically in the radio room or the Radio Officer's stateroom if a certain particular CW code group was received on the 500 Kilohertz frequency. I no longer recall what that code group was because, as a deck officer, it was not something I ever had anything to do with; but I do recall that it was not triggered by the familiar "...---..." well known to laymen.


The Alarm Signal consisted of a sequence of 12 dashes, each 4 seconds long, separated from each other by a 1-second space. If an Auto Alarm receiver detected a sequence of 3 or 4 of those dashes, an alarm was registered and bells were activated in the radio room, on the navigating bridge and in the Radio Officer's sleeping quarters.



Klaatu83 said:


> The auto alarms, and for that matter the Radio Officers as well, were done away with in February 1999 when the new GMDSS (Global Marine Distress Signaling System) came into effect.


GMDSS = Global *Maritime* Distress & *Safety* System 



Klaatu83 said:


> In addition, Radio Officers were required to observe designated 3-minute "silent periods", every quarter of an hour on the quarter hour, when only emergency messages were allowed to be sent.


No, the *silence* periods for the 500 kHz radiotelegraphy distress and safety calling frequency were observed for 3 minutes every *30* minutes, at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour GMT (- or UTC as it was referred to latterly). 

For those ships that were not mandatorily fitted with radiotelegraphy (Morse) but instead used radiotelephony, silence periods were at the hour and 30 minutes past the hour, and the watch was on 2182 kHz, not 500 kHz. Those ships did not normally carry radio officers, radio communications were carried out by the deck officers on the bridge.

Apart from those minor points, Klaatu is spot on with what happened.


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## Billieboy (May 18, 2009)

Ron Stringer said:


> The Alarm Signal consisted of a sequence of 12 dashes, each 4 seconds long, separated from each other by a 1-second space. If an Auto Alarm receiver detected a sequence of 3 or 4 of those dashes, an alarm was registered and bells were activated in the radio room, on the navigating bridge and in the Radio Officer's sleeping quarters.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


On, "Silent Periods", I have always understood the need for these, but those vessels in distress don't have too much time to wait. So my query is, when in distress and the auto alarm is activated on 500kcs followed by the sparks on the key, what happens on the vessel(s) receiving? I ask this because I myself have had to call PCH, for a doctor and ambulance, after a deckie fell down a hold on an empty bulker in port. I used VHF ch16 and traffic ended instantly!


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## docgk (May 29, 2006)

I think a bit more explanation is needed. A W/T ship, like any other would send Distress messages as soon as they needed to. There was no waiting around for the next silence period. The purpose of silence periods on 500kHz and 2182kHz was to listen for weak signals. W/T ships might have been hundreds/thousands of miles from nearest help and 500kHz might typically have a range of 500 miles in daytime and much more (1500 miles+) at night. At near max range signals might be relatively weak and not heard under normal calling activities. 500kHz was the calling frequency used for establishing communications before shifting to another ( working) frequency to send traffic. It could still be quite busy in certain parts of the world though. The R/O was on watch on a typical freighter in a pattern of 2 on, 2 off with one period of 8 off. The auto alarm would be on to cover the off watch periods. If a distress was detected the auto alarm would ring a bell or other alarm in the R/O's cabin ( and on the bridge). The R/O would high tail it to the radio room ready to hear the manually sent distress message which should follow. So, it was a 'system'. Distress messages at any any time - silence periods to ensure weak signals would at least be heard during the next period and the autokey/autoalarm to maintain a watch when an R/O was off duty. The silence periods were at 15 and 45 mins past the hour for 3 minutes. It all worked rather well actually - apart from the auto alarm triggering falsely on static in the tropics!


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## Treborvfr (Feb 22, 2010)

Also, the Auto Alarm was meant to run continuously should you have to abandon ship, it would keep going until power failed or the batteries ran out, or the ship sank, whichever came first. At the end of the 4 second dash sequence, and the ships call sign, there were two longer dashes of 10, or was it 14, seconds each so other ships direction finders could try and triangulate on the positon.

Bob


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## RayL (Apr 16, 2008)

Tony, you are bound to be interested to hear about a shorthand way we used to communicate with that did away with lengthy prose and the problem of encountering someone who did not know your language. This was the "Q-code" system and a few examples follow:

QRA? (What is the name of your station?)

QRA Queen Mary (The name of my station is Queen Mary)

QRZ? (Who is calling me?)

QRZ Queen Mary (You are being called by the Queen Mary)

QSQ? (Have you a doctor on board?)

etc. - there were a great number of them, many of which you didn't attempt to memorise but you could readily look up in your copy of the handbook.

