# How Many of us are still working



## andrewwalker1234 (Feb 14, 2009)

Well still working at the moment as a Radio op well that is what we are called but more like a dogsboby and the stewards seem to more thouhgt of than us 
So how many Real Radio Officers are working.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

I'm not at sea any more, but still very closely involved with marine radio.

I would be very interested to hear from ETO's on passenger ships - what is that job like?


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## Treborvfr (Feb 22, 2010)

I'm not on ships any more, but still at sea, albeit immobile, looking after Telecoms and Computer kit on an offshore gas platform as a Telecoms Tech. 

I would tend to agree with Andrew with regard to status, I feel a lot lower down the ladder when compared to my position as a sea going R/O. This despite the fact I'm the most qualified person on the platform with a first class honours degree and a Masters of Engineering degree! However, I earn a lot more than I did at sea so I'm not that bothered. 

I'm certainly not there for the love of the job, it is a means to an end. Whereas I loved my job as a sea going sparks, and felt I could have done that job until I retired. I think I was born 25 years too late!


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## Bob Murdoch (Dec 11, 2004)

I think a lot of us on this forum would echo your last comment.
I have often thought that even if it did mean I would be a lot nearer the final msg, it would have been worth it.
Bob
T


Treborvfr said:


> I'm not on ships any more, but still at sea, albeit immobile, looking after Telecoms and Computer kit on an offshore gas platform as a Telecoms Tech.
> 
> I would tend to agree with Andrew with regard to status, I feel a lot lower down the ladder when compared to my position as a sea going R/O. This despite the fact I'm the most qualified person on the platform with a first class honours degree and a Masters of Engineering degree! However, I earn a lot more than I did at sea so I'm not that bothered.
> 
> I'm certainly not there for the love of the job, it is a means to an end. Whereas I loved my job as a sea going sparks, and felt I could have done that job until I retired. I think I was born 25 years too late!


(Applause)


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## rusty1946 (Aug 15, 2008)

*How many of us still working*

I am not at sea anymore, I work at the opposite end of the transport industry now. I work in Air Traffic Control


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Rusty1946,

that is a nice stressful job. As I have mentioned before in other threads, we had an active aero/point to point RT service at GKA. I really liked working with the aircraft, always slick and to the point. Made visits to ATC in Slough before it all moved and also to Heathrow tower. 
In my Gallery there is a photo of me at one of the aero consuls. 

Hawkey01


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## BOB GARROCH (Oct 10, 2008)

I am 67 years old now, still working as a Radio systems engineer. country short of skills but I am still fit and climbing radio masts. 
But what has happened to radio? I remember visiting portishead radio and being given the tour of the 80k/cs transmitter they opened the door and invited me in. We went down a ladder into the PA. There was a big valve glowing and an the right a large hand wired coil on a wooden frame . On the left a tuning capacitor with a tuning handle. the whole transmitter was tuned by hand. Amazing, the feel and smell of real radio.
I joined Pye Telecommunications as an engineer working on wide area radio sytems, which took months to install and setup. ten years ago I commissioned a 13 site simulcast system( thirteen VHF repeaters on the same frequency, transmitting at the same time. Very complicated getting the line/link delays balanced and the audio in phase.
once it was setup a computer took over and maintained the system I havent touched it since.
Recently installed and commissined a new technology IP based simulcast with 15 sites. once installed and fibre optic links established,switched on the system, It set itself up in two minutes. 
Now I am installing thirtythree Motorola PTP600 Point to point 5.8Ghz IP links. They have a 377 years mean time between failure. ????????????????

Where are we going with radio comms. it is getting crazy

In 377 years time one of my great-----------grandchildren will find it a say 'look one of my ancestors installed this and it is still working. But it can only send 350Mbs of data not much use these days.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

"They have a 377 years mean time between failure. ????????????????"

They gave my solar water heater a guarantee of 10 years and it's crap after one! Otherwise, I'm impressed that you've kept up to date Bob - I have to admit I didn't understand some of your post. On the upside, I do get to look in other men's underpants on a daily basis.

John T.

PS Hopefully, South Africa's latest invention, the Vuvuzela, doesn't last 377 years!


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## rusty1946 (Aug 15, 2008)

Hawkeye01

What a small world indeed I used to work at GKA as well. Then I was posted
to Portpatrick Radio, they tried to post me to Wick Radio after that but my wife didnt fancy living up there. I do have very happy memories working BT External Wireless. I had no option then to leave coast station life, which I do miss, that was my chance to join Air Traffic, I work in the Oceanic Dept so you would be working Atlantic A/c as well as Ballygireen our HF Station outside Shannon. Was the Air Radio based at somerton or not

Bruce


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Bruce,

So you worked with the one and only Graham Mercer then!

