[CW] How was message routing done?

Tue Apr 23 18:58:54 EDT 2019

RK,

When I was on ship, I would copy EVERY traffic list of what I had advised
our owners I would be listening in our Noon Position report.  (They also
would reply to the station that we sent the message to if this wasn't done.)

Upon departure, we'd send a message like this:

AMPETFINA
HOUSTON  =

DEPARTURE VALDEZ LASTLINE 04021234 TUGSAWAY 1315 ETA BALBOA 121100LT
HEADWATCH SANFRANCISCO/KFS =

MASTER +

Which would tell our owners and charterers that we departed from loading at
X time and were bound for our destination - Balboa - the canal is called a
"transit" - so we would transit from Balboa on the Pacific to Cristobal on
the Atlantic in two or three days, often anchoring in Gatun Lake waiting to
be called to transit the locks.

Each noon we'd send routine messages giving our noon position - usually
around 1500 local ship's time as the 2nd mate had to take sightings to
calculate our location at noon, and the engineer's would supply bunker
(fuel) consumption and average RPM of the screw, etc.  I'd add HEADWATCH if
I was going to change, like I'd change to either SLIDELLRADIO/WNU or
MOBILERDO/WLO if I were going to the U.S. Gulf or to CHATHAMRADIO/WCC if
going to Europe.

If I were going to Haifa, Israel for example, I'd keep WCC or I'd start
monitoring a European station - GKA Portishead was the largest station in
the world, and did an excellent job, but I also used DAN in Germany or IAR
in Rome, but usually to save money, I'd keep WLO in Mobile or WCC in
Massachusetts - I could get their traffic before sunset when conditions
went long from the Eastern Med.

As far as being coastal USA or otherwise, I'd have to copy daily:
# WCC CHATHAM MA
# WSL LONG ISLAND NY
WMH BALTIMORE MD
WAX OJUS FL
WOE LANTANA FL
WPD TAMPA FL
# WLO MOBILE AL
# WNU SLIDELL LA
WPA PORT ARTHUR, TX
# KLC GALVESTON TX
KOK LONG BEACH / LOS ANGELES CA
# KFS SAN FRANCISCO
# KPH SAN FRANCISCO
KLB SEATTLE WA

The stations marked with # were the larger stations, we'd get them each
traffic list, which was every 2 hours.  The others we got at least once a
day.  We logged when we got them.

We'd  also tune into AT&T's radiotelephone stations located in NJ, FL and
CA they had traffic lists every hour on the hour, but they ran a one list
for all stations which was nice.

WLO also had radiotelephone and ran this with the designator /QRJ on their
WT (Morse traffic lists and SITOR traffic lists.

If you were on a PAX (passenger ship) you'd also have to pick up:

GKA Portishead, England
DAN Germany
Norway, Sweden,
IAR Roma Radio, Italy

If you were going to a country you'd also need to listen to their coast
station, like if we were bound for Athens, we'd tune in SVA twice a day to
see if there was traffic.

If you were close to land - within 600 miles - you'd hear stations on 500
kHz announcing traffic lists and you'd listen to them.

I never copied South Africa when I was coastwise USA but if I were going
around Africa, I made sure I copied every list - every 2 hours.

You'd make up a paper chart.

ODD HOURS
00 WLO
05 WOE
18 WSC
30 KLC
30 KFS
35 WNU
50 WSL

EVEN
00 WLO (they had lists every hour!)
18 WPA
20 WPD
30 WMH
50 WCC

AT & T was every hour on the hour, but you'd have to hunt around for a
vacant channel as the list only went out on unused channels.

I hope that answered your question.

Small stations that were MF only like WLQ, WKR WKN in Alaska we just
listened to when we went by, unless you went there you'd never have
traffic.  WBL Buffalo was the same, only if you went there.

So they kept you busy!

73
DR

On Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 4:47 PM Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

>      I've researched this as far as I can on the web.
>      I learned code partly from copying commercial maritime
> stations and to some extent ships. Probably at the time a phone
> book would have suggested the answer but, alas, I can't find any
> on line.
>      Stations broadcast traffic lists periodically. These were
> lists of call letter of ships for which the station held
> messages. After these broadcasts I would often hear ships calling
> in for their messages. Now what did not puzzle me then but does
> now is did each shore station have a separate traffic list? How
> did a ship station know which stations to listen for? Assuming
> ships of U.S. registry there were something like nine shore
> stations in the U.S. surely the ships did not have to copy
> traffic lists from all of them.
>     So, I would like to know the routine for sending a message to
> a ship. Lets assume these are ships of U.S. registry. Suppose I
> have a friend who is traveling on the SS Neuresthenic, a large
> passenger ship. Lets further specify its in the Pacific
> somewhere. Suppose also that I live someplace there is not a
> shore station, say Las Vegas. How did I go about sending a
> radiogram? I had assumed that one just called Western Union and
> sent it but would I have to have called one of the radio
> companies from LV? Also, would I have to have known which company
> the ship contracted with? I have an extremely vague memory of
> seeing an ad in the Los Angeles yellow pages for RCA soliciting
> radiograms via RCA. Maybe I am imagining it. Presumably the
> message went to a message center and then to the appropriate
> station.
>      I have become totally shameless in my old age in attempting
> to satisfy my curiosity. If this is a really stupid question, so
> be it, I want to know.
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> 1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
> WB6KBL
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