My favourite one to laugh at was QUQ? which meant "Shall I train my searchlight on a cloud, occulting if possible and, if your aircraft is seen, deflect the beam up wind and on the water (or land) to facilitate your landing?" Although on reflection all these years later I can see its appropriateness in a crisis. You can appreciate how useful Q-codes are when you consider that foreigners could readily understand what was afoot.

If you want to tell someone to shut up, just say "QRT" to them (it means "Stop sending", and it frequently had to be put to use when some R/O or other had accidentally invaded the silent period).


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## mikeg (Aug 24, 2006)

RayL said:


> If you want to tell someone to shut up, just say "QRT" to them (it means "Stop sending", and it frequently had to be put to use when some R/O or other had accidentally invaded the silent period).


Trouble was the many QRT's being sent caused more interference, defeating the object. This was particularly irritating during distress traffic - often a coast or other station had demonstrate firm control to prevent the distress traffic being interferred with (QRM)


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## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

Treborvfr said:


> Also, the Auto Alarm was meant to run continuously should you have to abandon ship...


Think that should be Auto Key...


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

QTH?	- What is your position - is still in common use today with the Chilean Armada coast stations ( Alcamars) on RT and VHF...


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## Vital Sparks (Sep 19, 2007)

TonyAllen said:


> so let me get this strait you could listen to portishead talking to a ship but you can't hear their reply, Yes??? if you were talking to portishead did they call on one freqency and did you answer on another or am I missing something to obvious,also I now know why the sparks went missing in port .


Portishead would transmit on one frequency and listen on another. The pairing to use was published in a set of reference books kept in the radio room. 

I'm curious to know how the Portishead operators controlled the sharing of their transmitter.


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## BOB GARROCH (Oct 10, 2008)

Vital Sparks said:


> During my time at sea, Portishead was running a multiple operator system on their morse service. Every even hour their GKA transmitter would send a list consisting of the call signs of all British ships for which they were holding traffic (telegram, telex or phone call). (The foreign list was transmitted every odd hour). Failing to copy the traffic list was a major faux pas.
> 
> At first, picking out your callsign from the among the hundreds of others as the signal faded in and out was quite a challenge. The list was transmitted in alphabetical order of callsign so "lucky" vessels such as the QE2 (GBBT) didn't have long to wait but GYYB could have a 50 minute wait on their hands to see if they were on the list.
> 
> ...


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Treborvfr said:


> Also, the Auto Alarm was meant to run continuously should you have to abandon ship, it would keep going until power failed or the batteries ran out, or the ship sank, whichever came first. At the end of the 4 second dash sequence, and the ships call sign, there were two longer dashes of 10, or was it 14, seconds each so other ships direction finders could try and triangulate on the positon.
> 
> Bob


After abandonment, the autokey would operate the emergency transmitter, which worked on 24v battery power. The auto alarm signal (12X4 second dashes) was followed by SOS SOS SOS DE XXXX (ship's callsign) then two ten second dashes for DF purposes. If there was not a loud Hisssssss as the ship sank, this would be repeated every 12 minutes until the battery ran out of puff.

There were numbered instructions on the radio room bulkhead with corresponding numbers on the emergency equipment so that it could be operated by an unskilled person in the event that the RO was incapacitated in some way. I never heard of a Mate who was interested enough to ever read it, but I may be wrong. Mind you, I myself found it hard to summon any interest in sextants and boiler feed pumps.

John T.


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## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

trotterdotpom said:


> There were numbered instructions on the radio room bulkhead with corresponding numbers on the emergency equipment so that it could be operated by an unskilled person in the event that the RO was incapacitated in some way. I never heard of a Mate who was interested enough to ever read it, but I may be wrong. Mind you, I myself found it hard to summon any interest in sextants and boiler feed pumps.
> 
> John T.


I used to invite each mate to run through the numbered instructions and operate the autokey at least once per trip and then logged the test. Had 100% take up.

(Thumb)


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

R651400 said:


> As an aside your Area System seems a lot changed from what I remember.
> Traffic lists for area 1A were transmitted by GKA, 1B GKB and 1C GKC.
> After the traffic lists the same transmitter sent the traffic blind to ships in call sign alphabetical order and once the telegram had been received the ship sent a QSL service message to GKA.


That is how I remember it too. And if you missed the blind transmission of your messages for any reason, you called in to one of the answering points (not GKA but GKM, GKV, GKL, GKG, etc.,) and asked them for your traffic. They moved you over to another Portishead transmitting frequency (in the same band) so that the messages could be sent to you without delaying their answering of calling ships.

