# Sparky do - Finnish ships



## Jaysav

Hi, just joined the forum. 

Was sparks in various cross trade ships 1973-1983. Just wonder what duties radio operator had in other countries?. I worked in tankers, bulkers and reefers. Watch time was 0800-1200, 1400-1600 and 1800-2000 ship's local time. National and union agreements (international too?) said, during watch time no other than radio related works shall be done. 

Those years all kind of other works were required by sparky. Custom papers and all that kind for next port. All the crew monthly pay calculations, cash payments in ports, taking crew members to doctor. Taking care of most of the paperworks onboard, taking care of beer, booze, cigarette etc shipstores. You name it. All this was overtime paid. Not too bad. Onboard you could do paperwork and earn money, or drink beer or have both... The overtime pay for paperwork sometimes doubled the monthly wage. 

Off topic - many Finnish ships in cross-trade traffic had also lot of females in crew. In a bulk carrier of 32 crewmembers, you sometimes had up to 7 females. Cheers.


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## Frank P

Welcome onboard Jaysav, enjoy the site.

Cheers Frank


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## Gulpers

*Welcome*

Jaysav,

On behalf of the SN Moderating Team, a warm welcome aboard from the Isle of Anglesey.
You will thoroughly enjoy the SN experience and, since you share common interests with many of our members, you will also undoubtedly be exchanging messages before long. *(Thumb)


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## les.edgecumbe

I studied/trained and wanted to be a Radio Officer, and all subsequent courses and qualifications were to further and enhance that. At no time (bar learning to touch type) did I enter into any clerical training. My profession was radio and electronic servicing, not to be a paper pushing lackie for some idol ships captain who had all the time (and knowledge) in the world to perform the tasks *HE* was paid for.
On a Texaco vessel, that Marconi rented me to, the Master informed me that I was to be responsible for Stores accounts, Portage, Advances etc etc. for the princely payment of £5 per month (taxable). On refusal the proverbial hit the fan and I was returned to the UK, for some other mug to be expected to do this paper stuff.
Ok Jaysav, you enjoyed the work and got paid handsomely for it, but that was your choice and very good luck to you ~ certainly not mine or anyone else whose chosen career was communications and electronic servicing.
p.s. at the time of the Texaco debarcle I was informed, correctly or otherwise, that this deal was written into both the Ships Articles and the Marconi agreement with the Ship Owner.(?HUH)


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## Ron Stringer

les.edge***be said:


> ... at the time of the Texaco debarcle I was informed, correctly or otherwise, that this deal was written into both the Ships Articles and the Marconi agreement with the Ship Owner.(?HUH)


A Master with Joe Contantine's of Middlesbrough tried to persuade me that their agreement with Marconi's required me to be responsible for painting the accommodation associated with the radio/electronic equipment - namely the radio room, my cabin, the radar mast and its platform. I very quickly, and none too politely, disabused him of this fantasy. 

In retaliation he started to use a chipping hammer on the bulkhead of my cabin (on the bridge deck) every afternoon when I was off watch. He only stopped when I asked him if he would like to sample a chipping hammer enema.

Relations were somewhat strained thereafter and I did not sign on again when we got back to the UK after only a 6-week trip.


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## Jaysav

Jees - some comments about me doing paperworks onboard makes me feel like a looser... Well, it's a different culture in different countries. I was after money anyway. Sometimes it was rather hectic if the vessel happened to trade let's say North Sea area with new port every day and doing the customs papers and paying crewmembers off for holiday etc. On the other hand, the long ocean crossing 2-3 weektrips were rather boring. After you had maintained all the radio-room eqs and bridge radar etc gears, there was not much to do than listen tfc lists, wx reports and continuous tropical prog noise on 500. Luckily in many ships you could find a cute female catering girl to share the long boring trips  I've been listening the maritime bands rather often lately and it seems there are still some Ukrainian merchant ships with QSOs on CW with their local coast stations on 6 and 8 MHz bands. All the other traffic on marine bands seems to be digital, rtty and perhaps pactor. Not much voice traffic anymore. Real few times can you pick up any SSB phonecalls there, mostly Chinese.


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## 5TT

I spent my entire seagoing career directly employed by Safmarine and certainly during my time they always carried a purser to handle the paperwork, run the hotel etc, so we were generally left alone to run our own patch. There was no overtime payment, if you happened to be up all night discharging your duties then that was considered part of the job, and I had no problem with that.
Sure I wouldn't have minded making more money, and I'm pretty sure Safmarine paid somewhere towards the bottom of the pay scale, but on the other hand they looked after us pretty well, good radio gear, prompt spares delivery, comfortable accomadation and excellent food. We were paid monthly directly from Capetown, with normal tour of duty being 6 months on and 3 months off, I never did more than 7 months.
As a foreign passport holder they were quite happy to arrange for you to take leave in SA, providing the necessary visa do***entation and apply for visa extensions if it wasn't possible to get you away on time, and when I decided to emigrate here they assisted with that too, joined a ship in Southampton, loaded all my stuff aboard, first stop Capetown.

Looking back, and knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done it any differently, happy times.

= Adrian +


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## trotterdotpom

Welcome to Sn Jaysav.

Don't worry, plenty of other ROs did clerical work and other jobs aboard ship. I did it myself with one company. They paid well initially, but eventually fell behind so I quit - easy! 

At times, ROs could be a bit isolated from other crewmembers and doing the clerical duties made you more part of things, but I must admit, cosying up with a stewardess would be a better way of achieving that than doing portage accounts!

Marconi did have a few deals with shipping companies whereby the RO was supposed to do some extra work 
- i seem to recall getting a few quid from Denholms for typing crew lists, but My memory may be playing tricks there.

One ship I was on had some sort of sweetheart deal for the RO to do security watches down the hold in Barbados- I politely told the Mate: "Thanks but no thanks!

John T

John T


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## trotterdotpom

Jaysav, I forgot to mention, somewhere on SN there is a whole thread on this topic.

Also, meant to ask ... Do those Ukranian ships use conventional morse code or the Russian version?

John T


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## Jaysav

"Looking back, and knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done it any differently, happy times.

= Adrian +" 

Ditto, it was great times. Somehow my wife, children and grandchildren never get the real feeling, even if me OM try to explain those sailing times. "Yep yep granpa, heard the stories alreday. Drink your sixpack after sauna and etc


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## Jaysav

"Also, meant to ask ... Do those Ukranian ships use conventional morse code or the Russian version?

