"Crappy" CW

[David Ring]

The person sending this in wishes to be anonymous - and if you read
the story, you can understand why. There is more to the title of the
message that meets the eyes.

I hope those of you who have worked at a radio station - AM, FM, or WT
will know about the special 4 minute record that was kept for a
special purpose. WT operators had to make a 3 minute dash.

Read on:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Sparks" <myemail...@myisp.com>
Date: Sun, Jul 27, 2008 at 9:41 PM
Subject: "Crappy" CW
To: n1...@arrl.net

Hi Dave,

If you decide to post the following to the Radio Officer's group,
please do not identify me in the story. It's still a bit
embarrassing. You might think it's too disgusting to post, maybe it
is and that's your call.

I don't know why I'm letting it out, but here goes.

I call this story - "CRAPPY" CW

Following is a story from my time at Mobile Radio/WLO. It is a
strange and very off-putting story. Today I look back at myself and
think "What the hell was wrong with you?"

I liked working at WLO because of the traffic. This was the
mid-1980's, a time when it took around 45 minutes for the WLO traffic
list to run. You could work 100 ships in a day watch there at the
time.

I also enjoyed the mid-watches. It slowed down quite a bit, but just
listening was fun. You could hear ships calling shore stations all
over the world. I remember ships calling a station "HLO", which was
fun because it was only one letter different from WLO, and also it was
like they were saying "HELLO!"

One night I settled into position two, the mid-watch position. I
don't know why everyone used position two out of the three available.
I figured it was because the restroom was right across from the
position so you only had to take a few steps to use it. Whenever I
had to leave the position to use the restroom during the mid-watch, I
would turn up the 500 kc/s receiver audio a bit and leave a small
opening in the door. That way I didn't have to break the safety
watch.

There were only two other people at the receive site at the time.
This was the "land-line lady" who took care of telegram delivery and
the "radio-printer operator" who manned the manual SITOR positions.
They NEVER came into the Morse Room, so it was almost like I was there
by myself. That was fine.

Anyway, I had a nice snack consisting of a pint of chocolate milk with
my meal and was on the WLO 10 PM to 7 AM radiotelegraph watch.

I guess it was about 2 AM when I received a nice strong call on 8
Mc/s. I got a ship (don't remember the callsign) with a 400 word
message. I loved these, because they'd keep you busy, and at 41 cents
USD per word, it'd bring in $164.00 for the station. That was almost
half of my weekly pay there at the time. I got a kick out of that.

"WLO R UP ="

Then...

"WLO R QRK5 QRV K"

We shifted up to his working frequency and he started sending. As he
sent, I got a rumbling feeling in my stomach. I tried to ignore it,
but it got worse. Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to use
the restroom, immediately.

I tried to break the ship. "BK BK BK." No luck. He would not stop
sending. For some reason he could not hear me. He was about 100
words into the message, not quite half way. I knew if I left him
sending I'd miss a whole bunch and would have to get a repeat. That
would make me look very unprofessional in the eyes of the ship
operator. So I used a creative approach.

As I was receiving his message, I got ready for the dash to the
restroom. The restroom was small, it had a toilet and a sink beside
it. Across from the toilet was a small table that was used for
storing spare toilet paper, hand-towels, soap, etc.

We used manual Olympia telegraph mills at the time. I believe they
were made in Germany. These were the BEST telegraph mills ever made
and copying Morse on them was an absolute pleasure.

When the time came, I turned up the audio, grabbed the Olympia mill,
ran to the restroom and quickly placed the Olympia mill on the small
table across from the toilet. I put some space on the page to fill in
the bit I was about to miss while I dropped my pants to do my
business.

Yes, I was "relieving myself" as I copied this telegram.

When he was finished sending and sent his "+ QSL? K", I stumbled out
of the restroom, holding my pants up with one hand and operated the
key with the other. I send "OM PSE AS" At his "R", I went back to
the restroom to "take care of the lose ends."

I did this as quickly as I could. When I was ready, I carried the
Olympia mill back to WLO position 2, noted the spot in the telegram
that I had missed (maybe about 10 words) and sent "OM PSE WORDS
BETWEEN ..." He sent the words between the last one I had received
when I made the move to the restroom and the first one I received once
on the toilet.

I had nothing for him, and he had no further traffic for me, so it was...

"QSL QRU TKS DE WLO 73 SK EE"

I've never told anyone this before. Now, after 20+ years, I have
broken the silence.

73,

"Sparks"

=30=

[Peter Hewitson]

That's a good one! At VID in the 1980's we had a speaker installed in the
loo, as well as a small table with writing pad, pencil etc, in case you got
a call while you were attending to business. This was for the single
operator night shift. Unfortunately there was no key, or other means of
answering the call, so it was up pants and a dash back to the operating
position if you were interrupted. Later on we used to carry those baby
monitor things around. Even when checking the rain gauge you'd have to carry
this lovely pink hand-held with you.

73
Peter/VK4QC

Read on:

Hi Dave,

---

[David Ring]

QSP de: Adolpho Porta <adolph...@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: "Crappy" CW

AP writes/escreveu:

Hi DR It was funny. I don´t think it would hurt anybody´s feelings.
We´re not innocent kids. By the way the Bzn R/O I always liked to
listen to, Daniel N. Brito (DB), long before we met he was working for
Air France keeping watch of planes en route, he always laid the key on
the floor and picked up a newspaper to read, so when some stations
called he would key QRU or some other word with his big toes for he
remained most of the time shod in slippers.

73

AP de PPR/Rio de Janeiro (RJ) Radio

[KSM - San Francisco Radio]

>The person sending this in wishes to be anonymous -
>and if you read
>the story, you can understand why. There is more
>to the title of the
>message that meets the eyes.

At the RCA transmitting station in Bolinas, CA, built in 1929, there was a telegraph key and a telegraph sounder mounted on the wall in the men's room stall. I'm sure you grasp the implications: there's no such thing as time off!

Richard Dillman
Chief Operator, KSM
Standing Watch on 600m
=================================
KSM - San Francisco Radio
Radiogram Service to Ships at Sea
Mark Your Messages "Via KSM"
=================================

[Mike Zbrozek]

Hello Group -

Just think if a coastal Opr had a key in the John and told the ship RO...pse qrx
have other paperwork to finish.
The Ship RO would never realize that the other paperwork was not what he had
imagined?

I never worked at a coastal station and from what I have heard I am glad I
never did.
Would not want to be glued to a chair for hours upon hours listening to poor
fists
trying to sent a qtc.........

