[Boatanchors] Why The Letter "Q" And Who Invented The Code?

[mikea]

On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 07:33:25PM -0500, Sandy wrote:

> The "Q" signals were NOT meant to be used on radiotelephone.  This was 
> frowned upon at one time and looked at as incorrect procedure.

Still is, if you want to be absolutely pedantic about it. The "Q" sigs
were intended as brevity codes for CW operation. 

> There is a Hydrographic Office puiblication (H.O. 103 I think?) called the 
> "International Code of Signals"  which uses letter groups for all sorts of 
> questions and associated answers being exchanged between ships whose crews 
> did not speak the same language.  It was very comprehensive and more 
> complicated than the "Q code".  Seems like I remember it having 4-5 letter 
> groups.  The book has an "encode" and "Decode" section to make it easier to 
> use.  It's been 20+ years since I saw one and I don't remember much more. 
> This publication could still be sued by ships exchanging telex messages or 
> even voice communication, but it is rather slow.

It's H. O. 88. I think H. O. 103 is the 3-volume set of Bowditch's
_Navigation_, which I also have. I scored a copy of both volumes of H.
O. 88 about 5 years back, and treasure those books. It's a complete
codebook, of the sort that the cryptologic types call "one-part": the
mapping from plaintext to code groups isn't randomized. The plaintext
words and phrases are chosen with great care to maximize their utility
in maritime situations. The code groups are constructed so that they
can be understood correctly in spite of a one-character error in
transmission or reception.

H.O. 88, Volume II (Radio) has a lot of codegroups in it for disasters
down through mere unpleasantness, but some of the codegroups are just
fascinating in a "multum in parvo" sense.

As a modest example, the following four group message

KILGU KILIN UDGEM IJHOR

expands as

I HAVE NO WOMEN ON BOARD. HAVE YOU ANY WOMEN ON BOARD? ARE YOU WILLING
TO SHARE?

The groups

AHRAZ   I AM, or VESSEL INDICATED IS, FAMILIAR WITH THE ANCHORAGE
AHREM   I AM, or VESSEL INDICATED IS, NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE ANCHORAGE
HAMUN   I AM PROCEEDING TO THE ANCHORAGE
HAMXE   I AM PROCEEDING TO THE ANCHORAGE OR PLACE INDICATED WITH ALL SPEED
AHRIB   THERE IS NO GOOD ANCHORAGE HERE, or AT PLACE INDICATED
HAQUL   YOU SHOULD PROCEED TO THE ANCHORAGE AS SOON AS YOU CAN
IZLEQ   YOU SHOULD TOW ME TO THE ANCHORAGE
HARUR   ARE YOU, or IS VESSEL INDICATED, FAMILIAR WITH THE ANCHORAGE?
AHSEQ   IS IT A DIFFICULT ANCHORAGE TO GET AWAY FROM?

are chosen from the list of all the things that can be said or asked
about an anchorage. Lots of bad things can happen in, on the way to,
or while trying to get out of, an anchorage, it appears.

Some lists are bad in and of themselves:

ETWEV, ETWGO, ETWLA, ETWOR, and ETWUZ all deal with the ship being
somewhat (and progressively more) out of plumb to one side or the
other, which usually is A Bad Thing.

There are three-quarters of fine type talking about all the things
that can go wrong with engines, from DAZAL through DECOO, plus IVLUQ
and IDUTH.

Some of the code groups are English words in their own right, and a
one of those has a marvelous correlation of meaning:

COZEN   DISTRUST

I'll have to digitize and OCR the book to locate others.

Then there are the lists of ways in which assistance can be required,
requested, offered, or rendered. Not all of them are for vessels:

ALIMK   LIGHTHOUSE, or LIGHTSHIP indicated if neccessary REQUIRES ASSISTANCE.

There are groups dealing with how much water is (or isn't) over the
(sand|harbor) bar, and how much is required, with moving sandbars,
safe or dangerous sandbars (E.g., the Columbia River Bar, notorious to
shiphandlers and small boatmen alike), and what the leading marks are
the bar.

It mentions, in the geographic section, places I've been:

SOJIG   STOCKHOLM
SOJLY   STOCKHOLMS SKÄRGARD
NUCBA   TURKU
TIOCV   VISBY
QYBSO   OSLO
SYVUN   TOKYO
OZIVM   SEOUL
TABOM   TORONTO
OVPNU   HOUSTON
ORBYC   GALVESTON
OQKIL   FORT WILLIAM
SIJPA   SKYE, ISLE OF
QODYN   NYNÄSHAMN
QOFEL   OAKLAND

and myriads of places I shall see only by proxy, if at all.

It is, IOW, a way to communicate about dealing with the mariner's
world, which isn't quite the same as ours, and I'm fascinated every
time I open this book.

And, of course, it was built at a time when radios were all glowbugs.

Must scan, PDF, and put up on my website.

-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin