# Cq Cq De Vllb Qru? K



## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Hello all,

I am reading a interesting book at the moment, detailing the sea service of an Irish R/O in the early 50's.

One thing that struck me was the practice he described of ships sending a CQ QRU? message on 500.

I never heard this during my time at sea (in the 80's). 

We were always taught that shore-ship traffic came via traffic lists.

Of course you would call the local MF station with a TR when QTO and he would clear any QTCs he had on hand, but I never just called up with QRU?

Were CQ QRU messages popular on 500 in the 60's and 70's?


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## richardwakeley (Jan 4, 2010)

G'day Troppo.

Not in the 70s.

What's the book?

Brgds
Richard


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

richardwakeley said:


> G'day Troppo.
> 
> Not in the 70s.
> 
> ...



Hello Richard

The book is " Beyond the Sea".

It was written by Jack Lynch about growing up in Ireland during 
thirties and forties and life as an r/o.

I got mine from Amazon for my Kindle.

Although it could do with some sub-editing, it is not a bad read.

Rgds


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

R651400 said:


> CQ de .... QRU? was common foc on 500 kcs in the 50's and think it was mainly to attract attention for chat.
> Built up a nice address book from such calls for future info.
> The Pacific in the early 60's was full of Greek-owned clunkers carrying scrap from the US to Japan and it was more common then!


Ahhh, thanks.

I remember the op at C2N (Nauru Radio) would not shut up...he wanted to chat...mind you, he was probably around the twist...


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

It was fairly common practice in the 60´s. Especially with foreign flag vessels with UK RO´s wanting a chat. I spent sometime most days on a trip to the Gulf when I was on a Liberian tanker talking to my counter part on another similar vessel. Coincidentally the callsigns were very similar my ship was 6ZDC/ARGOLIS and the other
6ZDO/ALMIZAR. My ship was a Greek owned by NJ Goulandris and the other was owned by Sitmar or Vships as they were also known. I gained a lot of info this way and for possible future employers. Also on the rare occasion on British flag ships in a moment of boredom would have a quick CQ - met up with some old Radio School buddies that way.

Hawkey01


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Ha ha ha!

OoooooH....


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## expats (Mar 9, 2013)

In the 1960s ships on the 'iron-ore runs' used CQ QRU? as the prelude to intership chats...I was trainee RO on the 'Ripon' and used to play regular radio chess games with other ROs as there were often 5 or 10 ships heading for the same destination...


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## EimbTrader (Aug 25, 2007)

Sometimes heard it in the 80s during nigh****ch on 500 by DAN. RO's were to lazy to listen to traffic lists maybe...


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## ex ro (Oct 30, 2005)

CQ de Callsign QRU? k was common on 500 in the early 70s when someone replied you would usually QSY to 512 for a chat . Filipino R/Os would send a code word on 500 which i cannot remember to attract any other Filipino R/Os for a QSO. Greek owned ships could often be heard asking on 500 for Proppo? which was a request for the Greek football results from SVA. Also it was common for a ship with TX problems to ask for a QSP from/to a coast station. Then there was the CQ de G--- OBS qsw 512 from the R/O who wasnt fussed about getting an atlas fom the met office. Oh happy days !!!!!!!!!


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## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

ex ro said:


> Filipino R/Os would send a code word on 500 which i cannot remember to attract any other Filipino R/Os for a QSO.


PARE/POGI/POKE?


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Yes......


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

That all brings back memories!!!!
Like Hawkey01 I picked up some useful job opportunities that way.
Some coast stations would do it too; I recall pounding away at ASK for hours with no joy only for him to suddenly come on-air with QRU?

Instead of sending QRU? One could just send HW? without one's callsign and be fairly certain that whoever responded would be a freelance R/O.


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## ex ro (Oct 30, 2005)

(Wave)


G4UMW said:


> PARE/POGI/POKE?


thanks Rob PARE and POGI i definitely remember also QRZ SVA sending SVA as ------_ -_ always got a reaction from SVA. In the mid seventies there was at one time about 200 ships anchored off Lagos Nigeria callsign 5OW who was very hard to get a reply out of so one ship would send the 5 another the O and yet another the W and so it carried on all day.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

It was like working JCS/JOR on HF...my chief taught me to slur the J when calling them...worked a treat!


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

I quickly learned that calling stations like 5OW and ASK (Karachi?) on 500 kcs was a waste of time. They never listened.The way to get hold of them was on their HF skeds. At the appointed time, you just listened to their "callband" or waited until they sent a traffic list, and blasted out the callsign over and over. Eventually you got a "de" and contact was made. 

Thinking about it now, I don't know why I didn't just send the messages through Portishead or somewhere, but we used to worry about costs and doing the right thing in those days - what suckers we were.

John T


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Ha!

Indeed....like trying to send OBS to an Indian MF station....waste of time.