73
Mike K8XF

[Adolpho Porta]

In my days at PPR we always worked  in pairs. The shifts were from 07:00 to 19:00 hours and from 19:00 to 07:00 o´clock. The station supervisor´s family, who lived in the same building, provided a breakfast at 06:00; the R/O´s who worked the night shift divided their work in this manner, one would rest from 23:00 until 03:00, and the other went to bed from 03:00 to 07:00. We always sent the elderly man to take his rest on the first half. The most annoying thing was that we had to walk from the bus stop, some 20 minutes away, so we always kept some clothing to change in case it rained dogs and cats. On Sundays any one who rooted for a soccer team would ask another guy to replace him and take up his shift on the following week. Fortunately no one ever asked for a sickleave. Usually some guys who were undergoing CW training in a school were admitted to visit the station during working shifts so they could realise what was going on. But they never were supposed to receive messages. In fact we were a popular group.

Another job we did was to call up the shipping companies´ manager and let them know the amount of cargo to unload when the ships docked. This would help them plan their work. Some of them even called in the evening asking if the ships´

master didn´t advise the space available. The most annoying thing was the land telegraph that connect us to the main office downtown. I miss those days, when you finished work and took a dive at the Ipanema Beach.

 

2008/7/30, Mike Zbrozek <k8...@verizon.net>:

[Joel]

On Jul 30, 12:09 pm, "Mike Zbrozek" <k8...@verizon.net> wrote:
<snip>

> I never worked at a coastal station and from what I have heard I am  glad I
> never did.
> Would not want to be glued to a chair  for hours upon hours listening to poor
> fists trying to sent  a qtc.........
>
> 73
> Mike K8XF

After a while at KLC it became an automatic response, as if your
fingers had a mind of their own and would punch the typewriter keys
corresponding to the incoming Morse Code stream. Your brain disengaged
from the process. Many times I would drift off into a daydream while
copying a long message and look down to see the message blank filled
with words. Watches went by quickly and when you walked out the door,
you left it there with nothing to take home to contemplate. In that
sense it was a "no brainer" and low stress.

It took a long time for me, perhaps a full year of copying code day in
and day out, to reach the point where there was no longer any
conscious effort required in translating the sound of the code to its
associated letter of the alphabet. At that point you became fluent in
Morse as if it were a spoken language. There could be a beehive of
activity on 8 and 12 MHz calling channels, but if there was a weak
signal calling "KLC," it popped out just like someone calling your
name.

Today we are overloaded with information, but in those days people
took time to compose their thoughts. Communicating may not have been
nearly as fast, but it was certainly more efficient in comparison.
This is progress?

73,
Joel/KG5KD

[W6...@aol.com]

Hi Joel -

    I found that having to always count five words and double space after them and then double carriage throw after every 20 words kept me cognizant of what I was typing.  And those 100+ and 200+ cks kept me really watching what I was doing.  Maybe you didn't have to do that?

    73

        W6BNB/Bob 

---

Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today.

[Joel]

Hi Bob,
Actually I'd probably call CK40 a long message. I tried that grouping
method to expedite the word count for a while and had mixed success,
but it didn't seem to save me much time in the end. Often there was a
dispute over what constituted doubles and you'd have to recount or do
the QTB thing. 5-letter code groups in the Navy were a cinch for that
though. Nice, neat columns!
73,
Joel/KG5KD

On Jul 30, 6:03 pm, W6...@aol.com wrote:
> Hi Joel -
>     I found that having to always count five words and  double space after
> them and then double carriage throw after every 20 words kept  me cognizant of
> what I was typing.  And those 100+ and 200+ cks kept me  really watching what I
> was doing.  Maybe you didn't have to do  that?
>     73
>         W6BNB/Bob  
>

> **************Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for
> FanHouse Fantasy Football today.      
> (http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)

[David Ring]

We had to copy message into 50 word pages. So a 400 word message
would occupy eight (8) pages.

We set up our typewriters for 69 characters per line which was the
same as a standard teleprinter or telex machine.

Some copied five groups to a line. Others copied five groups then
double or quadruple spaced and then the next five groups.

Ten full lines would be 50 words, and we would have the second
radiogram blank already loaded into the back of the typewriter. We
would type page 2 at the top and then start copying again.

Western Union could be a stickler for this format which was the
official ITU format. For telex delivered messages, it was not as
strict.

At the end charged words were 10 characters or less for one word, 11
to 20 counted as two words. Ciphers went for the same price.

As Joel mentioned, I would just type. I would not know what I was
typing I would just type. As Bob Shrader says the counting groups
kept me a bit more conscious.

However, when something dire was in the message part of my mind would wake up.

Being an ex seagoing sparks, when I saw a certain situation, I knew it
was trouble. The message might have gone to the owners or agents in
duplicate. We would have the agents emergency contact numbers at home
and more than one time due to problems which I knew the company would
loose money, I would call the agent. If there was a message that
would be related to an SOS or XXX or near that priority, I would
immediately call the owner with the emergency telephone number.

I was never wrong with my estimation. When a message said the Chief
Mate had a heart attack, I knew the owner needed to know

The delivery would have just gone to the telex machine, but due to the
nature of the message I delivered it by telephone immediately, then I
went to the wire room and either typed it out myself on the correct
machine. We had TWX which was AT and T, ITU, RCA and Western Union.
We used the ITU machine for French Telegraph Company as the crossover
charge was very low and cheaper than having a dedicated machine just
for FTC.

One machine was used for WUD Western Union Domestic, and one for WU.
Since we were close enough to New York we had ITU machines. ITU was
restricted to the port cities in the USA.

Funny what you remember isn't it IMI

Sorry my keyboard has changed settings. Most of the punctuation is
not working. No hyphen no apostrophe and no question mark or quotes.

73

DR

[Michael St. Angelo]

Dave,

When you say ITU I believe you mean ITT World Communications.

I worked for ITT Worldcom starting in 1976. I was in the Engineering
department and did design and development for the telex and message
switching systems. I did minor jobs for the Coastal Stations but I do have a
couple of stories to share.

In those days we designed our equipment. Before my time, our designs were
built our subsidiary, Mackay Marine. They did an impressive job but they
charged us accordingly. Upper management explored the possibility by farming
the work out via competitive bids and found that the cost dropped
dramatically. Mackay lost our business and a good portion of their profits.

There was a 500khz station on the roof of our building at 67 Broad Street in
Manhattan. It was used a "repeater" station to work ships around the harbor.
My Director of Engineering at the time was Al Prekeris, a colorful guy from
Lithuania with a great personality. He started working for Worldcom in the
1950's and one of his first assignments was to design a circuit to detect
the undersea cables used to carry our teletype traffic. He planned to send a
audio signal down the cable and detect it with a high gain transistorized
amplifier of his design. He found that he could not test it in house because
of the interference form the 500 khz transmitter.

73,

Mike N2MS

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Ring" <n1...@arrl.net>
To: <radio-o...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 11:11 PM
Subject: [Radio Officers, &c] Re: "Crappy" CW

-snip -

[Sandy]

Mike,
Was this when Mackay was in Clark, NJ?

By the time I joined the company, they had moved manufacturing facilities to
Raleigh, NC. Did you know a guy named Bob Zalionis? (I might be
mispeclling his name!)