John T"

John, they use the normal code, of course some characters are different from western, say letters like ..-- and ---. etc. More and more rarely they appear on the bands. Must turn on my radio and keep watch if they may appear. Normally the pile up was only after CS tfc list.
Don't ask me the callsign of CS, I have to confirm it by listening again


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## 5TT

> Somehow my wife, children and grandchildren never get the real feeling


Sad but true, the skills we acquired to do our job well will die with us, SOS from the Titanic is all that will be remembered in the history books by the general population. 

I keep my CW skills alive on the amateur bands, ZS1TTZ, and fortunately there are still many hundreds of excellent operators across the world who help to make it a rewarding experience. 

Having said all that, Radio Officers never die, they just QSR 

= Adrian +


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## Jaysav

"Having said all that, Radio Officers never die, they just QSR

= Adrian +"

They just QSY up. Some might QSY down. I'd like to stay on the frequency...


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## Shipbuilder

Some years ago, I was sat there doing the radio accounts (of which there were quite a lot) when the captain (a very amiable fellow) came along clutching his voyage report notes and asking me if I could type them for him. I said (truthfully) that I was tied up with the radio accounts, but would try and do his voyage report after my radio accounts were complete.
He looked a bit downhearted and said he would type them himself and departed in dismal mood. A couple of minutes later, he returned grinning and suggesting an "exchange." I type his voyage report and he would do the radio accounts. Never having liked acccounts, I agreed and handed the lot over. Typing was a fair exhange as far as I was concerned, especially as he never used 20 words when one would suffice as far as his reports went. I completed them very quickly and ages later, he turned up with the radio accounts done to perfection. Later, when we arrived in Cape Town (where he lived at the time) he asked my wife (travelling with me) & myself to visit him and his wife in the evening. We did so and after a very enjoyable evening, returned to the ship in a taxi. On arrival, my wife commented that the taxi driver has passed off a "dud" coin on us as it was rather heavy - probably lead. Not lead at all - it was a gold sovereign - All in all, it was a very good trade, voyage report for radio accounts!

Bob


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## Graham P Powell

On a BP Tanker I did the crew lists, the crew mail , exchanged the films and ran ashore to collect cash for crew advances. I don't know to this day whether or not it was part of my duties. Being on long trips with short stays in port it was probably just something to while away the time. Sums not being my strong point I did get a b......g off the old man for getting the crew mail accounts wrong. It was a long long time ago...
rgds
Graham Powell


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## les.edgecumbe

Graham P Powell said:


> On a BP Tanker I did the crew lists, the crew mail , exchanged the films and ran ashore to collect cash for crew advances. I don't know to this day whether or not it was part of my duties. Being on long trips with short stays in port it was probably just something to while away the time. Sums not being my strong point I did get a b......g off the old man for getting the crew mail accounts wrong. It was a long long time ago...
> rgds
> Graham Powell


Thats what I call team work Graham, and I'm sure gratefully appreciated by all onboard. But to be lazy skippers clerk is/was not part of career scheme, and certainly didn't encourage me with the pricely bribe of £5 a month . I think most R/O's took on this sort of work with no problem.(Applause)


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## trotterdotpom

Jaysav said:


> "Having said all that, Radio Officers never die, they just QSR
> 
> = Adrian +"
> 
> They just QSY up. Some might QSY down. I'd like to stay on the frequency...


Or maybe they just QSB ...!

For the benefit of the uninitiated:

QSR - Repeat call on calling frequency.

QSY - Change to another frequency.

QSB - Your signals are fading.

John T.


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## Graham P Powell

Hi Les, I think you are right. I was probably a better typist than the old man.
On that particular ship I had quite a few problems with gear and had to call on shore assistance several times so probably not a bad thing to keep in with the Old Man.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## david.hopcroft

From Cargo tallying and discrepancies with Palm Line and which paid quite well (apart from the guardship half hour in Sapele), I went to Safmarine and did quite a bit of typing for the mate. Unpaid, but he knew all the best restaurants in L.M. and being ex BI he was welcomed in each one and I have to say the food was good !

David
+


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## pilot

Les "My profession was radio and electronic servicing, not to be a paper pushing lackie for some idol ships captain who had all the time (and knowledge)" 

Is that idle or idol?


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## Ron Stringer

Employed as a Radio Officer by Marconi, I considered my job to be operating and maintaining a radio station and other electronic equipment. However I was not too proud to accept payment from the shipowners for watching cargo in port - without that extra money I would never have been able to survive when running between UK and Western Mediterranean ports. 

We used to do 10-12 ports in Spain/France/North Africa in 25-30 days. Ashore nearly every night, the Marconi on-board allotment of £12 per month did not last too long!


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## les.edgecumbe

pilot said:


> Les "My profession was radio and electronic servicing, not to be a paper pushing lackie for some idol ships captain who had all the time (and knowledge)"
> 
> Is that idle or idol?


Whoops~ limping after shooting me foot !!! thanks for correction!


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## ernhelenbarrett

On Burns Philp ships on the Papua-New Guinea run the R/O did a bit of tallying cargo as all their cargo to their own stores up there were tallied and the extra cash came in handy, also on the "Cape Arnheim" the R/O helped out discharging cargo from ship to shore up in the Northern Territory ports as there were no "Wharfies" in Gove or Groote Eyelandt and all cargo was loaded or discharged by the crew. Somehow or other the R/O was expected to be mechanically minded and got the job of driving the fork lift down the holds, never having driven a fork lift before didnt seem to register to anyone and after a couple of hours you soon got the hang of it. Dunno what the modern "Health and Safety" mob would say nowadays though!!. We got paid the "Wharfie" rates of pay that came in very handy and after working down the holds during the heat a very cold beer and buffalo steak up at the one and only pub in the place was very welcome at the end of the day. Also ran the Bond on one of Sleighs tankers on the Japanese-Persian Gulf run and was paid extra for that.

Ern Barrett


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## Ron Stringer

Marconi's were still employing (a few) R/Os when I retired in 2002 and I recall that, in the 1990s, the Grimaldi Group were customers. The contract terms required the R/O to drive fork lift trucks and other vehicles connected with cargo handling. Training was given, though. [=D]


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## trotterdotpom

Ron Stringer said:


> Marconi's were still employing (a few) R/Os when I retired in 2002 and I recall that, in the 1990s, the Grimaldi Group were customers. The contract terms required the R/O to drive fork lift trucks and other vehicles connected with cargo handling. Training was given, though. [=D]


I'm hoping to do a trip with Grimaldi in a couple of years - maybe I could work my passage. Trouble is I was spoiled by years with AWA ... "Always Walking Ashore"!