As you say, the difference in price between GKA and a local 3rd world station (I'm being polite...) was not worth it, especially when you consider what the ramifications of the QTC could be...


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## oldman 80 (May 7, 2012)

My Mother was a key tapper during the war. (WWII)
My Father was too.
She was in UK.
He was in Europe with a suitcase, but kept telling her he was on some Scottish Island doing weather reports and the like.
Is it true that R/O's could identify each other just by their individual style of Key Tapping ?


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

oldman 80 said:


> My Mother was a key tapper during the war. (WWII)
> My Father was too.
> She was in UK.
> He was in Europe with a suitcase, but kept telling her he was on some Scottish Island doing weather reports and the like.
> Is it true that R/O's could identify each other just by their individual style of Key Tapping ?



Yes, it is.


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## oldman 80 (May 7, 2012)

Troppo said:


> Yes, it is.


Thanks for that Troppo - it means so much to me.


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## oldman 80 (May 7, 2012)

GKL/GCC/GND
Pladv Plain Language.


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## oldman 80 (May 7, 2012)

Thks for that 651400.
From your early days can you recall which Scottish Islands had radio stations.
West Coast/Hebridean particularly.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Was meteorology that advanced in the 2nd World War? The weather is always crap in Greenland (well, it was before "climate change") so the long range forecast for Belgium a week later would have been "crap".

John T


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## Duncan112 (Dec 28, 2006)

If you want to read about WW2 forecasting I can recommend "Forecast for Overlord" by J M Stagg who was chief forecaster for General Eisenhower and persuaded him to delay the invasion by 1 day from the 5th to 6th of June based on forecasts.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

"Quote:
Originally Posted by trotterdotpom 
The weather is always crap in Greenland (well, it was before "climate change") so the long range forecast for Belgium a week later would have been "crap".
Precisely!"

You have to wonder how long it took Bletchley Park to decode "Scheisse".

John T


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## Duncan112 (Dec 28, 2006)

Joking apart John, the fact that the weather fronts tended to move in an Easterly direction gave the code breakers a start as they knew when the coded weather reports would be transmitted and used their knowledge of the weather conditions a couple of days previously to give them a start in the code breaking process.

I see that there is finally a bit of money available towards the restoration of Bletchley Park - a fascinating place to visit if anyone is ever nearby - allow at least half a day.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Yes Duncan, just kidding. Even today, when the weather is rotten in Adelaide, the good folk of Melbourne know they're in for the same in a couple of days time. However, who cares about them.

John T


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## Duncan112 (Dec 28, 2006)

If I was off Wilson's Prom when the poor weather arrived.... ME!!


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Thanks R65 ..... Never heard of that before. 

John T


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## oldman 80 (May 7, 2012)

trotterdotpom said:


> "Quote:
> Originally Posted by trotterdotpom
> The weather is always crap in Greenland (well, it was before "climate change") so the long range forecast for Belgium a week later would have been "crap".
> Precisely!"
> ...


Hey guys - YOU ARE getting closer.

It sure caused a major long running domestic at my place, and I am now beginning to wonder - am I in fact a bastard.?
(Ouch)


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

Does it matter?


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## oldman 80 (May 7, 2012)

R651400 said:


> Obanradio/GNE but what was out there during WW2 can't say.
> The Germans had a secret wx station in Greenland which gave them long range forecasts to plan eg the timing of the Battle of the Bulge.


OK thanks for that R651400.
Do you know anyone on here who was key tapping at Stonehaven Radio between say 1947 (maybe March onwards) and 1948/1949.
Did they have female key tappers there at that time ?
(Gleam)


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Duncan112 said:


> I see that there is finally a bit of money available towards the restoration of Bletchley Park - a fascinating place to visit if anyone is ever nearby - allow at least half a day.



And a visit to the wireless hut (and I mean hut...) is COMPULSORY for any ex R/O.

It is brilliant.

They even have keys hooked up to oscillators...I couldn't help myself.

(*))


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

Last time I visted BP, they had an amateur station on air. They let me have a go on the key on the forty metre band. Long overdue now for another visit.


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## oldman 80 (May 7, 2012)

R651400 said:


> Not that early OM80. Bearing in mind anyone operating at that time would be a very good age today if still alive. If you have a reason for asking pm me and I can delve a bit deeper or pass on someone you can contact.


Hmm - you're right of course.
It would make no difference in the end.
Thanks all the same.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

The RSGB station is excellent. Really well done.


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## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

R651400 said:


> This was probably GB2BP heard regularly on the amateur bands and run by the Milton Keynes ARC.
> The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) have now taken up residence at BP spelling the end of MKARC's BP activity of nigh on 20 years.
> Eviction is a strong word but it is hard to use anything less and frankly has put a blight on Bletchley Park that will be around for a long time.


As a former Chairman of MKDARS and long-time Station Manager of GB2BP, I couldn't agree more!


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