The Head office for Mackay traffic accounting was in Elizabeth, New Jersey
then. The head engineer that designed the 3010 receiver and evbentually the
3020 was there then. Can't remember his name, too long ago now!

I worked for Marconi Marine for a considerable time before I joined Mackay.
Seems like around 1970'ish.

73,

Sandy W5TVW

> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
> Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.5.10/1584 - Release Date: 7/31/2008
> 12:00 PM
>
>
>

[David Ring]

Hello Mike - MS,

You're right as rain on a hot afternoon. ITU and ITT. My fingers got fouled.

The ITT guys like Sandy Blaize, Cy Brill, Frank Cassidy, Wen Benson,
John Lally, and older and no longer here friends like Sam Margolis - I
sat with Sam 20 years ago at a VWOA meeting with his beautiful and
sweet wife Sonia. Sam and Dave Kintzer - ITT and RCA got together
fine at the VWOA meeting. Sam on his sideswiper and Dave on his
Vibroplex!

Wen Ben - we are still awaiting for more stories about the Harbor
Radio stations WSF and WNY. What a vantage point to see the world!

73

DR

[msta...@comcast.net]

Sandy,

 

I don't remember when the vendor change was made. It was probably the early 1970's.

 

Ironically, when ITTWC upgraded their receivers they went with Watkins Johnson instead of Mackay.

 

Mike N2MS.

 

-------------- Original message --------------
From: "Sandy" <ebj...@charter.net>

>
> Mike,
> Was this when Mackay was in Clark, NJ?
>
> By the time I joined the company, they had moved manufacturing facilities to
> Raleigh, NC. Did you know a guy named Bob Zalionis? (I might be
> mispeclling his name!)
>
> The Head office for Mackay traffic accounting was in Elizabeth, New Jersey
> then. The head engineer that designed the 3010 receiver and evbentually the
> 3020 was there then. Can't remember his name, too long ago now!
>
> I worked for Marconi Marine for a considerable time before I joined Mackay.
> Seems like around 1970'ish.
>
> 73,
>
> Sandy W5TVW
>

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael St. Angelo"
> To:
> Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:40 PM
> Subject: [Radio Officers, &c] Re: "Crappy" CW
>
>
> >

[msta...@comcast.net]

[Joel Roberson]

Mike Zbrozek <k8...@verizon.net> wrote: . . .

I never worked at a coastal station and from what I have heard I am glad I
never did.
Would not want to be glued to a chair for hours upon hours listening to poor
fists
trying to sent a qtc.........
73
Mike K8XF

==================================

 

After a while at KLC it became an automatic response, as if your fingers had a mind of their own and would punch the corresponding typewriter keys to the incoming Morse Code stream. Your brain disengaged from the process. Many times I would drift off into a daydream while copying a long message and look down to see the message blank filled with words. Watches went by quickly and when you walked out the door, you left it there with nothing to take home to contemplate. In that sense it was a "no brainer" and low stress. 

 

It took a long time for me, perhaps a full year of copying code day in and day out, to reach the point where there was no longer any conscious effort required in translating the sound of the code to its particular letter. At that point you became fluent in Morse as if it were a spoken language. There could be a beehive of activity on 8 and 12 MHz calling channels, but if there was a weak signal calling "KLC," it popped out just like someone calling your name.

[Mike Zbrozek]

 

 

Joel -

 

I read this already.

 

Mike K8XF

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Joel Roberson

To: radio-o...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 6:14 PM

Subject: [Radio Officers, &c] Re: "Crappy" CW

[Richard Brunner]

Years ago when I was young and ignorant, rather than middle-aged, I
tried to copy ship operators, and COULD NOT COPY THEM. I went back to
the ham bands, and everything was fine. If a ham had such a rotten fist
no-one would work him. This is what discouraged me from going
professional. I have great admiration for the RO's who could copy them.

Richard, AA1P

[Bryan Fisher]

I acknowledge your admiration ::ahem::

I seldom found it difficult to copy ship operators.  I copied hundreds of different fists, and my preference was for the Soviet-bloc operators, who were fast-fast-fast and very accurate.  There were a few operators, of course, of indeterminate nationality (call signs like 3EWK4, etc....) whose fists were absolutely unintelligible...but I could have counted the really terrible ones on one hand.  I found the difficult ones to be a challenge and I relished it - except when one of those slowpokes came up in the middle of an OBS period and wrecked my QRY list.  Eh.  Water under the bridge.

As for the difference between ham operators and ship operators, well...the hams I knew were a highly proficient bunch of operators, to be sure, but I used to love to razz my colleagues who enjoyed amateur radio in their off-hours.  One in particular, who shall remain nameless, used to stand scoffing outside our MF CW position on Guam while newly-hatched RMs were trying their hand at the position, and I once asked him "why are you doing that?"  He elevated his nose and said "I'm an AMATEUR radio operator!"  I said "Oh really?  I'm a PROFESSIONAL radio operator."  There was some other reference we used to make vis-a-vis the definition of a "ham" (it's half of a pig's a$$) but it was always in good humor.

73s

Bryan Fisher
NXFN / NMC2 / NRUO / NMW43 / NMC / NLVS / NYCQ / NBTM / NRV / NMEL / NHWR

[Mike Zbrozek]

 

 

Hello Group

 

Here is a new subject....Have you ever visited many foreign ships in port?

I have  over the years and found that most foreign ships have no spare parts and the

Radio Officer was only a brass pounder. On all the ships that I have sailed all

the companies wanted you to be a wizard and fix everything. Which was  quite

impossible since many companies were cheap and didnt provide many spares.

And I might add not much was available regarding test equipment. Especially

on Lykes Lines ships. They were the worst..........

 

One thing I did notice about  foreign ships was the Radio Officer always offered a beer

when you sat down to talk to him. That was something you cant do on US Flag ships.

And since I left the US Merchant Marine the requirements have increased to such

a high amount that you need certificates for everything. Drug Cert was one. And I

wonder if foreign ships are required to hire Saints like the US Merchant is now

required to do, now .........

 

73

Mike K8XF

 

 

 

[Douglas]

Hi Bryan,

Not to continue too long on this subject since I think
it could stir up hard feelings but...well fools (like
me) go where angels fear to tread....

I've found good ops and good fists on both sides of
the isle plus very bad ones on both.

Some of the worse fists to me were when I first
started sailing in 1978. One of the ops at KLC who
used a bug really puzzled me. Another guy at WPA did
the same. They'd send weather and ALWAYS send "PD'
between words. I took me some time to realize that
they was sending "and". Generally commercial operators
using bugs drove me nuts with that. Over time, my
skills improved and I got used to it BUT, I never felt
it was good sending. Perhaps my problem was that I
learned CW by copying machine sent W1AW code practice
sessions in the early 1970's.

No offense is meant to my ex-navy op friends but the
WORSE ops that I ever ran across was those at NGR in
the Mediterranean during the late 1970's and early
80's, NGR worked HF CW on those "Special" freqs that
were not part of the normal ship HF calling channels.
If I remember correctly, we worked "simplex", i.e.
transmitting and receiving on the same freqs.