The aero consuls were in the new station at Highbridge. We had designated aero freqs in the 5 - 8 - 11 mcs range and also we used a multitude of other frequencies as well. Also VHF and SITA terminal. With the aero side we did company operational comms. We did have access to the ATC network via SITA which we used on many occasions. When for reasons an aircraft was not monitoring us on SELCAL and the company wanted them urgently. I cannot remember out Sita address now it has sunk too deep in the memory bank. We had a multitude of customers from International carriers and most all of the UK charter companies. At one time we were part of the now defunct Eastern Airlines network, also the main European comms centre for American Airlines.
Also on the VHF and lower freqs we were the main station for all the Watchdog patrol aircraft.
I loved every minute of it and miss it all.

Neville - Hawkey01


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## rusty1946 (Aug 15, 2008)

Yes I worked with Graham, the two of us used to have a competition
to see who could get the furthest ship on 500 lol. He is working with
P&O now not onboard though.

We still keep in touch, I miss the old place even now after 30 odd years away from it.

I worked a ship in Dakar who was running out of water at anchor, but there is no way I could have worked him on 500 at that range, I still believe there was a german ship northbound that may have relayed the messages back and forth, Graham was definately not a happy man that night. We used to let ships call GLD and if they didnt answer in a reasonable time then Graham or I would work them on w/t.


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## andrewwalker1234 (Feb 14, 2009)

Use to work for ITS part of SITA but came back out to offshore when it was taken over by France telcom and lampton house was not the same.There is a right way and the French way.


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

Retired now, but GPK was a lifeline for me on the Marchon Trader/GWTQ - 1900 tons & MF only, phosphates from Casablanca to Whitehaven. The daily QTC to Fisher's in Barrow was the highlight of the day. 

Graham once told me he had worked QRJ's on MF from an RAF Hercules on the ground at Port Stanley !!

David
+


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

Nev,

We had 2 SITA addresses - we started out with BRSOOYF and then had another one allocated of BRSOOXH (or was it the other way around?). Remember the coded weather reports we could obtain from SITA and pass on to the aircraft requesting them?

We were also the main HF station for Britannia Airways and I recall that Speedbird were interested in us taking over their HF service at one time. There were also the many cargo aircraft who used to work us on their African runs (Flash, MK Air Cargo etc).

Wonder what would have become of the station had we taken up the Speedbird offer?

73

Larry +


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Larry,

thank goodness for having a memory and the info still to hand. I had completely forgotten the code. Amazing I could probably quoted it in my sleep in days gone by.


Oh! those wonderful freighters. Also the not to be forgotten Capt Barrett-Jolly. Phoenix Aviation with transportation of live cattle. That one went bust then he moved on to bigger things. He had been involved in many dubious activities before.
I cannot remember what his outfit was called but they used Manston alot or usually quoted as being Southend airport.. Also there is in the back of my memory the case of his aircraft and him being involved in some drug smuggling. Where by packages were thrown from the plane as it touched down.

Follow this link and you can have the full story.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...muggling-acircpound22m-of-cocaine-610014.html

There were many stories with the around Africa freighters - not illegal but some hard to believe. I will think about them and if anyone is interested post them in due course.

Neville - Hawkey01


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

Graham Mercer is also the Hon Sec or Lifeboat Ops Mgr at Portpatrick Lifeboat. He was also a great "greyline" operator and told me he had worked ships in the Pacific on 1883 Khz.


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## rusty1946 (Aug 15, 2008)

king rat

I didnt know he was involved with the lifeboat, that must have came about after I left


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## andrewwalker1234 (Feb 14, 2009)

NEV Larry 
Also use to work on Aircom to pass weather and load plans to aircraft sites in Scotland were GLA ABZ Stornaway and Barra the weather was sent from singapour Throught the SITA network and fed in to a TX and up to the Aircraft sita terminal.


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

For Rusty1946

Graham Mercer has his own website at http://www.gmercer-gm4bes.co.uk/

73

Rab T (King Ratt)


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## rusty1946 (Aug 15, 2008)

For King Rat

Thanks for the link Rab, will have a look

73

Bruce


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

African air freighters.


Firstly let me apologise for not remembering the companies that these stories refer to.
Some of the companies may well still exist under the same or new names. Most were 1-2 or maybe as many as 3-4 aircraft. Unfortunately a lot of the names have vanished into the depths of the memory bank. Larry did mention a couple which were probably the most active. DasAir and MK. 