John T


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## Dave Woods

In the 41 years I spent at sea I managed to turn my hand to most jobs on board. Tallying copper in Beira and LM; Whisky in Glasgow, tallying mail bags onto the quay in all sorts of far flung places. I ran the Bar on most ships and the bond on a couple where I got paid rather handsomely. I swung big hammers down the engine room during an engine overall. I have steered many ships in and out of ports, helped tie up a couple because one of the mates had the screaming habdabs, written the log book while the officer on the bridge had his meal who then relieved the others fore and aft during long pilotages. On one ship I was the Chief Steward and others Purser for which I was paid a small amount. I enjoyed doing it, and found that I was asked to go back to the same ship time after time. Mostly the jobs were unpaid, however at the end of the month my bar bill suddenly disappeared, or I was taken out to restaurants which me as a poor Sparky could not hope to afford. At the end of the day as long as the equipment worked and the annual surveys were passed we had an awful lot of spare time and not too much spare cash, as Ron says £12 did not go a long way.


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## Troppo

I would often do the telegraphs and the movement book on the bridge. 

This progressed to understudying the mates to the point that I was doing meal reliefs and anchor watches. The old man (who was a good friend) even let me drive the ship from an anchorage and out of port once. I didn't hit anything!

My Dad was an ex-mate, and I spent my childhood in small boats.

Australian R/O's were offered the opportunity to either retrain as mates or take the pot of gold. I had a young family, and was planning to come ashore anyway, so I took the money and ran.

I often wonder whether I should have stayed at sea....it would be nice to be old man. 26 weeks a year off....


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## trotterdotpom

Troppo, if you'd taken the retraining option you would have probably ended up with 52 weeks a year off.

John T.


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## Troppo

Ha ha!

Yes, a good ship mate of mine is an old man in Shell. He left the Aussie coast 20 years ago....


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## Tony Selman

In 1966 setting off for a long voyage on a tanker I bought myself a portable typewriter and a teach yourself touch typing book. Struggled at first but before long I was taking all messages, weather reports etc down directly on the typewriter. The Old Man knew what I was up to and asked me if I would type his reports and letters to the office, firstly because he couldn't type and secondly because his English grammar was not too hot. I did this willingly and did not regard this as any form of imposition. Word got round to the Chief Engineer and I had a second job on board. I had no problem at all with this, I did not regard myself as being taken advantage of and it did wonders for my bar bill.
I did the same on many ships and on one ship where we had major engine problems and the Chief had a massive report to write I did it for him in quick time with him dictating to me and me typing direct on the Radio Room typewriter. I don't think I bought a drink for a month and he bought me one of the early Sony radio cassette players as a gift in Japan. The only time I did not do this was when I was travelling with my wife who was a trained secretary and a former Woman Assistant Purser - that also did wonders for your bar bill.
Still a very handy thing to have retained and I am touch typing this message.


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## Tai Pan

Tony Selman said:


> In 1966 setting off for a long voyage on a tanker I bought myself a portable typewriter and a teach yourself touch typing book. Struggled at first but before long I was taking all messages, weather reports etc down directly on the typewriter. The Old Man knew what I was up to and asked me if I would type his reports and letters to the office, firstly because he couldn't type and secondly because his English grammar was not too hot. I did this willingly and did not regard this as any form of imposition. Word got round to the Chief Engineer and I had a second job on board. I had no problem at all with this, I did not regard myself as being taken advantage of and it did wonders for my bar bill.
> I did the same on many ships and on one ship where we had major engine problems and the Chief had a massive report to write I did it for him in quick time with him dictating to me and me typing direct on the Radio Room typewriter. I don't think I bought a drink for a month and he bought me one of the early Sony radio cassette players as a gift in Japan. The only time I did not do this was when I was travelling with my wife who was a trained secretary and a former Woman Assistant Purser - that also did wonders for your bar bill.
> Still a very handy thing to have retained and I am touch typing this message.


I always knew you were a Blue Funnel man at heart, that proves it, drinks are on you Tony. (Applause)


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## trotterdotpom

No harm in doing anyone a favour, but most Old Men wouldn't have been able to afford my bar bill anymore than I could ... hic.

John T


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## Tony Selman

I had a feeling that might bring a response from John/Tai Pan!


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## 5TT

Tony,


> I bought myself a portable typewriter and a teach yourself touch typing book.


We were fortunate enough to have a free hour at college each week which we chose to use for a touch typing course. The lady running the course was a bit unsettled at first, having a classroom full of guys instead of the usual female students, but took some comfort from the fact that our hair was generally longer than her more usual candidates. Anyway it was a hoot, especially the mad dash to get at a desk with an IBM golf ball (because you couldn't jam those up). We made some useful contributions too, for example her typing records .. "tap tap tap tap Carriage Return, tap tap tap... etc etc" were soon replaced with Black Sabbath I think it was, and paint rollers for the Typex, we all got our 33wpm certificates and as you say, it came in jolly useful at sea and in later life.

= Adrian +


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## Tai Pan

Sorry 651, but the happiest time I spent at sea was as 1st R/O with Blue Funnel. 
The confidence it gave me, dealing with customs, immigration, agents etc stood me in good stead when I left. I went into selling and I was confident, and nobody no matter what their title was fazed me. 
Also as No 1 everyday was different It was up to you to make the job interesting, and both the Old Man and the mate treated you as a valuable member of the deck crew.


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## les.edgecumbe

R651400 said:


> Tp have no illusions about our mutual affection for the old company.
> Each one to their own but please don't wool pull.
> I knew precisely what was expected of me with promotion to 1st R/O and I resigned.
> Simples! I didn't go to sea to colour in cargo plans or fill out tally-books.
> My entire working life has been in an electronics environment continuing today as a hobby.
> A spectrum that doesn't require the remotest effort to make it interesting.


Per zackly!! QED OM + va


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## Tai Pan

OK 651, but thank god we are all different. I was possibly disheartened by my first 2 years, with MIMC, first two ships Royal Mail and Prince Line, nobody bothered to speak to you, just supercargo. Not really interested in how a radio works, although still acrive mainly CW on the amatuer bands, just bought a FT950. and a steppir antenna. was very interested on how shipping companies worked and made profits etc stood me in good stead later in life, still each to his own. 73s


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## GBXZ

Why did Blue Funnel use the 1/R/O for purser/ships clerk and not appoint a purser/clerk. Far easier I would have thought to employ such a person without all the requirements for R/O training and certification. Must have been lots of spare bodies in the shore office who could have done the job, probably at a lower cost.