Regardless of the time of day, I could only raise NGR
on 8MHz despite the fact that they claimed to also
keep watch on 4 and 12MhZ. Their ops didn't keep a
good watch and I'd have to call them for 30 minutes or
so. GOD forbid, I'd ask them to change freq because
they'd disappear. I think they'd have to call the
transmitter site and have another transmitter turned
on, antennas switched or something like that and
something would always go wrong.

Also the NGR ops on duty during those years could
basically copy about 5 wpm, any faster and they'd
repeatedly ask for fills. I suspect the problem was
that by 1979 or so, the Navy was phasing out CW in
preference to RTTY and simply weren't training guys in
CW. I'm told the service that those Navy comstations
was excellent in the 1960's. But by 1980 it was
horrible at NGR but still good at NBA and NRV.

I was stuck using NGR (No-Good-Radio) since my ships
mandated the sending of USMER QTC to the U.S. Maritime
Administration beside the usual AMVERS. USMERS were
only accepted via U.S. Navy or U.S. Coast Guard
stations. Sometime the propagation in the Med wasn't
right for NMN, etc and I'd be stuck with trying to use
NGR. Things would get pretty desperate for me since I
always wanted to get QTC passed on time. One night I
called and called NGR and was finally answered by the
US Navycomsta at the Holt Naval base in Australia. NRV
Guam also bailed me out a time or two. They kept a
good watch but often the propagation wasn't good to
the Med.

Now the worse fists ever??? At some of the West
African coastal stations.....They also had the habit
of firing up about twice a day with a traffic list.
They'd listen for 5 minutes after the list and if you
didn't get on their QTC list, you'd had it for another
12 hours. Their sending was only somewhat of an
approximation of CW chracters.

73,

Doug/WA1TUT

"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny & oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day." Thomas Jefferson

[Sandy]

What Lykes ships and what years Mike?  Maybe I ran into you somewhere on one I'll bet.  The "usual" place was New Orleans for me.

 

Before I went to work for Mackay and found out what a US ship was, I worked for several years for a division of Marconi Marine.  Worked on a lot of Marconi contract ships.  British, Pakistani, Indian registry mostly.  We also did a lot of Norwegian ships but these had a lot of radio gear that wasn't Marconi stuff.  Even the Norsk Marconi was not British built stuff.  A lot of Standard ST1400 transmitters too.

 

Anyway, all the ships had a pub, and it was very common to  return to the ship after a job and drink a few pints after the job was done.  (In addition to the "before lunch break" in the pub.)  Had some v ery good times with the Brits "after hours". 

 

73,

 

Sandy W5TVW

.

Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.5.12/1592 - Release Date: 8/5/2008 6:03 AM

[Douglas]

Hi Mike,

I visited other ships constantly in foreign ports,
especially when the taxi ride to anyplace worthwhile
was too expensive.

I'd agree with you about the R/O's not fixing things
except for those on a lot of the European ships. I've
met Dutch, French and British R/O's who had just come
up from their engine rooms after working on automation
electronics. They were into having Radio-ELECTRONICS
officers long before most of us U.S. sparks were doing
that job.

As for spares and test equipment, it varied a lot with
the companies. When Marine Transport Lines was the
contractor running the Sealift Class tankers, they had
aboard virtually 100% spares for everything.
Their ships and most Sealand ships carried
oscilloscopes, signal generators, frequency counters,
Bird RF wattmeters, etc. Likewise Farrell Lines
vessels has a 'scope aboard (albeit a cheap 5MHz one),
signal generators, etc. I found that the more I fixed
aboard a ship, the more the companies were willing to
buy test equipment and spares. Once in Bombay, the
local agent for Farrell Lines even had me driven over
to the ship breaker yards so that I could pull spare
parts off of ships that were being scrapped. That was
an interesting day...

It often didn't take a lot of spare parts and test
equipment to fix things - mainly a willingness to try.

Speaking of the Sealift ships...around 1982 I was on
the Sealift Atlantic stationed at Diego Garcia.
A sister ship, the Sealift Caribbean came into port
and the two Captains talked. On the Caribbean, the
Satcom was out, the SSB transmitter was out, one radar
was out and the Magnavox Satnav was out. My Captain
sent me over to the other ship to help them fix
things. When I got over to the Caribbean, I found
their R/O asleep in his bunk. I almost kicked him out
of bed and asked him where his spares were. I found a
locker filled with 100% of the circuit boards for the
Satnav, the radars, and the Harris SSB.

By lunchtime, I had the "bad" radar working (the local
oscillator had needed tuning). The Magnavox Satnav was
displaying a memory dump on its screen - the
microprocessor board had a fault. That was in the
spares and once installed operation was normal. The
Harris SSB had a bad discriminator PCB in its auto
tuner. The PCB was replaced and operation was normal.
The only thing I could not get working in 4 hours was
the old Scientific Atlantic satcom. The LNA in the
dome had bit the dust and no spare was available for
it.

The ship had been without these pieces of gear working
for several weeks. The R/O aboard had not even tried
to make repairs. That's a fault I had with a lot of my
collegues. I suspect that more REO's would be aboard
U.S. flag ships today if more of us had been
productive in terms of repairs.

By the way, the Captain of the Sealift Caribbean was a
great guy. After fixing his stuff he "bought" me
lunch. He was Philip Corl, later dying at sea aboard
the S/S Marine Electric....

I was the permanent MREO aboard the Sealand
Achiever/WPKD from 1991 to 1998. The Captains would
complain bitterly about most of my reliefs not being
willing or able to fix things. I'm no wizard and am no
genius but was always willing to try. That was 90% of
the battle.

[Mike Zbrozek]

 

 

Hello Sandy -

 

I was onboard the SS Jean Lykes/WLAH in 1990 for a trip to se Africa.

The 10CM Radar was original and  just  about worn out. The problems were

many and I got a better picture on that radar but I suspected that the picture

tube needed replacement, or  there was water in the waveguide.

Never called for  a  repair tek while the ship loaded  cargo on the Ms

river for a handshake cruise to Mozambique and Madagascar. Stopped in

S. Africa for  bunkers and stores on the return empty  voyage home.

I have visited other Lykes ships in port and many of the guys complained about the food

and lack of spare parts for all the electronic gear.....BTW, the Jean Lykes was a cw ship.

No wx fax either or satnav...the OM  brought his along  and that was a surprise to me. Because

one day I noticed the satnav antenna was hanging off the flying   bridge wing at a  45 deg angle.

I  fixed the  antennas base and put in one hour of OT and the lousy OM  shot that OT down.

I protested to the ARA Union and got my hour for the labor expended.......After the OM gave me a hard time about

other OT I stopped his phone patches to his  wife  via my ham rig.....sorry Capt the bands are not open today.

