# Marion Island/ZSM



## odobber6 (Mar 1, 2011)

Does anyone remember if there was a coastal marine radio station on
Marion island/ZSM?
Possibly it might be listed in older copies of Admiralty List of Radio stations.
I cannot find any reference on internet. 
thanks
Denis Obrien n2jjf


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

My October 1963 List of Callsigns does not list ZSM

David

+


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## odobber6 (Mar 1, 2011)

david.hopcroft said:


> My October 1963 List of Callsigns does not list ZSM
> 
> David
> 
> +


Thanks for checking David.
Possibly in earlier list of callsigns


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## djringjr (Feb 11, 2008)

odobber6 said:


> Does anyone remember if there was a coastal marine radio station on
> Marion island/ZSM?


ZSM is mentioned in this story: Radio-Officers Google Group MessageJ See the attachment to that post in [email protected]

73
DR


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

A well written and interesting read. Thank you.


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## Jay Gates (Jun 6, 2021)

odobber6 said:


> Does anyone remember if there was a coastal marine radio station on
> Marion island/ZSM?
> Possibly it might be listed in older copies of Admiralty List of Radio stations.
> I cannot find any reference on internet.
> ...


Marion Island ZSM, is a Weather and Scientific Station, not a Coast Station. If you are lucky enough to sail close they will answer you on VHF Ch16, or arrange an HF RT sked via ZSC. I was lucky enough to visit the island in the 80s when RO on SA Agulhas ZRRT.


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## odobber6 (Mar 1, 2011)

Thanks for your response jay.
The reason I asked about Marion island/ZSM is that it is featured in attached sea rescue story . Not sure
when this happened. I did many trips around cape in 70’s and 80’s as an r/o but do not recall ZSM on 500


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## verneukpan (Feb 4, 2012)

odobber6 said:


> Does anyone remember if there was a coastal marine radio station on
> Marion island/ZSM?
> Possibly it might be listed in older copies of Admiralty List of Radio stations.
> I cannot find any reference on internet.
> ...


If you can email me off list I have a box of calling cards of my late mothers ZS1MU from South Africa and she was in contact with all the those guys.
Its probably quite valuable to someone and some great historic info.
cheers
Heather


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## odobber6 (Mar 1, 2011)

verneukpan said:


> If you can email me off list I have a box of calling cards of my late mothers ZS1MU from South Africa and she was in contact with all the those guys.
> Its probably quite valuable to someone and some great historic info.
> cheers
> Heather





verneukpan said:


> If you can email me off list I have a box of calling cards of my late mothers ZS1MU from South Africa and she was in contact with all the those guys.
> Its probably quite valuable to someone and some great historic info.
> cheers
> Heather


hi heather
Thanks for responding to my query about Marion island/ZSM.
Your mom was a ham radio operator according to her call sign. I am looking for info on Marion as it was a 
a ships coastal radio station which operated on different frequencies than ham operators and only exchanged info between ships and land. Hopefully someone reading this can help you with the qsl cards


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## djringjr (Feb 11, 2008)

odobber6 said:


> Does anyone remember if there was a coastal marine radio station on
> Marion island/ZSM?
> Denis Obrien n2jjf


Denis,

I just located my 4th Edition of "Fixed and Land Stations" by the Telegraph Union - (predecessor of the International Telecommunications Union) - that's the green book for 1932. I have it in a special place because the leaves of the book are starting to crumble.

There is no ZSM listed in this book, so ZSM must have been a station in the very early days of radio.

I did look up and see VAR in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada and while there noticed that during this period Canada had callsigns beginning with C, U and V. Soviet Union was using R for their calls at that time.

73
DR


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## Jay Gates (Jun 6, 2021)

djringjr said:


> Denis,
> 
> I just located my 4th Edition of "Fixed and Land Stations" by the Telegraph Union - (predecessor of the International Telecommunications Union) - that's the green book for 1932. I have it in a special place because the leaves of the book are starting to crumble.
> 
> ...


David, Marion Island was only annexed in 1948, and the first weather station was built at that time. It has never been a coast station, merely a weather station and sub-antarctic biological science base. There is only one R/O on the base, and he is not WT trained, and they do not keep maritime watches, and never have. The function of the R/O is to pass data back to South Africa for Met and Science requirements by HF tlx or arrange RT calls back home for base staff , and to maintain comms with field teams on the island. They have a marine VHF and an MF RT set for speaking to passing ships (if any are ever that far south - 46S 35E). They would never have been listed in any admiralty radio list ever, as they have never provided fixed, or even random, services for shipping. Cheers, JAY


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## odobber6 (Mar 1, 2011)

djringjr said:


> ZSM is mentioned in this story: Radio-Officers Google Group MessageJ See the attachment to that post in [email protected]
> 
> 73
> DR





djringjr said:


> Denis,
> 
> I just located my 4th Edition of "Fixed and Land Stations" by the Telegraph Union - (predecessor of the International Telecommunications Union) - that's the green book for 1932. I have it in a special place because the leaves of the book are starting to crumble.
> 
> ...


thanks david
I re read the story again and it looks like Hugh Clarke was in Labrador around mid fifties. The shore station in the story was VOH. I did find info on VOH which was located on Cape Harrison Labrador long since abandoned. Cannot find any info on ship Ariesquip/5lqq in the story. However not sure how to find info on ships now scrapped or lost.So I guess it was a great tale but at least it had a happy ending.
I did email Hugh and spud roscoe but got no reply. I also see that spud did not update the updated story You sent him years ago on his website.
Anyway thanks for your efforts.
73
Denis n2jjf