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## King Ratt

For GBXZ. Did you ever sail in either **** or Bacchus? The R/O on them used to do all the account stuff, remittances, Maltese NUS subscriptions etc all for £6 per month. However in my case I took the appointment to Bacchus in 1966 since it was an immediate promotion to the two ring R/O post. After these ships became fully UK crewed, MoD (N) appointed a full time purser to them.

Best Regards

Rab T


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## Tai Pan

All Blue Funnal ships were what you might say overmanned. If one R/O was taken ill for instance, the ship could still sail, happened to me once, we met up later in Tanjing Priok. So there was method in their madness. another point was that the 2nd R/O could take his meals properly etc etc. could go on giving good reasons.


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## GBXZ

Rab T
No I only sailed with UK crews on both Bacchus and ****, and we had a Purser. The only R/O i sailed with who handled ships business was Frank Cracknell on Black Ranger at Portland. Mind you I think Saccone & Speed may have been the reason!
Regards
RW


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## Tai Pan

I left in 1960 and P&O were still MIMC. One of the things with Holts was that you had interviews etc in a proper shipping office, it look good and was clean. on the other hand was you know who , they seemed to frequent the dingiest run down buildings in the world seen better in the rags at Tanjong. did not inspire confidence.
cheers 651 and heres to Odyssey Liverpool, sent that a few times. tp


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## trotterdotpom

I recall tallying cargo (sawn timber) in Archangel. It wasn't all vodka and skittles but had a few laughs with the Russian tally clerks who thought I was being exploited by the Capitalist shipowners in Luebeck - a bunch of Babushkas who turned out to be not all "Babushkas" when they took some of their coats off. Think I picked up a few Roubles for my trouble - Spasiba tovariches!

John T


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## Tai Pan

good job thats all you picked up!


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## Tai Pan

Hi 651. That just about sums it up, and WAK or Charlie shook your hand and said those magic words, " off you go on leave " (full pay) see you in a months time. 
absolute utopia.


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## Graham P Powell

I took Odyssey Liverpool many times at GKA. Wasn't Homer Liverpool their urgent address?. First time I saw Hawkeye he was working the Blue Funnel tanker Titan on R/T. I bet he doesn't remember that......
rgds
Graham Powell


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## hawkey01

Morning Graham,

yes I am sure that Homer was the urgent address. I recall using it on only one occasion with Blueys. That was when we were entering Xinjiang - we were the first Bluey back into China after the problems with one of the Glen ships. Cant remember the full details of that but I am sure it will be in the Blue Funnel forum.We had a fairly long stay at anchor and the Chinese were a bit of a pain to say the least. Also we were anchored with ice all around for some days.
No cant say I remember the occasion with the R/T and Titan but the ship I certainly do remember - almost remembered its callsign but it has moved on!

TITAN (4) was built in 1972 by A/B Gotaverken at Gothenburg with a tonnage of 113,551grt, a length of 1090ft 4in, a beam of 149ft 11 in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. She was an oil tanker built for Ocean Titan Ltd but in 1973 ownership was recorded as being Elder Dempster Lines. However, when she entered service the time was not right as the oil crisis of 1973 following the Arab-Israeli War had increased oil prices and reduced the demand for tankers. Consequently, in October 1975 she was sold to Mobil Shipping and Transportation Co. of Monrovia and renamed Mobil Condor. On 8th June 1982, although less than twelve years old, she was sold to Nissho Iwai Corp and subsequently broken up by Dongkuk Steel Mill at Pusan, Korea.


For some reason GOTN keeps coming to mind- probably not it.

Neville


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## Roger Bentley

hawkey01 said:


> Morning Graham,
> 
> yes I am sure that Homer was the urgent address. I recall using it on only one occasion with Blueys. That was when we were entering Xinjiang - we were the first Bluey back into China after the problems with one of the Glen ships. Cant remember the full details of that but I am sure it will be in the Blue Funnel forum.We had a fairly long stay at anchor and the Chinese were a bit of a pain to say the least. Also we were anchored with ice all around for some days.
> No cant say I remember the occasion with the R/T and Titan but the ship I certainly do remember - almost remembered its callsign but it has moved on!
> 
> TITAN (4) was built in 1972 by A/B Gotaverken at Gothenburg with a tonnage of 113,551grt, a length of 1090ft 4in, a beam of 149ft 11 in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. She was an oil tanker built for Ocean Titan Ltd but in 1973 ownership was recorded as being Elder Dempster Lines. However, when she entered service the time was not right as the oil crisis of 1973 following the Arab-Israeli War had increased oil prices and reduced the demand for tankers. Consequently, in October 1975 she was sold to Mobil Shipping and Transportation Co. of Monrovia and renamed Mobil Condor. On 8th June 1982, although less than twelve years old, she was sold to Nissho Iwai Corp and subsequently broken up by Dongkuk Steel Mill at Pusan, Korea.
> 
> 
> For some reason GOTN keeps coming to mind- probably not it.
> 
> Neville


Neville, She was GOTG. Your were pretty close. Regards, Roger


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## Graham P Powell

Hi Neville, Didn't realise that you were with Blu Flu. What lovely ships they had.
Dave Bentley was with them as well. You were working the Titan when we being shown round GKA on our first day!. No wonder you don't remember it.
It was a long long long time ago...............
All the best
rgds
Graham


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## Tai Pan

Never heard of Homer, only Odyssey in my day. Actually worked in Odyssey works for 6 months at the end of my time with Holts, helping out Jimmy Shuttleworth.


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## hawkey01

I have to say that our memories could be incorrect on this Urgent address. However nearly every shipping company had an urgent address - obviously to speed up action within the office etc. I am now beginning to doubt myself about the Homer address. 

My memory cant be too bad as I nearly got the Titans callsign correct - only one letter wrong! Considering it was back in the 70's.

Maybe someone will come up with the definite answer on this.

Hawkey01


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## marco nista

> However nearly every shipping company had an urgent address - obviously to speed up action within the office etc.


Dredging up dim distant memories of many trips with with Joe Shell in the 60s I recall their regular tel.ads as being 'SHELTANUK' & their emergency address being 'SHELGETIM'

Thats got me thinking & I'll probably spend the rest of the week trying to remember telegraphic addresses . . . . . 

73s

Marco


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## hawkey01

Marco,

yes that is a good one. Urgebritank was another for BP.

Hawkey01


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## Ron Stringer

Shell tankers in the 1960s (San Florentino) SHELLIMAR and SHELTANUK and offshore with Shell in the 1960s/1970s (Staflo) SHELGETIM.