 

73

Mike K8XF

[Ragnar Otterstad]

When I read the comments on US coastal and naval stations , I realised how
priviledged we Norwegians were.

The radios onboard were usually of excellent quality, STR of Sweden ( ITT
subsidiary), NERA of Norway.
On my last assignement I had Collins 51J4 as receiver - state of the art at
the time ( 1961 ! ).

I once visited a British ships in an Australian port and was surprised to
see that did not even have HF radio
and had to QSP on MF via coastal stations ! Not sure if that was the norm,
but certainly surprising !

Our coastal station ( Rogaland Radio - LGB etc ) has super signals
everywhere and responded very fast
to a call.

The naval HQ station was in Oslo at the time , LBA and used WW2 German
transmitters. The operators
had to have a commercial certificate , both on land and on naval ships. No
crappy CW there Hi.

rgds

" RAG " Ragnar Otterstad LA5HE JW5HE OZ8RO

ex- JXA - LLID JWUA LJP

Located in Telemark - Home of skiing.

For more information about Telemark take a look at :

http://en.telemarkreiser.no/

[joe]

Hi Mike:

 

You should have came over to the ROU 1978 until 1983 Delta Line cargo paassenger

Santa ships, and they were crying for R/Os that could copy press and !st telegraph to relief Ch/ROe

IIn Laguira , Venzeula I used to see the electricians bring that Polar beer onboard by the palots.

IAnd if they didnt stock up with enough good Polar there was always Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Monty and Baires.r,,  ( was on the  Santa Mercedes) Then after Baires there was Valpo, Chile. for excellent wines and champaign.And then there was the Love story, Norfolk Hotel, etc.  Just day dreaming.

 

73 de Joe w0tut

------------~-------~--~----~
THIS IS THE "RADIO OFFICERS, &C" MAIL LIST - UNSUBSCRIBE AND OTHER SETTINGS ARE BELOW.

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Radio Officers" group.
To post to this group, send email to radio-o...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to radio-officer...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/radio-officers?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

[Mike Zbrozek]

 

 

Hello Joe -

 

In Dec 80 I started on my 6 mos  sea svc  endorsement.

Didnt finish up until June 81. When my ship (5-81) visited Bayonne NJ

I went over to the ROU  with the ships REO for a visit. I met

Bill Sager who was a sour puss. The first thing he said was,

""We have no jobs here for U"" I was on a msc survey vsl and told

him that I might join ROU someday.....and he still repeated the same

thing. I did not get a good impression of ROU from this bum.

The rou at that time was located in Jersey City NJ.

 

73

Mike, K8XF

[Sandy]

It's been too long to remember what 10 cm radar was on the Jean.  It was either an old RCA or a Raytheon though.  I always liked the RCA's better.  The Radytheon sets were harder to work on in my opinion.

 

Some of the skippers were rather "cheeky" with the crew.  Some were great.  I've seen much worse when I was working for Marconi, especially on the Pakistani ships!  You get a piece of gear in horrible shape and the skipper wants the radars to work like new!  This can be a very difficult problem.  I can tell you some real stories.  The "Worst case" I remember is a Marconi "Hermes" radar with many, many problems.  Anyway, the Captain would not sign my ticket unless I satisfied his demands (which were impossible to meet due to parts not being available!)  I finally (the last visit to his cabin that day!) told him that if he didn't want to accept it as it was (working on all ranges except 3 mile range.  It was stone cold dead when I started!) I would return the radar to the condition I found it when I came aboard and leave the ship: no charge!   In my head I was thinking if he didn't sign it, I knew a couple of "bugs" that could be "installed" that would take a long time to find!  Evidently, he read my mind and made a note of what was "unsatisfactory" and signed my ticket!

 

You run into all kinds.  The Greeks especially will give you a hard time about fixing things at times.  Once you understand how to han dle them, it eases the pain of the negotiations.

 

I am sorry that I didn't "raid" the radio spare parts lockers for such things as 811A's, 813's, 6146's etc.  before they went to India to be scrapped.  Some of them had a very nice trove of spare parts.

 

A lot of the Lykes ships were in the boneyards by then especially the older ones.

 

Best Electric in New Orleans had a very large stock of old radar stuff: indicators, antennas, T/R units, turning units, etc.  I guess it all went to the scrap dealers.

 

73,

 

Sandy W5TVW

 

Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.5.12/1595 - Release Date: 8/6/2008 8:23 AM

[Mike Zbrozek]

 

 

Hi Sandy-

 

The SS Jean Lykes  was built in 1960 and  I sailed on her in 1990. She was a run down ship

and I could tell the company put little effort into her. She was  rusty, dirty, and I am   glad that the

MRU-35 (Think thats the name of the HFcw/ssb  xcvr) held up. I had no other  HF rig if that rig

failed, and all the tfc  was via cw....altho it was small  msgs.....The food was terrible. ...about as

bad as MSC. I remember ordering a salad and the steward showed up with two yellow leaves of lettuce

and a orange looking slice of tomato...wow...that was a shock...and the meat and potatoes were

just as bad. Oh yes, the Jean Lykes had a RCA  10CM Radar. The test gear was a joke and the spares

were only FCC required junk...nothing more......By the way I asked the Captain abt the food after a few  days

onboard and he said," Mike, Lykes  doesnt believe on feeding you, they just want to keep  you alive"....

And on that voyage we had two old people that signed on for the cruise. Going to  visit SE Africa

cost them about 8K bux in 1990 and everybody thought they must be nuts to spend this kind

of money   ,,,for lousy food, no entertainment, and Africa....HI......

 

As you know Lykes has changed hands about three times in the last few years and all those

Stick ships are history. I see that Lykes is now running about 5 container  ships that are

very new. And I  dont think they sail under the US Flag......They were Canada Pacific Steamship  

and now some Brit outfit bought   Can Pac Steamship if I   remember....One time long ago Lykes had

over 30  US Ships......and now peanuts.....

[Joel Roberson]

Mike Zbrozek <k8...@verizon.net> wrote:

Hi Sandy-

The SS Jean Lykes  was built in 1960 and  I sailed on her in 1990. She was a run down ship . . .

========================================

I was on Charlotte Lykes mid-Atlantic, bound for Felixstowe when the first Gulf War broke out. The food was the worst I'd seen before or since. They carried a few passengers who dined at the captain's table. One mature lady I recall who was a well-to-do, seasoned traveler took one bite of her steak and said to the captain, "I wouldn't feed this to my dog!"

I never saw any repeat customers. We dropped our cargo then backloaded mil boxes for Dammam. After the trip it took months to get the war zone pay we had coming. "When the government pays us, then we'll pay you," was the official line.