At the time it all seemed so simple and was done almost subconsciously, without me having to give it any thought. After 50-odd years it now seems more complicated!

With a modern digital receiver, shifting rapidly to another frequency on demand is a doddle. Not so with a CR100 or CR300 receiver where the drift due to temperature change could move a station many millmetres across the tuning scale to the left or right of where the station had last been noted. By the time you had found the signal you were looking for, in busy periods the coast station operator would sometimes abandon you and move on to the next in the queue. Very frustrating.

Portishead shared its 8 MHz-band answering frequency (GKL) with the Polish station SPE. For reasons best known to the Lord of Propagation, often in the West Indies SPE came in loud and clear but GKL would be faint and almost unreadable. So contacting GKL could be a very trying experience, with GKG (12 MHz) and GKM (4 MHz) being too weak to be readable and GKV (6MHz) only operating at certain hours. Persistence always paid off in the end but it wasn't just the lack of air-con in the radio room that generated the sweat at times.


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## mikeg (Aug 24, 2006)

How right you are! Persistence always paid off in the end, I remember clearing traffic in the early hours well out of watchkeeping hours only to find more tfc coming in. No point going back to the bunk an hour before early breakfast sitting. Joy, O happy days ;0

Mike


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## Vital Sparks (Sep 19, 2007)

The system I described was in use in the mid/late 70s, by then the area scheme was no more. I seem to remember GKB on each band listening on a series of frequencies and indicating which one by adding a numeric suffix to the call sign but I could be wrong, it all seems so long ago now.


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

After the closure of the Area scheme we had various changes to calling and answering freqs. We had many tx's and there were more letters than I can remember and it was the case that we could move ships to various txs for clearing tfc. In the later stages we were then into GKA being the transmitting freqs for traffic lists, weather, nav wngs etc etc. The GKB series were the calling and answering freqs. Some of you will remember that there was a change when all ships were designated specific calling freq bands. and our calling band would indicate which one we were listening to at that moment. GKB/2/3/4/5/6. Ships would then call in the band they were allocated - I honestly cannot remember if these were set or just something to do with the licence. Of course with a synth tx you just moved up and down accordingly. Received traffic would be on GKB and unless we had traffic for the ship he would not have to move. If traffic from us then we would move the ship to one of our working tx's. These were selected by a switch on the console. There are many different photos available to be viewed on the Portisheadradio web site which will show the changes in equipment from the early photo shown above up till the final era when we used computer terminals for traffic handling.

Hawkey01


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## TonyAllen (Aug 6, 2008)

It seems that I have awakend lots of facts from you guys out there, so I will have to take time reading the posts to make any sense of them ,by the way driving past rugby in the past exactly what was the function of the transmitters there. 
BOB I will have to digest your posts some of it has clicked but some leave me baffled 
Tell you what guys it has open my eyes to what went on in the radio room wish I had spent some time up there but being in the galley I dont think the old man would have approved.Anyway its filling the space between my ears with enlightenment which at my age is a good thing Regards Tony


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Tony,

The Rugby transmitters were used by Portisheadradio and also the Navy. Also the time signal was transmitted from there for use by shipping and who ever needed it for correction of shipboard chronometers. 

Hawkey01


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## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

hawkey01 said:


> .......... Received traffic would be on GKB and unless we had traffic for the ship he would not have to move. If traffic from us then we would move the ship to one of our working tx's.............
> 
> Hawkey01


I recall that GKB was used to gather in ships from the call band only and vessels were then sent up to GKC to wait their turn and work traffic. A further move was required if traffic was from Portishead. 

(Thumb)


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## NoMoss (Mar 14, 2007)

R651400 said:


> Almost as I remember GKL.
> Receiver CR100, Imperial telex keyboard style typewriter, switchboard for transmitter control and internal voice communications, microphone visible on the empty bay in front.
> Between the two banks of bays was a conveyor belt carrying received telegrams to a messenger at the end of the building.
> The only changes I can remember are more up-to-date headphones and a variable antenna control giving better directional reception.


That bloke is a lot smarter dressed than I remember being - the job was described as one where you could wear your old clothes especially at smaller coast stations!
When I was at sea I sailed on the SS Alpera which had the call sign GBBB so if I missed the beginning of the traffic list I could wait till the beginning of the traffic transmission and see if there was anything there.


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## Treborvfr (Feb 22, 2010)

G4UMW said:


> Think that should be Auto Key...