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## spacetracker

At B&C it was Cayzerquik


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## Varley

CAYZERQUICK most imaginative to date but I think the Diamond D has trumps with SPEEDHOLM. A certain nameless Master who, by some, was considered to overuse it got it as additional forename!

Back to the mundane with Texaco's URGETUK. 

David V


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## sparks69

hawkey01 said:


> Marco,
> 
> yes that is a good one. Urgebritank was another for BP.
> 
> Hawkey01


Being pedantic !

URGBRITANK with out the "E" - possibly cheaper with out the "E"


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## Graham P Powell

One of my ex GKA colleagues told me last night that the urgent telegraphic address for Blue Funnel was ILIAD. 
rgds
Graham Powell


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## hawkey01

Graham,

good - knew there was one. 

Neville


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## trotterdotpom

sparks69 said:


> Being pedantic !
> 
> URGBRITANK with out the "E" - possibly cheaper with out the "E"


More pedantry: I'm pretty sure it became two words after 15 letters so the "e" wouldn't affect the cost. Saved a "dit" though.

John T


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## david.hopcroft

I thought that one word was 10 letters - so dropping the 'E' would count. No doubt some of you GKA'ers remember 'blocks' of greek ??

David
+


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## Graham P Powell

Hi David,
Some messages in English looked indecipherable when divided into 10 character blocks. I sure some skippers who's English was poor would have had a job to make head or tail of them.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## trotterdotpom

Oh no, was it 10 letters? There goes the memory again! Could it have been 15 letters and then reduced to 10 by any chance?

John T


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## hawkey01

JT,

10 letters. It did cause some interesting results when the office did not think how it read. One classic one was the first group - shipisold -which was taken by the RO, as ship sold. However it actually read ship is old. The cost - quite a few msgs to rectify the misunderstanding - 2/1 chargeable - As David said some of the Greek companies were masters of the art. Colocotronis London seems to come to mind. Their telex address was Colocotron - 10.
The other thing that shipping companies jumped at was when for reasons best known to BT, SLT's were allowed to be used for ships business and not solely for private correspondence. Huge stores requisitions etc. were common after that. In fact quite a few companies sent weekly reports by SLT.

Hawkey01


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## Ron Stringer

When did they change the word-count rules? When I left the sea in 1966 it was still 15-letter words in plain language.


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## jimg0nxx

When I left in 1974 it was still 15.

Jim


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## richardwakeley

Word count rule was changed sometime around mid 70s.

In Blue Funnel we sent an SLT to India Buildings once a voyage, homeward bound, with engine performance info etc. A slight difference from today's daily reports.


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## Robert Wheeler

For some reason I had it in my head that it was ten letters to the word. Looking in the Handbook for R/O's (1975) it states 15 letters for words appearing in a standard dictionary providing it is not a combination or contraction of those words. Otherwise it should be counted as 5 letters to the word.

Or, perhaps when it was changed to ten letter groups it was then okay to join words up?

30 years ago and I can't remember.


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## trotterdotpom

Phew, I'm not going mad after all!

Sounds like a good idea to send non-essential messages by SLT, especially things like stores orders - look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. Probably saved enough lolly to put a thicker carpet in the boardroom.

John T


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## Tai Pan

SLTs in my day were 6shillings and 8 pence for 20 words, three made a quid. never used for ships buisiness and still cant remember if we had a quick address in Bluies.


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## Tony Selman

I must say I always thought SLT's were for private messages only. I can't remember ever sending one on ship's business.
An imaginative use of an SLT in my early days in Brocks was for the C/O to send an SLT to his wife every couple of weeks updating her on schedules, ships news etc. She then sent it to a pre arranged group of wives and girlfriends and kept them in the loop. This was very useful when we used to spend a few weeks at anchor outside Colombo and with erratic mail from the sub continent it kept the Mem Sahibs informed. An SLT shared between a few people was good value.


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## trotterdotpom

One of the rules for SLTs was that they were private messages only, but they must have changed that sometime, as Hawkeye says.

I sent quite few to Interflora so the distinction must have been between private (ie crew or passengers) messages and those on ship's business.

I used to try and talk people into the economy of SLTs but they rarely listened. I think they liked the drama of a telegram boy arriving at the house.

All gone now, of course. I suppose at weddings the Best Man reads out the "twitter messages" (whatever they are).

John T


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## hawkey01

I cannot remember exactly when the SLT's were allowed to be used for business messages. I have some recollection that one of the large shipping companies lobbied BT to allow them to be used for ships business. Of course if one did it then it snowballed throughout the industry. We RO's did not think this was fair however the powers that be decided and that was it. I am sure this would have followed a price increase for all radio traffic. Also it was probably at the same time as the word counting was amended. I should remember exactly when as I worked in the accounts department periodically,for many years. I have been doubting myself about the 10/15 letters per word. However I know that it was 15 with plain language and of course 5 per code group or multiples there of. When shipping companies decided to start running words together it would have been a huge decrease in BT profits if it was 15. Therefore 10 became the charge point. For instance Portisheadradio - 15 characters was always charged - in the new system - as 2/1.
Maybe Larry has the dates and the definitive answer with his data.

Hawkey01


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## Graham P Powell

I thought P and O were the worst offenders. You could really struggle trying to take down a 600 word ships business SLT on the Pacific watch and two hours later get a QSA4/5 signal on 16mhz. I wonder howmany blokes just tuned off and said QRM5 OM? I took one once of over 1200 words. Just imagine what that would have cost as a full rate QTC.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## 5TT

Graham, 

I remember SLTs were a 22 word minimum charge and the rate was substantially lower, presumably only because the forwarding land line cost was replaced by a postage stamp. 

Did the receiving station get the normal cut per charged word?

= Adrian +


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## Graham P Powell

Hi Adrian, Sorry cannot remember anything about charging. I've taken long stores orders and reports on major shipboard incidents down on SLT pads
saved the
he companies money but the Post Office must have made a loss on them.
Ridiculous as they were really only meant as a cheap way for the crew to communicate. They went down on special forms at GKA and ships were asked to announce SLT at the beginning. Very often they didn't and it was a mad scramble to get the right form in the typewriter.By time I got to GKA the SLT's were all copied on a photocopier no typing them up....
One thing I took quite a few of with RML was Ocean Letters. Anybody else taken any of those?
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Tai Pan

R651400 said:


> The 1954 HMSO Handbook for Radio Operators gave this exact same sum and word count for private use only. 6/8d 20wds.
> On addresses I suppose a PO Box would be the shortest route acceptable for SLT's.
> The worst task of my RO2 time at GKA, typing endlessly SLT's on and around this time of year.


and I thought you loved us sea going R/Os. (Pint)


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## trotterdotpom

Pretty sure, when I started SLTs were 10/- (ten bob) for 20 words.