[Sandy]

We had a "saying" when we talked about Lykes.  They were called "leaky Brothers" ships.  In spite of the food on the Lykes ships, things were even worse on the Waterman ships.  The Lykes ships were pristine compared to the Wareman rust buckets.  Think the worst ships I was ever on were the Pakistani ships.  Everything literally held together with baling wire!  I remember watching one loading one day.  The winch was bobbing up and down on it's mount, one rusty corner of which was pulled loose from the deck.  I called the Sparky's attention to it and got this answer:  "Oh yes Sa'ab.  This is happening before on another ship.  Winch break loose and killing two deckhands!  Making very, very much paperwork!"

 

I always wondered why anyone would want to ride a cargo ship with Lykes to some of the places they went!  I rode from New Orleans to Mobile a couple of times working on gear.  Best trip I ever made was on the SS Richard (liberian flag, German skipper English Radio Officer, mixed crew.)  She was sailing from Ocho Rios, Jamaica to Corpus Christi, Texas with a load of Bauxite.  It was on a regular run back and forth like a bus!  Remeber playing cards with the Norwegian First Mate a couple of nights while he drank rum and Coke!

[Finbar]

----- Original Message -----

From: Bryan Fisher

To: radio-o...@googlegroups.com

No virus found in this incoming message.

Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.5.12/1592 - Release Date: 05/08/2008 06:03

[Mike Zbrozek]

 

 

Hello Joel and Group-

 

How could any smart person pay to ride on  a Lykes ship as a passenger?

The cost was high and the  food, lack of anything to do was  a turn off to any

rational person. Most of the Lykes food was salty, oily, and over cooked.

Most of the cooks were bums out of New Orleans that couldnt make it at

Burger King. I remember I bought Lykes bacon at a local store in my  town

and the bacon was nothing but fat and tasted bad...even their own bacon was lousy like

their ship board food. Needless to say I have nottheir bacon in years.....and in fact

have given up eating that stuff for  breakfast.......

 

One thing that amazed me about the Jean Lykes was the noise. The radio room and

RO quarters was on the bridge deck and the bridge toilet was on the other  side of

the bulkhead from my bed. I was awakened many times by AB's closing the door to the head.

And when the ship got near the Cape of Good Hope the winds were blowing like crazy.

And the cranes and wires strung between sing like  a  howling banshee all night.

Even earplugs didnt help. Our first foreign port after MS River departure was

Maputo Mozambique. 11 days in heaven unloading rice that was in 100 lb bags.

What a dump of a city. I thought Detroit was bad....HI......

 

73

 

Mike K8XF

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Joel Roberson

To: radio-o...@googlegroups.com

[Mike Zbrozek]

 

 

Hello Sandy -

 

Here is a good example why the US Flag is disappearing from the high seas.

How can any US company compete with rotten Paki ships and bottom of the

barrel wages. I remember one tek telling me that he regularly refused to eat

on Paki, Korean, and most Liberian ships. He brought his own lunch.

[Sandy]

Lykes was originally in the meat packing business.  They got into the ship business way back from what I gather and it grew.  I understand they are still in the meat business as usual.

 

I'll have to look them up at wikipedia and see what I get.

 

73,

 

Sandy W5TVW

 

Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.5.12/1596 - Release Date: 8/6/2008 4:55 PM

[Mike Zbrozek]

 

 

Sandy-

 

  Lykes started in the cattle biz in the 1880's in  Tampa.

Lykes then started to export some of their cattle to Cuba

requiring seagoing ships....thus Lykes Lines was born.

Until the late 1980's Lykes was a big  employer for many US Maritime Unions.

But since  a lot of the hand-shake cargo disappeared their fleet was tuned into

scrap......another big company  became a has been like APL, Sealand, etc......

Now most American shipping is in league  with MSC ....

[Michael St. Angelo]

Mike and All,

 

I've enjoyed reading your experiences on these rust buckets. I'm curious about the state of the radio equipment. Was in adequqte for the job or just old antiques. Did anyone using their own equupment such as shortware receivers to make the job more bearable?

 

Mike N2MS

[Mike Zbrozek]

 

 

Hello Mike -

 

I doubt if anybody ever took their own receiver to do  the  RO's job.

Why should they? Over the years I have met a lot of Hams that were

Radio Officers onboard ships and they never took their ham xcvrs with them.

I couldnt blame guy in the 1940's-1960's for not taking along some boat anchors.

I usually took along my  xcvr but on many ships it was tuff to operate.

Some baby would always complain to the OM abt interference.

When I worked for ARCO Oil sailing the west coast the company sent me a letter

telling me to leave the ham rig at home. A registered letter no less.

After that I started to look for another shipping  company......

 

PS- If some of the gear was less than what you might have wished for you made

the best of a bad situation.....and thats about the same for lousy cooking...

But when you went ashore  ....look out for a good restaurant......

Forget the dames and booze....I want a good salad and a normal meal.....

[KSM - San Francisco Radio]

>I doubt if anybody ever took their own receiver to
>do the RO's job.
>Why should they?

>I couldnt blame guy in the 1940's-1960's for not

>taking along some boat anchors.

>PS- If some of the gear was less than what you

>might have wished for you made
>the best of a bad situation.

When I was a teenager one of the local hams was a R/O. He took along his SP-600 when he sailed! One of the few, possibly, but that's what he did. Strong guy.

An early Maritime Radio Historical Society project was the restoration of a Radiomarine 4U radio console for the San Francisco Maritime Museum. The HF receiver was stable enough (after warm up of course) but it was quite broad. We wondered how the ops put up with that but then remembered we were thinking about it from a ham radio point of view. In my experience most coast stations are almost QRM free (although we did have a Japanese Navy coast station co-channel with our 6Mc frequency when KSM first went on the air - they went away). So selectivity wasn't as big a requirement as it is in the amateur service where stations are jammed together on the dial.

VY 73,

Richard Dillman
Chief Operator, KSM
Standing Watch on 600m
=================================
KSM - San Francisco Radio
Radiogram Service to Ships at Sea
Mark Your Messages "Via KSM"
=================================

[John Paul Keon]

Mike/Mike et al:

 

When I was stationed aboard USCGC Pontchatrain/NRUU out of Wilmington, NC

And we headed out to sea I had a SWAN 500 with separate VFO that I used on

Board the ship.  I also took a Vertical (HyGain) of my own with me to mount on one

Of the rails.  It was the best I could do at sea and used it when the weather permitted

And when I could get into the after steering where it was kept.  That was the radio room

That I used for the Ham Shack. 

 

After that experience I learned that the ship board gear could easily be tuned up for the

Same use and had a lot better antenna when comms were slow.  I would use one of the

Wires on board and the gear in the radioroom.  Being that no one but the radiomen and the

Captain would come in there I was lucky in that quiet times were made easier for me to

Use that gear.  I used a Collins receiver and a shipboard transmitter with the nitrogen

Filled coupler for tuning.  Worked very well.

 

I made a few contacts here and there from Ocean Stations where we had to sit for

A month at a time.

 

JohnPaul/AB4PP

I never saw any repeat customers. We dropped our cargo then backloaded mil boxes for Dammam. After the trip it took months to get the war zone pay we had coming. "When the government pays us, then we'll pay you," was the official line.</DIV
<BR

[Glenn Dunstan]

For the last 7-odd years of my sea service, I was on a regular ship, on a
regular run.

