[CW] How was message routing done?
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
Tue Apr 23 20:50:47 EDT 2019
Thank you David. This pretty much answers my question. I
wondered if radio operators had to copy _every_ traffic list.
Looks like they did. You didn't list KSE but it may have been off
the air by then. I remember when they announced it would be gone.
I went by the MF (maybe also HF) transmitter site in Torrance. A
real shack with a couple of towers and an old fashioned flat top.
There was a horse grazing around the towers. Had I had more nerve
I would have knocked on the door. KSE came on 500 Khz to announce
the traffic list on A2. I don't remember what their working
frequency was. The also had an elaborate wheel at times QRA RCA
LOS ANGELES RADIO DE KSE KSE KSE etc.
I never heard WPD although it seems to have been on the air
during the time that I listened.
I found the web site
http://jproc.ca/radiostor/reading.html
Has some of your stuff on it I think. Also answers a lot of
questions. I can't get to the home page for some reason but I
will keep trying.
On 4/23/2019 3:58 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> 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 <mailto: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 <mailto:1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
> WB6KBL
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--
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL
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