Getting back to the original thread, I also boiled fish livers - you could refuse but only if you wanted a smack in the head!

John T


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## Graham P Powell

For those of you ex GKA
..... me Mulholland, dis Kaput...............
He's still around. People have seen him round Burnham driving a buggy.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## 5TT

> Post Office must have made a loss on them


Hi Graham, 
I also can't remember charges now, there was always a station and landline charge to add up, plus ship tax if it was a private message but I think you're right, SLTs were too cheap for the coast station to take their normal rate per word. 
I never witnessed the company I worked for exploiting this but some captains used to compose their messages with words joined by forward slashes to try and save a few bob. One Captain's handwriting was so bad I'd have to go down and ask him to help me transcribe it, whereupon he'd insist I joined him for a wee dram, kinda explained why I couldn't read it in the first place !!
You say that ships were supposed to indicate the traffic prefix prior to transmission but we were never told about that at college, or at least the college I went to, it's something I picked up as I went along, OBS first, then MSG, then SLT announcing each one with a QRV?
On our side we only had the Marconigram or IMR forms depending on the accounting company for that ship (GB08 and GB07?), same for everything, and that would be in the type writer before I started, unless the ship was rolling so much that the typewriter was unreliable ( typewriter carriages are notoriously bad at going uphill ) 
Perhaps if we still used morse keys today we'd be sending SETs, Ship Email Telegrams, with the joined AC as the @ sign in the address, which under the charging rules for addresses would be one word no matter how long it was?
There's an interesting one ..

= Adrian +


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## Graham P Powell

Hi Adrian, I seem to remember a guide to working GKA ( four volumes thick and many thousands of pages!!!) that said that on their initial call ships should indicate if they had SLT traffic. I don't remember being told that at college myself but I have seen it somewhere. Somewhere it also said that ships with OBS were giving priority as were TPR's ( Trawler Position Reports) and ZBO's
(Naval traffic). 
We had very old IMperial telegraph typewriters and the carriages used to jump about as if you were on a ship. I saw one being jumped on and chucked out of a window one day. When management were looking for the culprit, thirty odd guys and nobody saw a thing. Eventually we got new Olympia telepgraph typewriters and they lasted till the computers came in.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Bob Murdoch

Hi, Guys,
When I went to college in 1956/57, and during my time at sea with Macaroni the SLT charge was definitely 6/8 for 20 words. 
We were not instructed to indicate that it was a SLT when calling and I never did. Although looking back it would have been easier for the coast station guy to set up the correct form.
Never received any OLs but certainly sent a bunch almost exactly 53 years ago, when on my first solo ship Wilson's TASSO/GLMR, out of Hull when heading for the Med, Algeirs first stop. We actually had condenseritis, or some such and had to call at Lisbon to have it put right. Limped into Lisbon ,on 24th December, so had a great Christmas.
Cheers Bob


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## Varley

Bob, I thought condenseritis was something Chief Engineers caught. Early symptom being overly particular attention to boiler water consumption. My cabin was above the Chief's (Stonehaven), and one of its in***bents, a sufferer, could hear me showering and would complain that Sparkie's didn't need a daily wash! David V


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## Troppo

Hello all,

I'm amazed (but not surprised) at the stories of parsimonious shipping companies using SLT's for company traffic.....



Was never done on the Aussie coast, to my knowledge.


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## GBXZ

Were SLTs only applicable to UK/Commonwealth companies or could other countries use them ?


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## trotterdotpom

Troppo said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I'm amazed (but not surprised) at the stories of parsimonious shipping companies using SLT's for company traffic.....
> 
> 
> 
> Was never done on the Aussie coast, to my knowledge.


Did they ever have SLTs in Australia? I came here in 1980 and don't recall ever hearing of them.

John T


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## Troppo

Yes, mate - we had SLTs. Not used very much. 

It was a blue form, from memory..


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## Graham P Powell

I don't remember taking any SLT's from foriegn ships on ships business only personal ones for addresses in the UK. I have a feeling we had odd ones that actually went abroad. Hawkeye and Larry might be able to confirm that.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Graham P Powell

Don't remember any Loniar ones myself. I thought the Niarchos guys were the best we worked.Very slick. On nights you would answer one and find three or four more waiting behind him.I suppose with synthesized tx's or whatever they all knew each others working frequencies.
Other companies could have taken a lesson out of their book.GKA had a private wire to Skaramanga ( always reminds me of The Man with the Golden Gun)
Regards
Graham Powell


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## Tony Selman

As an ex PandO man I can state that I never used to send SLT's on company business in my time there between 1969 and 1975. It may have happened after that, or perhaps even it was just some Captain's. 
I cannot remember at this distance whether I was taught at college or not but I always used to indicate what tfc I had when I went up to a working frequency.


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## Bill Greig

Hi Tony,
I was with P & O from '75 until '78. I too never sent an SLT on ships business, either with GCD or BSD.
Bill


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## Larry Bennett

Graham P Powell said:


> For those of you ex GKA
> ..... me Mulholland, dis Kaput...............
> He's still around. People have seen him round Burnham driving a buggy.
> rgds
> Graham Powell


Graham and the GKA guys,

Don is indeed still around, but virtually blind - suggest give him a wide berth if you see him in his buggy around Burnham. Understand he's in his 90s now and still regularly corresponds with me via email - takes a keen interest in news of ex-staff.

He even has a facebook page to keep in touch with his children and grandchildren.

Larry +


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## Graham P Powell

Hi Larry,
Glad he is still around. I haven't seen him for many years. Can you remember who used to send SLT's all five or ten character groups mainly of strokes and figures?.
I have a vague feeling it was one of the oil companies . Trouble is it was all so long ago now and we took hundreds of messages over the Christmas period.
regards
Graham


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## Larry Bennett

Graham P Powell said:


> Hi Larry,
> Glad he is still around. I haven't seen him for many years. Can you remember who used to send SLT's all five or ten character groups mainly of strokes and figures?.
> I have a vague feeling it was one of the oil companies . Trouble is it was all so long ago now and we took hundreds of messages over the Christmas period.
> regards
> Graham


Graham

Pretty sure it was Mobil or Texaco - certainly not Shell, Esso or BP. I would hedge my bets on Mobil, but as you say it was a long time ago. I thought at the time these companies were having a laugh sending 500+ word business SLTs, and as you say a pain having to take them directly on the SLT forms. Luckily radiotelex and Inmarsat made these SLTs a thing of the past, and I think the SLT service shut down around 1990 - to be replaced by RTLs (Radio Telex Letters) - but that's another story!

