from THE LAKEHEAD AMATEUR RADIO CLUB JOURNAL HI-Q December 2003

When I read Bill Unger's article in the October edition of Hi-Q regarding Radio
Beacons and `Silence Periods' (15 and 45 minutes past the hour for 3 minutes)
on 500 Kcs I thought of the 7 and a half years I spent at sea and the 3 years on
Marine Coast Stations and how many times I logged "Silence Period Observed".
Interesting years !!!
Of course silence periods were very important in order to detect weak SOS and
urgent signals. 500 Kcs was a very busy frequency in certain areas eg. North
Sea, English Channel, St. Lawrence, US Coasts, weak signals could go undetected.
There were also 'Silence Periods' on the Radio Telephony distress frequency, 2182
Kcs, every hour, 00 to 03 and 30 to 33 minutes.
Before the advent of Radar, Decca Navigators and other electronic navigational
systems the Radio Beacon and Direction Finders were very important navigational
devices. It was part of the Radio Officers (R/0) Job to operate the Ships Direction
Finder especially when making a landfall in poor weather conditions if the ship's
navigating Officers had failed to obtain an accurate position for days. At Marine
Coast Stations of course, silence periods were observed and Direction Finders
fitted in order to take bearings of passing ships if requested. The Adcock svstem
of direction finding was usually used at Coast Stations.
I started to think about going to sea in 1944 when I left Secondary School in
Edinburgh, Scotland, at the age of 15 and a half. This entailed spending about
six months at Radio College to acquire a wartime “special licence”. Most_ Merchant
ships at that time carried 3 Radio officers so there was no problem in getting
employment after passing the find exam. However before I could finish the course
WW2 ended and ships went to Peacetime-Staffing- most Ships carrying only one
R/O. Passenger ships 3 to 14 R/O's depending on the number of passengers. RMS
Queen Mary radio staff consisted of 12 to 14 Radio Officers. I continued at College
taking night classes until I passed the Second class Licence, issued by the British
Postmaster General, in late 1946, (I obtained the First Class Licence in 1951).
With all the 'Q' codes, Morse and technical knowledge I joined my first ship, the
MV ‘Tamaroa' in London, England in January 1947. My employer was Marconi
Marine. This company employed around 3000 R/OS. AS a rookie R/O I was number
four in the Radio Staff- the ship carried four R/Os.
On that voyage the 'Tamaroa’ sailed to the Argentine via Cape Verde Islands, Rio
de Janario, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. We returned to Glasgow, Scotland calling
at the same ports. After a short leave I signed on a Prince Line Ship ‘Eastern
Prince' a Troopship sailing hetween Leith, the port of Edinburgh, and Danzig,
Poland, returning Polish army personnel to their country after WW2. After about 8
trips to Danzig, Marconi Company figured I was experienced enough to take over
as R/O on a one operator ship. Ships over 1600 Gross tons- the first one being the
‘Corfoss’- a Coaster traversing the east coast of UK. The main transmitter on this
ship was tubeless (not transistorized) a spark transmitter!!! and the receiver,
a TRF type. (some of the older amateur radio operators will know about the 'spark’
TX's although I don't think they were ever used in amateur operations). Even on my
first cross Atlantic ship, the 'Baron Napier' the main TX was a spark set !!! The old
‘spark' did pretty good at times on 500 kcs – often it made 1200 or so miles. .
On ships with one operator a daytime watch was kept 0800-1000, 1200-1400,
1600-1800 and 2000-2200, while at sea. When the operator was off watch or out of
the radio room taking DF bearings or repairing equipment,the 500Kcs watch was
taken over by an Automatic Alarm system. This alarm equipment was actuated by a
signal of 4 second dashes with spaces of one second.The signal was sent before the
SOS message (if possible). An enormous bell, situated in the Radio Operator’s
Cabin, would jolt the operator into action. During my time at sea I served on 15
8 HI-Q, LARC December 2003
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vessels of various types ie. Passenger ships, Oil tankers, Colliers, European coasters and tramp ships
taking me to countries such as Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Gibraltar, Malta, Italy, Algeria,
Tunisia, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Yemen, India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Australia,
Mozambique, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde Islands,
Caracas, Iran, Panama, El Salvador, US. and Canada.. Some of these countries more than once. A great
way to see the world. Unfortunately I did not get to Japan or China.. However, on board ship, the food was
good and the pay not too bad either.
On Board ship I never had to use an SOS signal (gratefully but had to use the urgency signal a
couple of times). Once aboard an Oil Tanker when we broke our mooring at Port Said harbour, and
required tugs urgently, and once when medical aid was required - the Chief Steward had severe
stomach pains. At that t ime we obtained assistance from a passenger ship in the
vicinity.

I obtained shore employment in 1953. First of all I did sortie training at
Portishead Radio GKL and then transferred to Wick Radio GKR in Northeast Scotland.

At GKR all SOS and XXX incidents received in the area from Cape Farewell, Greenland, the Arctic,
White Sea and Baltic Sea were reported to British Authorities. As you can guess many cases of
an urgent nature were handled, especially from Trawlers fishing in Northern waters.

1957, my Radio Operating career ended - no more silence periods to listen to.
Perhaps Radio Operators and Morse will be required again at sea,someday
As Bill Unger says "You never know".
John Hastie VE3WF October 2003