I installed a 2m colinear vertical on the rail of the Inmarsat A support
tower, and ran low loss coax into my cabin.

It worked really well.

73
Glenn VK4DU

________________________________

[Joel Roberson]

I was on one ship for 9 years (4 months rotation). I took along a Kenwood 450 and SGC auto antenna coupler. In the tropics, the 450 and PK232 were great for SITOR instead of firing up the noisy and incredibly hot MRU-35 which wasn't vented outside. Occasionally we'd act as the mother ship for a group of Royal Marines patrolling the Chagos Islands by RHIB boat. The 450 came in handy for SSB comms.  

 

Much has been said about the poor state of some shipboard gear, but my last ship was equipped with state of the art equipment. We had the "BEST" console (Bandwidth Efficient Satellite Transport) which used leased transponders on INMARSAT-B. We had 24/7 web access, e-mail, and VOIP telephone where landline toll charges only accrued beyond the San Diego earth station. Even before that we had a stabilized multi channel C-band satellite TV system that received AFRTS programming worldwide. I watched 9-11 unfold at sea in the Indian Ocean. Web access, telephone, and TV put a whole different slant on going to sea in recent years. In fact I could view my home web-cams in near real time from the other side of the globe!

 

One more comment about Lykes Lines being a "poor feeder." On most ships shortly after tying up, the crew would head down the gangway for the nearest bar. With Lykes you'd see the crew leave then return shortly carrying grocery bags to stock up their personal food supply!

KSM - San Francisco Radio <k...@radiomarine.org> wrote:

>I doubt if anybody ever took their own receiver to
>do the RO's job.
>Why should they?

>I couldnt blame guy in the 1940's-1960's for not
>taking along some boat anchors.

>PS- If some of the gear was less than what you
>might have wished for you made
>the best of a bad situation.

When I was a teenager one of the local hams was a R/O. He took along his SP-600 when he sailed! One of the few, possibly, but that's what he did. Strong guy.

<snip>

[W6...@aol.com]

Hi Dick -

     That "warm up" is a good answer.  With a broad receiver a drifting or drifted transmitter is much more likely to be heard.  In the old VT days everything drifted, both transmitters and receivers, but of course the receivers were normally well warmed up.  That's why the broader MCW types of transmitters were used.  Of course in the days of spark transmitters, they could be heard if off frequency quite a ways, altho they did not drift.  As long as the proper antenna loading inductance was used they just radiated at the antenna circuit's resonant frequency, like the old arc rigs. 

    73

        W6BNB/Bob

---

Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos.

[Ron Farris]

When working at WCC,  I used to answer calls to WCC, WFF, WBB, WHH, or anything that resembled a w and something that might be a c followed by another c..or something like it.
 
73's
Ron Farris
ex-WCC


> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:54:44 -0700
> Subject: [Radio Officers, &c] Re: "Crappy" CW
> From: jo...@joelrob.com
> To: radio-o...@googlegroups.com
>
>
>
> On Jul 30, 12:09 pm, "Mike Zbrozek" <k8...@verizon.net> wrote:
> <snip>
> > I never worked at a coastal station and from what I have heard I am  glad I
> > never did.
> > Would not want to be glued to a chair  for hours upon hours listening to poor
> > fists trying to sent  a qtc.........
> >
> > 73
> > Mike K8XF
>
> After a while at KLC it became an automatic response, as if your
> fingers had a mind of their own and would punch the typewriter keys
> corresponding to the incoming Morse Code stream. Your brain disengaged
> from the process. Many times I would drift off into a daydream while
> copying a long message and look down to see the message blank filled
> with words. Watches went by quickly and when you walked out the door,
> you left it there with nothing to take home to contemplate. In that
> sense it was a "no brainer" and low stress.
>
> It took a long time for me, perhaps a full year of copying code day in
> and day out, to reach the point where there was no longer any
> conscious effort required in translating the sound of the code to its
> associated letter of the alphabet. At that point you became fluent in
> Morse as if it were a spoken language. There could be a beehive of
> activity on 8 and 12 MHz calling channels, but if there was a weak
> signal calling "KLC," it popped out just like someone calling your
> name.
>
> Today we are overloaded with information, but in those days people
> took time to compose their thoughts. Communicating may not have been
> nearly as fast, but it was certainly more efficient in comparison.
> This is progress?
>
> 73,
> Joel/KG5KD
>

[W6...@aol.com]

Hi Joel et al -

    Very interesting!  I remember back in the mid 1930s when travelling around the world on the old Dollar Line when we were sailing in the Indian Ocean, news was very difficult to find.  Our

West and East coast stations and KUH in Manila were not being heard during their news transmissions.  There was a German station, DAN I believe, who sent news items at about 5 wpm that came at a time we could hear him quite well.  I remember sitting there in the early morning hours plinking away at that 5 wpm code on the mill.  After a while sleep would take over and I would keep plunking down the letters and spaces until the mill came to the end of a line and would "ding."  That would wake me up and I usually lost a letter or two as I threw the carriage back to the next line. 

    I wonder if anyone knows about the old KPH when it was located at Marshall, on the banks of Tomales Bay?  During 1932 our radio class took a tour of KPH at Marshall and also their transmitting station at Bolinas.  I remember their telling us that their antenna "ran about half a mile down the ridge" that paralleled the bay.  I always thought it was their 500 kHz receiving antenna, but from what I have been reading here lately I wonder if it wasn't their LF receiving antenna.  Anyone know about the old Marshall station?

    73

    W6BNB/Bob

[TraderSkip]

 

Aw Ron...

Tell 'em about that ship that no one could copy because he sent so bad and you had five of us listening to him to try to figure out what he was sending.

 

Then when you asked him again to repeat he sent in perfect cw "this is the last time I am gonna send this'

 

It broke the radio room up with laughter.

 

Skip

K5SA

[Peter Hewitson]

Years ago when the Australian Govt instigated the requirement for foreign fishing vessels to send daily position reports to Canberra, every morning we’d have 20 or 30 Taiwanese F/V’s calling us on 500 and 8364. I don’t know what kind of TX they had, but it sounded like blowing a raspberry! And you had to follow them up and down the band as they drifted (with their drift nets). Sometimes you’d hear them way off, up the band calling away and if you waited long enough they’d drift onto your frequency. We used to call them the “chooks” (That’s Aussie for chickens), cos they sounded like them!

 

73,

Peter VK4QC

[Peter Hewitson]

Oops, there’s that “F” word again! Sorry for being politically incorrect, I should have known better. Don’t beat me up!