Larry +


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## Graham P Powell

Larry, Texaco. With some of the chaps saying they were with P and O and didn't send any SLT's on ships business, I think it must have been down to individual captains as I certainly remember taking some. First ship of the day on the Pacific watch...
groan!. A long day in prospect. Radio Telex Letters, Forgotten all about them.....regards
Graham


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## Naytikos

Posted by R651400


> Can't vouch from this length of time but am certain Niarchos used SLT's for low priority traffic and one way to increase the priority was to send a SLT or even a letter to a ship on the Loniar net for posting on arrival in the UK.


Posted by Graham Powell


> Don't remember any Loniar ones myself. I thought the Niarchos guys were the best we worked.Very slick. On nights you would answer one and find three or four more waiting behind him.I suppose with synthesized tx's or whatever they all knew each others working frequencies.
> Other companies could have taken a lesson out of their book.GKA had a private wire to Skaramanga ( always reminds me of The Man with the Golden Gun)
> Regards
> Graham Powell


The Niarchos policy during my time was indeed to use SLTs for certain low-priority matters, particularly when the operation was entirely managed from London. The word was that GKL, as it then was, would simply hang on to the message for 24 hours and then send it on the dedicated telex circuit anyway. Someone from the GKA fraternity can, no doubt, confirm if that was really what happened.

Mind you, if you happened to be on one of the Greek-flag ships, then it was still cheaper to send the message as a QTC to the Piraeus office via SVA, and they would put it on the telex to London.

When the management shifted to Skaramanga the policy seemed to fall away.


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## Graham P Powell

I cannot for the life of me remember Niarchos Co Ltd SLT's. No doubt there were some but I just cannot remember them!. (Old Age). Most Niarchos traffic went straight on the private wire. One R/O was detailed just to look after PW's.
If there were SLT's they would have gone in the post . Hawkeye will know,
he worked in the accounts.
Sorry not much help but it was always a pleasure to work you guys.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Graham P Powell

I think the Mul was ex Royal Signals. Army man anyway. 
Several of them had been torpedoed etc and were still paying the price with nightmares etc. The guys were great in there and it was ( to me anyway) a wonderful place to work. I'd be down there like a shot if it re opened.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Tai Pan

R651400 said:


> I think the idiocy of the two tier structure drove a lot of us away but I have to be fair it gave me the chance to enjoy the experience with only 2nd Class PMG.
> A one tier structure with promotional chances on merit and not dead man's shoes would have definitely reduced the turnover and produced a lot more loyalty.


I find the comments interesting. I always thought GKA was a happy place, in all the time I was at sea I never had a cross word with them, always found them helpful and efficient, remember guys, you were our phyisical connection with home. HNY and cuagn.(Applause)


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## Graham P Powell

I went to GKA after the two tier structure had been abandoned. It was also just after the proposed move to Somerton was knocked on the head. (Somerton , a small town about 16 miles away had 1500 acres of aerials whereas we had 34 at Highbridge). There were definitely problems there because when we were in the training school, the Post Office did a "Human Factors Study" and we interviewed about it. Hawkeye will remember that better than me. Once I got into the station and the hang of the work, I really enjoyed it there. The guys were really great to work with and its nice to see some them still around the town and chew the fat over the old days. I remember showing a friend round who was a full Colonel in the Royal Signals and he was mightily impressed with it and the way all the traffic was handled. Its awful to see it now, as the old station was knocked down and housing estate rather like Wormwood Scrubs built on the site. Happy New Year to one and all.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Tai Pan

Thanks Graham, I was wrong, only got told off once by GLD for testing spark emergency tx at about 9am GMT, not a good idea. I was at somerton some years ago before it all went away, the Radio Officers amateur section spent a weekend there, it was in its dying days, they erected some antennas for us and sat us at two redundant consoles, which they gave to us after, Dave Barlow strill uses his. I saw the antenna farm and must say I was very impressed, i would have liked to hook up to what seemed to bean electrical rotary rhombic


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## Graham P Powell

Somerton led a charmed life largely because it was the back up to a Very Important circuit during the Cold War. Some of the R/T section was moved over there and R/O's from Burnham taken over in a mini bus. I suffer badly from car sickness so I always swopped off it when I could. The reception over there was unbelievable. Tremendous signals. We also had access to high quality operator trunk lines as opposed to the standard STD lines used by everybody else. Now its been completely flattened. I believe there were plans to build 1500 houses on the site but still just a large pile of masonry where the old building stood. The Post Office wanted people to move over there without providing housing or schools and justifiably the Union dug its heels in and the plans were abandoned. Our signals eventually came from Somerton via a micro wave link the signals being bounced off the Mendip TV transmitter mast.
The RACAL receivers we had were just front panels. The actual RX's were at Somerton. Nice little place Somerton but not much there. One minor item of interest is that its one of only few places with civilian names on the war memorial. Result of a rogue bomber returning from a raid on Bristol.
All the best
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Tai Pan

Just proves a point that the RX operator had to be good and his equipment including antennas very good, considering the ERP from a ship must have been miserable, all that copper tubing etc etc, R/F all over the place and the antennas, no respecful amateur would have it in their shack. they did show us that cold war equipment when we were there, it was redundant like most of the equipment, except the kettle. cheers graham and thanks for info. TP


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## Ron Stringer

Visited Somerton several times, beginning when we were trying to persuade the GPO to adopt SITOR. One suggestion was that it would be fitted there rather than (as it finished up) at Burnham. Much admired the operating positions for the R/T and the quality of the signals - streets ahead of the set-up at Burnham. Also the point-to-point equipment for the links to Salisbury (Rhodesia, not Wiltshire) and other far-flung destinations.

As an outsider it seemed a far more amenable station than the "other place". The R/T service that it provided was excellent and on a par with any other manual HF R/T system anywhere in the world. We were assured that W/T operations and any "new" services would be transferring there. Didn't happen of course, neither did the fully-automated telex service that they assured us was being planned. Comsat-General and then INMARSAT took the lot.