The aircraft were in the main converted Boeing 707s or DC8s. I think it was MK who also had a DC10.

The usual routeing would be out of Gatwick – Manston/Southend - Stanstead for an around Africa run. The flight would go something like Casablanca – Dakar – Freetown – Monrovia – Accra – Lagos – Kinshasa – Mocambique – Dar Es Salaam – Mombasa/Nairobi – Rome – London/Rotterdam. That is just as an example. Obviously there were many other variations. 

I suppose in some ways they were a bit like tramps ships. The homeward cargo from Kenya was nearly always cut flowers for UK/Netherlands. Also many types of fresh vegetables and fruit which we are so fond of in the shops here all years round.

That was over a few days; obviously they had to have some rest periods. I sometimes think they carried enough crew to just keep going. 

These aircraft were quite often flying on a wing and a prayer. There seemed to always be some major fault or other. Most would have stopped a passenger aircraft flying until rectified. 
One day one of these AC calls me, not too many hours out on the trip. He advised his ops that he was having problems with the auto pilot and they had been unable to rectify the fault. This would have necessitated the aircraft returning to UK for maintenance. The Capt was one of the senior African pilots who said that – No problem we will disengage the auto pilot and fly the plane manually. – An amazing feat as I believe it is pretty hard work to fly one of these aircraft for long period without the auto pilot. If they could not get it fixed in Lagos then they would carry on the same way. 

In the early hours of one night shift one of the speakers sprung to life and there was a very cool Capt on a 707/DC8 freighter saying – Portisheadradio this is xxxxx we have a problem, I want to speak to ops – That made me sit up quickly, as when a aircraft said – I have a problem – it meant they have serious problems. So I acknowledged and immediately rang his ops. It appears he was on lift off from; I think it was, Dar Es Salaam, when the aircraft had ingested a vulture and blown one of the engines to pieces. A most critical time, no doubt he put the engine controls through the stops and managed to keep climbing. He was fully loaded at this time, which on one of those aircraft would have been around 42 tons if my memory serves me correctly. The final part of the conversation – was - we have managed to climb to operation height and bound for the next destination. I cannot remember where this was. I do remember that he said – I can land but it will be impossible to get off again. The end of this tale was that they had to fly another engine out to the aircraft with engineers to fix it.

Another major freighting customer – one of the best – was Heavy Lift at Stanstead.
Their big aircraft were Belfasts and a variety of 727s. They also had a tie up with a Russian outfit named Volga-Dnepr. They flew the monstrous Antonov 124s. The flight crews English in the main was not very good. Mind you nor was my Russian/Mongolian. So when we used to hear a strong guttural sound calling Portishead it was without doubt one of these AC. They always sent messages via us to Heavylift. Then it was through to their ops in Ulan Bator. 

Just a few memories, I trust they maybe of interest. Not ships but radio related.


Neville - Hawkey01


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## rusty1946 (Aug 15, 2008)

DasAir went out of business in 2007, an issue about the safety of their aircraft I think

Bruce


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## znord737 (May 1, 2006)

Pye used to have the service contract for their G to A and Private VHF. I remember the Gatwick Service Engineer relating that he often got offered a trip on test flights after servicing the private VHF Radio, he told me he was in the cockpit in the jump seat in a turboprop aircraft and there was a a wad of selotape over a crack on the windscreen, am sure it was safe as they would not have been flying them but this guy was ultra cautious and never took a test flight again ! 
Znord737


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Rusty,Znord,

I am impressed that Das managed to survive until 2007. The other comments do not surprise me too much. Thanks for the input.

Neville - Hawkey01


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

This is fascinating stuff. I had no idea that GKA had anything to do with aircraft communications. Even when I visited the place, sometime around 1975, no-one mentioned that side of the operation: was it deliberately kept secret?


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## elliottmatthew (Jul 7, 2010)

I am so much impressed with Das 's post. It is so interesting to read. And I hope everyone will like it, But all post is not surprise me too much, thanks for sharing.
__________________
We must be the change we want to see


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

Naytikos said:


> I had no idea that GKA had anything to do with aircraft communications. Even when I visited the place, sometime around 1975, no-one mentioned that side of the operation: was it deliberately kept secret?


Although there is some history of GKA working aircraft in the 1930s/1940s (The large flying boats carried w/t operators), the dedicated aero service started in the mid-1980s, with modified maritime R/T consoles. DanAir used to be one of our first 'regular' customers but it really was a steep learning curve to use the aeronautical method of communications. Most pilots became quite bemused to be referred to as 'old man' during the initial communication with GKA! Luckily we soon got the hang of things and the operations became very slick and professional.