Doh! yes, I did mean to talk about the autokey that generated the Auto Alarm signal, my only defense is I was trying to make a contribution to the discussion and typed it out in a hurry whilst waiting for my chopper home, must engage brain in future.


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

When I joined GKA in 1980 the process was that GKB was used to reply to ships calling to give their QRY, take their working frequency and to advise to listen to either GKC or GKD (given out alternately). We would also note the bearing which gave the best signal (we had directional rhombic aerials spaced every 15 degrees).

GKD was dropped in the late 1980s so all vessels were advised to "lsn GKC". If we had traffic then we would send it on one of our working frequencies (GKG/GKH/GKI/GKJ/GKM)
but if we were QRU we would receive the ship's traffic on GKC.

During the night shift things were slightly different - but that's another story!

Larry +


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## Chas York (Jan 6, 2008)

Treborvfr said:


> Yes, it was the norm to use 'Old Man' on R/T, for morse we used to abbreviate it to OM.



and if working (communicating with) a female operator she would be YL (Young Lady) or, of married XYL (ex Young Lady). Where most European and North American morse people used these, the French and Greeks had their own variations, and if I recall right, the Germans had one or 2 abbreviations of their own. With the inundation of Filippino R/Os 500kHz became a playground of unidentified intership calling (Pare Pare) pronounced Pareh Pareh which apparently means 'handsome' in Tagalog - with total disregard for silence periods in many cases. In 1967/68 the wost abuse of 500kHz was from Mainland Chinese Coast Radio Stations, who preceeded every broadcast announcement with a quotation from Chairman Mao's little red book - this also occasionally spilled over into silence periods. And yes, we culd read a book, do the radio accounts and still listen alertly on 500kHz - in my case I often also listened on 2182kHz during telephony silence periods when not occupied dealing with MF/HF telegraphy traffic. With the advent of Satcoms, I kept watch on 500/2182 throughout the duration of my watchkeeping hours unless copying Navarea/weather etc on HFWT which took the 2182 out of the equation unless I had 3 receivers!


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## Bob Murdoch (Dec 11, 2004)

We always used YL for the girl friend and XYL as the wife. How did you know if the other end of the key was a female, married or unmarried?
Bob


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## Chas York (Jan 6, 2008)

Bob Murdoch said:


> We always used YL for the girl friend and XYL as the wife. How did you know if the other end of the key was a female, married or unmarried?
> Bob


usually asked if YL or XYL! Used to have regular chats with YLs on a Norwegian and a Danish ship, also a Danish girl in the Greenland Coast Station.


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## Bob Murdoch (Dec 11, 2004)

Right, in my day, 58-62 at sea, no female ops except a few, I believe on Norwegian. Never met any, though.
My use of yl and xyl was in the ham arena.
Cheers Bob


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## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

During my QSOs with female ROs - and if I'd confirmed their gender - I would use the abbreviation *OG* instead of *OM.*

(Thumb)


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

The R/T operators at PCH and HEB were usually women and invariably very very helpful. PCH used to run transmitters simultaneously on two bands so one could work cross-band and thus get a nice clear call without local break-through. HEB would offer to transmit LSB if it helped avoid QRM; not being a busy station the girls were happy to chat after the commercial business had been dealt with.


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## harry pennington (Aug 10, 2010)

As R/O on Brasil Star 1959-60. We had some 70 passengers and i was required to give them on their breakfast table an A4 sheet of the latest world news, and the stocks and shares. [ what a bind ]. This was transmitted from Portishead after your last 2 hour watch period UK time ie 10 pm. Sometimes going on 25-40 minutes. I tried to type this directly onto the coping sheet, but now and again Portishead would make a mistake. This would cause problems with the wax coating making the copies almost unreadable. The writer had to run copies on the duplicating machine first thing in the morning to put on the dining tables. So i took to taking the newscast long hand then typing after. On the odd time there was no transmission, i then had to listen to BBC overseas or others to get something to fill up their newspaper. I would not say that all the news was quite true as i had to fill it out a bit. Still got complaints from the odd passenger when the stocks and shares did not show. I am loosing money was their cry. 

Regards to all. Harry


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

_posted by Harry Pennington_


> i then had to listen to BBC overseas or others to get something to fill up their newspaper. I would not say that all the news was quite true as i had to fill it out a bit.


Just as if it had been printed in Fleet Street(Jester)


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## harry pennington (Aug 10, 2010)

I am no hack, but they seemed okay to me. Fleet Street on the other hand seem to pluck stories out of the blue and when found to be wrong, dont admit to it.


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