 

73,

Peter/VK4QC

 

 

From: Peter Hewitson [mailto:peterh...@bigpond.com]
Sent: Monday, 11 August 2008 9:33 AM
To: 'radio-o...@googlegroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Radio Officers, &c] Re: Ship radio gear

 

Years ago when the Australian Govt instigated the requirement for FOREIGN fishing vessels to send daily position reports to Canberra, every morning we’d have 20 or 30 Taiwanese F/V’s calling us on 500 and 8364. …

 

 

[RCA...@aol.com]

 

 

In a message dated 8/8/2008 9:40:15 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, k8...@verizon.net writes:

I don't know if any operators took their own gear aboard or not but I do know that sometimes the captain of the vessel did. I recall once hearing from a friend of mine at sea that he had been having great difficulty raising a certain coast station The captain invited the R/O into his office where he demonstrated how easy it was for him to communicate with the shore.  73 RC ex/KPH

 

Hello Mike -

 

I doubt if anybody ever took their own receiver to do  the  RO's job.

Why should they? Over the years I have met a lot of Hams that were

Radio Officers onboard ships and they never took their ham xcvrs with them.

I couldnt blame guy in the 1940's-1960's for not taking along some boat anchors.

I usually took along my  xcvr but on many ships it was tuff to operate.

Some baby would always complain to the OM abt interference.

When I worked for ARCO Oil sailing the west coast the company sent me a letter

telling me to leave the ham rig at home. A registered letter no less.

After that I started to look for another shipping  company......

 

PS- If some of the gear was less than what you might have wished for you made

the best of a bad situation.....and thats about the same for lousy cooking...

But when you went ashore  ....look out for a good restaurant......

Forget the dames and booze....I want a good salad and a normal meal.....

 

 

 

73

Mike K8XF

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Michael St. Angelo

To: radio-o...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 5:54 PM

Subject: [Radio Officers, &c] Re: Visiting Foreign Ships

Mike and All,

 

I've enjoyed reading your experiences on these rust buckets. I'm curious about the state of the radio equipment. Was in adequqte for the job or just old antiques. Did anyone using their own equupment such as shortware receivers to make the job more bearable?

 

Mike N2MS

----- Original Message -----

From: Mike Zbrozek

To: radio-o...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 9:27 PM

Subject: [Radio Officers, &c] Re: Visiting Foreign Ships

 

 

Hello Joel and Group-

 

How could any smart person pay to ride on  a Lykes ship as a passenger?

The cost was high and the  food, lack of anything to do was  a turn off to any

rational person. Most of the Lykes food was salty, oily, and over cooked.

Most of the cooks were bums out of New Orleans that couldnt make it at

Burger King. I remember I bought Lykes bacon at a local store in my  town

and the bacon was nothing but fat and tasted bad...even their own bacon was lousy like

their ship board food. Needless to say I have nottheir bacon in years.....and in fact

have given up eating that stuff for  breakfast.......

 

One thing that amazed me about the Jean Lykes was the noise. The radio room and

RO quarters was on the bridge deck and the bridge toilet was on the other  side of

the bulkhead from my bed. I was awakened many times by AB's closing the door to the head.

And when the ship got near the Cape of Good Hope the winds were blowing like crazy.

And the cranes and wires strung between sing like  a  howling banshee all night.

Even earplugs didnt help. Our first foreign port after MS River departure was

Maputo Mozambique. 11 days in heaven unloading rice that was in 100 lb bags.

What a dump of a city. I thought Detroit was bad....HI......

 

73

 

Mike K8XF

 

 

[Ron Farris]

The Afran Wave.  Those were the good ol' days for sure.

73's
RF

---

From: trade...@bellsouth.net
To: radio-o...@googlegroups.com

Subject: [Radio Officers, &c] Re: "Crappy" CW

Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:33:26 -0500

> </HTML<BR

[Sel...@aol.com]

Peter dear Foreigner!

Beat you up, no way Jose.

Foreign is a word o be proud of!

It is to those of us who sailed "FOREIGN" flag.

We were treated as heroes by those who dared sail only under the comfort(?) of their own flag. Sailing Foreign flag was an experience I would not have missed, it had, of course, NOTHING to do with the rate of pay which was at least DOUBLE that on British ships, or the fact that in 1963 there was a six month waiting lost to join Marconi or other Radio Companies, and, who?, I ask, at the age of 19 wants to delay the start of the adventure(s) of a lifetime. 

Foreign and proud

73

Tony

G4CLX

[David Ring]

Ray,

It is a great pleasure to hear the words of a world class
radiotelegrapher on this group. Thank you very much for your
contribution to "our world" then and now. Many of us fondly remember
your fine fist at KPH and your attention to our traffic even when
conditions were poor.

As they say "Down East" in Maine - "Finest Kind".

73
DR

[Douglas]

I did 4 months of my cadet/apprentice time in 1978
under REO the late Ed Wood/K0AB. He always brought
along with him a Drake R4C receiver with xtals for the
maritime bands in case the ships receivers were poor.

We were aboard the S/S Delta Brasil/WNVW and the
voyage was to West Africa. When we stopped in Houston
before going across the pond, I stopped at Madison
Electronics in Houston. Per the C/E's request and with
his dollars, I bought an old Galaxy 5 transceiver and
a Hygain vertical. We set up a Ham station in the
Chief's office. Ed and I worked DX all the way across,
did phone patching, etc.

Much later while sitting in the Congo River anchored
off of Matadi (Zaire/Congo), Ed got a bit bored and
assigned himself a Zairian callsign...
We fired up using this callsign and the DX pileup was
amazing. Thus began and ended my radio bootlegging
career.
:-)

Much later I was relieving R/O Ed Brozek on the S/S
Louisiana Brimstone. The Brimstone was a grim ship
that chugged from Port Sulphur, La to Tampa, FL with
it cargo of liquefied sulphur. The cargo tanks had
large fumes that constant kept the ship in a huge
cloud of yellow haze. All electronics on the ships was
constantly corroding due to the sulphur fumes. New
pennies turned black within days, my fairly new gold
rimmed glasses turned black, etc.

The radio console was the original RCA 4U from 1944
since the Brimstone started life as a WWII T2 tanker,
later "jumboized" by being lengthened and having steam
heated insulated tanks installed in lieu of
conventional holds. The original receivers were still
present and worked poorly if all all with erratic
bandswitches due to the sulphur. Ed left aboard his
own receivers including a Kenwood R1000 and another.
They saved the day for me. All communications were
still via CW and we didn't even have a decent SSB
transceiver.

73,
Doug/WA1TUT

[Bryan Fisher]

It's too bad that you chose to violate your oath and misuse government communications gear in that fashion.  You obviously knew it was unauthorized but you did it anyway.  And no amount of boredom while on ocean station relieves you of the fact that you used shipboard gear which was to be used for transmissions ONLY WITH THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE COMMANDING OFFICER for ham communications because it 'made times easier for you.'  I'm sorry, but that's dishonest and pathetic.

Bryan Fisher
RMC, USCG
NXFN / NRUO / NMW43 / NMC / NLVS / NYCQ / NBTM / NRV / NMEL / NHWR