It was also quite a task to get used to manually use the 'mute' button as all aero calls were simplex - very easy to get out of synch until more specialised equipment was installed.

Whilst most national airlines had their own HF comms, GKA was heavily used by the main UK Charter Companies, and then some of the 'big boys' got to hear of us.

Concorde was a regular customer (very distinctive background inverter whine I seem to recall) and quite a few calls were patched through to BBC radio on events like Children in Need.

Virgin used us quite a bit, as did their transatlantic balloons and speedboats - and as stated earlier, Eastern Airlines and Panam used for their European HF comms.

Basically, in the last decade or so of GKA, if you had HF comms we could provide a service! Calls from units in the first Gulf War and Bosnia were proof of that.

Larry +


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Larry Bennett said:


> as stated earlier, Eastern Airlines and *Panam *used for their European HF comms.


Larry,

Your mention of Pan-Am reminds me that when I was part of the UK's delegation to the ITU in Geneva for things like CCIR meetings and other ITU conferences, I became friendly with one of the members of the US delegation, Herb Blaker. A really first class guy who, in the late 1940s, had been a radio operator (morse) on the Pan-Am Clipper flying boats running across the Pacific via Hawaii. 

Even my children, let alone my grandchildren, can not believe that in my lifetime airliners used morse for long-range communications. Then when I tried to convince them that when I was taking my PMG, there were guys in the next room at the college who were taking aeronautical radio operator courses - morse again - I was accused of leg-pulling.


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## wireless man (Jun 16, 2008)

I spoke to Portishead many times during my flghts as they were used by us for phone patches through to our engineering and operations department. When they closed we used Stockholm. If ops wanted to contact us we were alerted by Selcal


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Wirless Man,

nice to see one of our old aero customers with us. Just as an aside are HF comms still common within the industry? I know that a lot of technical info has gone automatic. How have the sat comms progressed? We started the in flight sat service with Lufthansa/KLM and other private jets. For private calls and other services, including booking hotels, cars, etc etc, but it never seemed to get going. Initially very longwinded and not a great success.There was a name for the service and myself and others spent a lot of time on courses learning what was required. Larry will certainly know the name and jog my memory. Seem to think it was palmed off to the Sat services.

Neville - Hawkey01


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

Nev

The service was called Skyphone - and indeed taken over by the BT Satellite group. I think Singapore Airlines used it too, but that was about it. A very intensive and fragmented service I recall, no wonder it wasn't very popular.

Larry +


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Larry,

Thanks - I knew you would come up trumps! Yes basically a bit of a disaster.

Neville. Hawkey01


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## wireless man (Jun 16, 2008)

Used HF a lot on the oceanic routes to the canaries. We were generally 350-400 from land so out of VHF. Used it all the time in the Far East but that was a long time ago.
Still use it for contacting ops though we now use mobiles on the ground..
Working for charter airlines we didnt have anything as fancy as sat coms


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## rusty1946 (Aug 15, 2008)

hawkey01 said:


> Wirless Man,
> 
> nice to see one of our old aero customers with us. Just as an aside are HF comms still common within the industry? I know that a lot of technical info has gone automatic. How have the sat comms progressed? We started the in flight sat service with Lufthansa/KLM and other private jets. For private calls and other services, including booking hotels, cars, etc etc, but it never seemed to get going. Initially very longwinded and not a great success.There was a name for the service and myself and others spent a lot of time on courses learning what was required. Larry will certainly know the name and jog my memory. Seem to think it was palmed off to the Sat services.
> 
> Neville - Hawkey01


Hawkey01

Yes we still use HF on the North Atlantic, although aircraft do communicate via sat comms they still listen on HF and of course we use data links a lot now. Until every aircraft has sat comms we will still need HF on the Atlantic routes


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Rusty1946, Wireless Man,

thanks for your replies. So all in all not too much has changed on the aero HF. With the early satcoms on aircraft a course change could mean loosing the sat signal due to the placement of the equipment/aerials. I no doubt that has all been remedied now. 
So is the HF service still running at StockholmRadio? BerneRadio, if I remember correctly shut before we did.

Hawkey01


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

Neville et al,

Berna Radio closed in 1998 (indeed before GKA did), but Stockholm Radio is still going. See their website at http://www.stockholmradio.se/aero/show.php?id=1225428 for their latest updates.

Larry +


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Larry,

you see we could have still been in business. Did you look at their charges. Some of the customers used to complain about ours. Suppose when you are the only station left you can do just about what you like. See a couple of our ex customers on the Guest pages - Watchdogs - and the Red Cross - saying how good HF comms are.

Neville - Hawkey01


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