[ARC5] R-23/ARC-5, etc

[Mike Morrow]

The best use I ever found for the "command set" beacon band receiver (190 to 550 kHz) was copying the most interesting segment of the radio spectrum...the MF Morse Maritime band 405 to 535 kHz.  These receivers did a really decent job with adequate bandspread to copy both ship and coast station transmissions.  At night it was interesting all the exotic callsigns that could be heard over thousands of miles on 500 kHz, the international calling and distress frequency (600 meters).  Stations the world over ceased transmission and listened on this frequency 15 to 18 and 45 to 48 minutes past the hour,,,the Silent Periods.  IMO this was the most magical band in the entire spectrum.  I started listening in the mid-1960s when I was 12 on a BC-453-A that I still own.  It prepared me for the Radiotelegraph Operator Second Class license with Ship Radar Endorsement I got in 1980 after I left USN active duty.  (Within six months I was medically disqualified for Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS) positions by Type 1 diabetes, so any notion I had of getting a merchant ship Radio Officer job vanished.)
I still listened to this band at night until it all vanished in the USA on 12 July 1999.  I miss it more than I would miss ham radio if it had vanished instead.Mike / KK5F