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## odobber6 (Mar 1, 2011)

Jay Gates said:


> David, Marion Island was only annexed in 1948, and the first weather station was built at that time. It has never been a coast station, merely a weather station and sub-antarctic biological science base. There is only one R/O on the base, and he is not WT trained, and they do not keep maritime watches, and never have. The function of the R/O is to pass data back to South Africa for Met and Science requirements by HF tlx or arrange RT calls back home for base staff , and to maintain comms with field teams on the island. They have a marine VHF and an MF RT set for speaking to passing ships (if any are ever that far south - 46S 35E). They would never have been listed in any admiralty radio list ever, as they have never provided fixed, or even random, services for shipping. Cheers, JAY


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## djringjr (Feb 11, 2008)

Jay Gates said:


> David, Marion Island was only annexed in 1948, and the first weather station was built at that time. It has never been a coast station, merely a weather station and sub-antarctic biological science base. There is only one R/O on the base, and he is not WT trained,***. Cheers, JAY


Interesting, here's what the article says:

First the SOS:

Liberian tanker AIRESQUIP/5LQQ position
Latitude 43.07 South Longitude 33.03 East. Struck by
giant wave. Sinking in 40 foot waves. Boilers out, no
power. 36 crew, require immediate aid.”

Location marked by white dot in this screen shot of Google Maps, Marion Island is the red dot.











> The frequency was completely quiet, but who would hear me if I did call? Was it just possible, I asked myself, that some coast station in the area of the ship might hear me? After all, the ship and I had exchanged communications. I called Belle Isle again with one hand while the other was searching through the International List of Coast Stations, which lists all the Marine coast stations in the world. Still no reply from VCM. No map and only a vague memory of some island or islands south and east of Cape of Good Hope.
> 
> Were they French or South African? My glance fell to an unfinished letter to a girlfriend of mine. A girl’s name, something clicked. Alice?, Bertha? Deborah? Freda? Helena? No St. Helena is in the mid-Atlantic!. Jeanne? Mary? No but that’s closer Marie? Maria? Miriam? No but maybe.......I flipped the pages of ILofCS under the Union of South Africa. There it was, Marion Island, call-sign ZSM! As poor as the chances were of my getting through to S&R, the chances of the crew of that ship if I didn’t, were much worse. The Southern Ocean with its Roaring Forties is unforgiving to anyone or anything that falls into its clutches. “ZSM de VOH” I sent slowly on the Morse key.
> 
> ...


I don't think Hugh would make all of that up - it's far too detailed - but he may be mistaken about the call sign. He thought it was at first VCM, but he says he worked the R/O on the ship later on the amateur bands.



> During the conversation I discovered that all but two of the 36 of the crew survived. Everyone had broken
> bones, bruises and many with serious cuts from broken glass when the 30 meter wave broke over them. One of the
> officers died of complications in a life boat and one of the crew was washed overboard when the wave struck. The
> crew was finally rescued by a cruise ship on its way to Antarctica. They spent a pleasant two weeks recuperating.
> ...


I've been interested in a special type of propagation that occurs near the Arctic / Antarctic regions - I spoke to Fr. Daniel Linehan, W1HWK (b. 1904 d. 1987), a world renowned geophysicist from Weston, MA - he had made low power (25 watts) CW contacts between him at the South Pole and someone else at the North Pole, which was very similar to the propagation that exists between Eastern Canada, North Eastern USA and the area south the longitude of Punta Arenas, Chile - about 55 degrees south - I was on a VLCC WILLIAMSBURGH/WGOA and BROOKLYN/KGDB which traveled between U.S.A off shore Texas (or Curacao) to Valdez, Alaska via Cape Horn and I noticed this propagation frequently while transiting the area on 40meter amateur band (7 MHz) during the morning. Fr. Linehan said it might be propagation via the Earth's magnetosphere - but of course, it's his educated guess to explain why a 25 watt signal in the equinox period (spring and fall) was propagated from North to South pole.

David


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## djringjr (Feb 11, 2008)

One of the contributors, *Gilbert R. Bossé,* of the [email protected] email list, posted this. He knew Hugh personally.



> Marion Islands has/had a ZS8 preface and the location Hugh reported as 43.07 South Longitude 33.03 East is pretty close to
> 46°54′45″S 37°44′37″E. The were many research/military/other service stations at that time that didn't seems to be
> published. However, Hugh was neighbor and friend for many years before he moved to VE3 land to teach at the Institute.
> It gives me the impression that the story was authentic as Hugh never told me fish stories. When I was anchored in Buenos
> Aires in 1968 or 69, I heard WCC tfc list call up on 500 with a 56 signal, so hearing a signal in Pacific is just as possible.


I know from first-hand experience that there were stations not listed in any book that had capabilities for 500 kHz which during an SOS or on orders from command came on their air. ABM in the Pacific was one in Kwajalein Atoll with an United States Army call sign (AAA-ALA prefix block.) The U.S. Navy had unreported 500 kHz (simplex - only receive and transmit on 500 kHz) capabilities in the Philippines which I communicated with (answered an DDD SOS DDD) and my ship MV ROVER/KBCH was the nearest ship. The SOS was transmitted on 14,313 kHz amateur radio frequency, and I brought KBCH up on that frequency and identified with the ship's name - as permitted in ITU regulations during an emergency with the authorization of the ship's master, David Bell who was sitting next to me in the radio room.

All radio officer members of this forum are welcome to join the above cited email list. [Click here]

73
DR


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