[CW] amateur radio aboard the Tai Ki

[DANNY DOUGLAS]

Probably a few of you have heard of the Tai Ki, a reproduction of a 
prehistoric Chinese Junk, patterned in the old (really old) style, which was 
not able to tack against the winds, and was pretty much at the will of the 
tides as to its movements.  The whole expedition stems from a small clay 
model of a prehistoric Chinese Junk, which was found in Hue, Vietnam.  It 
was found in Canton in a tomb dating from he Han period. (100 AD)

The recent series of emails about communications in commercial shipping has 
jogged me to mention it here, and the connection to ham radio.  It was a 
ship, built in Hong Kong, and sailed from there on  18 June, 1974 with an 
international crew of 8. Much in the vein of Thor Heyerdal operations.  Its 
construction and journey was to prove that the ancient Chinese could have 
sailed from Asia, and peopled the Americas, and the resulting population was 
the Indian civilizations who came before the western world ever knew of this 
land.

One of the members of this crew was a ham operator, Alan OZ6QK and our 
meeting was truly a ham radio contact.  I, sitting in my flat in Hong Kong, 
calling CQ and out of the either came a rather strange and loud signal from 
Alan.  He simply asked my telephone number, saying he would soon be in Hong 
Kong and wanted to ask me a question.  I gave it to him, and we passed names 
and said 73.  Moments later, my phone range.  It wasn't Alan, but was a 
woman reporter from the BBC, saying she was in the shack with Alan, and 
wanted me to call CQ again, saying Alan would respond, and we could make a 
contact, pretending it was our first one.  She explained the BBC were doing 
a special about a sailing craft, and she wanted my permission to record our 
conversation as we talked.

To make a very long story short, I met Alan the next day, assisted him to 
find a antenna tuner to install in the boat, and even went out to the vessel 
several times to assist in wiring up  and installing the tuner, and some 
other gear.  I also wound up as their "official" shore station and spent 
many a evening for the next several months, listening for Alan and his weak 
50 watt signal.  No generator, except a small wind generator and its 
capability to also be hooked up to a stationary bike which was used for 
exercise during the journey.  No other metal aboard the vessel, other than 
that mentioned, and the copper strip outside the keel, for grounding.  No 
nails, screws, etc.  It was all put together with wooden pegs, sails of 
rattan, wooden pullys for the sails, etc.  Even the housing" on the deck was 
woven rattan strips.

Oh, and as to its destination and route:  hopefully along the Japanese 
current, up the coast of Taiwan and Japan and then across the Northwest 
Drifts into the California currents and possibly Mexico.   Disaster struck, 
and struck again, with the ships captain Kuno Knobl, and man who had the Tai 
Ki built and crewed, had to be taken off due to a heart condition.  The 
Japanese coast guard, after my emergency call to the Hong Kong Harbor 
Police, were called in and he was taken off the boat, and flew onward to his 
home in Austria - where he was a television journalist and dramatist, plus 
being chief of the Austrian Television (ORF) in Vienna.

The next problem was during a daily report of location (I still have the 
daily logs of each and every contact), and the report of "worms" attacking 
the ship.  Another emergency call to the HK authorities, another report to 
all ships at sea in the area to ask for assistance.  A passing ship found 
them, transferred several cases of caulk and caulk guns, and from then on 
there was a 24 hour "caulking patrol" aboard.  A loss of signals for several 
days,and my reading the news as was my normal "service" , even though I did 
not know if they were hearing me ( or even if they were still afloat), and 
then one evening in mid October I heard a very faint "help - we are 
sinking".  That's all.  Nothing else.  I monitored the frequency and heard 
no further transmissions.  Somewhat frantic, I knew I needed to tell the 
authorities, but tell them what?  I had, as mentioned, the logs for each 
days travel, up till about 2 weeks before that.  Remembering back to grade 
school math, I averaged their last 2 weeks reports, as to direction and 
speed, then multiplied that by the number of days they had been silent.  Ran 
to the embassy, where the ambassador had already given me permission to use 
official channels to advise the coast guard of any such eventuality.  Ran 
in, typed up a official message and shot it off to Hong Kong, Japanese and 
American Coast Guard authorities and sent it out as an "Immediate" message. 
The next morning, I received a response back, that floored me.  The message 
had been received, rebroadcast to all ships at sea in the general area of my 
guess, and  the Washington Mail had been sailing in the vicinity.  The 
captain immediately turned her and was sitting at my guessed position, ready 
to start a search, at dawn the next day.  He didn't have to search far or 
long.  There sat the Tai Ki, approximately 1/2 mile away.  Thanks Mrs. 
Weaver, for pressuring me to learn that much math.

This is the story, as relayed from the crew, but doesn't exactly fit the 
story as printed in the book:  TAI KI To - the point of no return by Kuno 
Knobl.  Remember - he wasn't aboard for the majority of the voyage.  There 
had been a 500 kHz transmitter aboard, but it, along with the ham radio had 
gotten soaked  by constant worm hole leakage, but when a small,  and unknown 
to us, typhoon bore down on them a stove in their bow, Alan managed to dry 
it out enough to get one transmission out.  He later said they were still 
able to receive, and my news casts had helped keep up the feeling of 
normalcy.

They were all safely removed from the vessel, and due to its small size, the 
Coast Guard just let her float onward, with the deck awash, and one inch 
above water.  A couple of months later, I received a message from the coast 
guard, saying the Tai Ki had washed up on the beach in Baja California ha 
California, So, she made it, proving the route and possibility of the 
ancient Chinese to do exactly what Kuno had postulated.  Just too bad we 
didn't know why the Chinese no longer use Chinese White Pine for ships. 
Those worms are hidden in the wood, in the way of eggs, which hatch months 
after cutting and using for boa construction.  Just another bit of knowledge 
not passed on until rediscovered by modern man.

Anyway, the book is out there.  In fact, in at least two languages.  My 
copy, from the crew is written and printed in Austria and I can just make 
out some of the information, because I already knew it.  I found my name, 
but not my call in a couple of places, most as " Danny , The American Radio 
Operator in Hong Kong".  Some years went by, and I was living in England, 
and walked into a book store on one of the military bases, and on the front 
table, at "special" prices, there lay an English copy of Tai Ki. Naturally I 
snapped it up, and both copies lie here at hand, reminders of what ham radio 
can and does do, and where fates lead us.

A few years ago, I looked up the story on the internet, and its there 
somewhere.  There might even be a copy of the book in your library, but 
certainly not here in our county library (my wife is purchasing librarian, 
and it isn't available).  There was also a BBC special on the journey, and I 
was astounded to be sitting and reading in front the TV when I heard a 
somewhat familiar voice from he TV  "CQ CQ CQ this is VS6DD."  I almost fell 
out of my chair.   It was the very beginning of my part of the story.  I was 
not able to copy it, because at that time, we had a US NTSC VHS tape 
recorder, but it wouldn't copy British PAL off the air.  So its all just a 
memory, with a bit of logs, some newspaper clippings from the South China 
Morning Post, and copies of official messages to and from US Consulate Hong 
Kong, but when the kids asked why I do this stuff, I point that out to them, 
and then they begin to understand.





Danny Douglas
N7DC
ex WN5QMX ET2US WA5UKR ET3USA SV0WPP VS6DD N7DC/YV5 G5CTB
All 2 years or more (except Novice). Short stints at:  DA/PA/SU/HZ/7X/DU
CR9/7Y/KH7/5A/GW/GM/F
Pls QSL direct, buro, or LOTW preferred,
I Do not use, but as a courtesy do upload to eQSL for those who do.
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