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## Graham P Powell

Hi Ron, Compared to working at Burnham it was very laid back over there.
The non appearance of management might have had something to do with that!.
The signals received there were superb and the very high quality phone line made handling calls a pleasure. Three or four Somerton engineers were retrained as R/O's. Most of them didn't like it but at least one stayed the course and you could always swop an all day at Burnham for a short evening at Somerton ( he ended up working less than you!). I seemed to remember the RN using Somerton a lot. The Burnham R/T receivers were Post Office point to point ones and not easy to tune wherease Somerton had state of the art ( at the time) Racals fed by those huge aerials. The pub lunches were nice though I only went once due to the previously mentioned car sickness brough on by Crazy Ron's driving....
rgds
Graham Powell


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## hawkey01

Somerton.

As Graham says in their wisdom and without any thought BT decided that they would move the whole station to Somerton. In some respects this would have been a good idea. Superb aerial system and also a large number of buildings ready to be converted. Good telephone lines and I am sure lots of other things which have receded in my mind. 
Somerton was previously a important station as it was a major point to point telex station. Before the days of sats etc. When we first had the additional RT consoles there we or they were still running I think 4 point to point networks with overseas countries - unfortunately which ones I cannot remember. The one which is famous is the Falkland Islands, it was this link that first gave the news of the invasion of the Falklands in 1982. Larry may have the info on which were the last stations. I had the misfortune of being snowed in there one winter. Needless to say we were not prepared for a sleep over. Any food which we had was already consumed and nothing available there. I think we had some coffee/tea but nothing else. There was sleeping accommodation there with bunk beds. Probably a throw back to the cold war usage. No blankets or any niceties. Eventually the next day we were extracted if my memory serves me correctly by Landrover down to the village and there met with the mini bus. Driven by one of a Kamikaze drivers. I stopped using the mini bus and drove myself to Somerton - the drivers frightened the life out of me.
At that time I lived in a village a little way from GKA and was dropped off at around 10'ish. I was due back on duty at 1300 but in my naivety thought that the powers would understand that a lack of sleep and food etc entitled us to miss this one. I had a phone call not long after 1300 asking were I was. Needless to say after a few strong words I said that in no way was I attending. Nothing came of this as someone with more savvy decided that it was justified. Cannot remember how it was all resolved but I assume the union had a hand in it. 
We did have a company attend GKA and spent many days and huge amounts of money I am sure speaking to everyone about the move. If BT had gone about it the right way it could possibly have happened. But with a bull in a china shop attitude it was a no go. So many young RO's with new mortgages and small children etc etc having to move to Somerton which was very expensive - because it was and is a very popular small town. So huge losses would be incurred and no compensation at all to cover this. Also the schooling was not suitable - not enough places etc. Some later entry RO's did buy out that way with the idea it would happen but they caught a cold as they then had a fairly long commute to work.
It was after this that the new GKA station was planned and eventually built around the original buildings. 
As Graham has said - we both live very close to the old station site - it is a ghastly new building development.

Hawkey01


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## david.hopcroft

All the above sounds very familiar to me. Only I was thinking of DOC - Distributed Operator Control. Plan A was for all the coast stations to be centred at Burnham. Which of course meant all CS men moving to Somerset. I even got as far as looking round the area. There was opposition of course, but I think in the end, there was not enough money to throw at it, so we ended up staying put and becoming an interconnected data network. 

My only claim to fame at the end was that I did actually get to 'turn the lights off' at GKZ

David
+


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## Graham P Powell

I have a feeling that Somerton worked in conjunction with a TX site at Dorchester but I don't think it was the BBC World Service site at Rampisham.
Beamed signals to South Africa come to mind. There was also at one stage a beamed TX station in Bridgwater which may have worked with Somerton.
There is a road called Beam Lane near there. 
I remember Hawkeye being caught in the snow. The Union sorted that out.
Ridiculous expecting people to turn up after a night trapped in poor conditions in the snow but that was our mighty management.
Kamikaze drivers were right. Crazy Ron was truly fightening. I had a Post Office driving licence I should have driven the bus myself. I seem to remember two or three guys who moved over there but had to move back to Burnham with the Post Office paying their expenses. Water under the bridge now.
regards
Graham Powell


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## Ron Stringer

Graham,

It was the old C & W station near Dorchester. Have a look at 

http://www.gb4imd.org.uk/dorchester.htm


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## Graham P Powell

Ron, Had a look at that. Very interesting. I always understood that GKA was situated where it was because it picked up the long wave transmissions from the Queens. (GBTT and GBSS). Funnily enough, not more than 800 yards from where GKA was is the terminal for the Atlantic fibre optic cable . Very discreet building with no indication of what it is. If the Post Office had moved the Marine HF station to Somerton in the 50's it would have been brilliant but they didn't and its all history now.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## peterh76-86

*Bonded Stores*

The first time I had to do a customs declaration for the bonded stores as R/O, was arriving in Felixstowe. Made a complete pigs ear of it, had a little laugh about it, but reminded by HMC that this was a legal do***ent, he then came down with me to the stores and helped fill out another form. Nice fellow.
On another occasion, Felixstowe again (regular run), was told by HMC that the ship was getting near to its annual spirit allocation (did not realise we had an allocation). Not really surprised at this as most of the crew were onto a nice little earner once the ship got back to Canada.


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## Barrie Youde

Hi, chaps!

Please forgive my ignorance.

Please would somebody explain how any of the above relates to Finnish Ships?

The ships of Finland Steamship Co were regular visitors to the Mersey in days gone by. Fine ships they were, too.

I was priviliged to pilot many of them in the 1960s,70s and 80s.

My wife is Finnish and my daughters are accordingly half-Finnish.

And I'm baffled!! Does "Finnish" mean something different in Sparks-speak?

V best,

BY


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## sparkie2182

Nope.

That's two of us who are baffled.


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## Barrie Youde

Many thanks!!


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## sparkie2182

Welcome Barrie.


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## Barrie Youde

Hi, Sparkie!

Do please see my thread on "The Last Grain Race". An extraordinary chain of events.

I enjoy your quiz greatly - and was astonished to get a right answer!

V best,

BY


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## John Dryden

I thought the original poster worked on Finnish ships and was asking if it was normal to do extra duties, such as tallying cargo,on other flagged ships..I will say, though,in the Bank Line you couldn,t see the sparkies **** for dust as soon as we were tied up..and if I was lucky I was right behind him!


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## trotterdotpom

Jaysav, a Finnish RO, started the thread but he seems to have lost interest when it was hi-jacked by Portishead round about page 2.

John T


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## Barrie Youde

Many thanks, chaps!

Memo to self:- (i) read the introduction! (ii) do not jump to conclusions!

Best,

BY


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## sparkie2182

" "The Last Grain Race""

Thank you Barrie................greatly enjoyed.

Your kind comment ref "Sparkies Quiz" is appreciated.

S2182


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