[Elecraft] Cw in the military

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

That may well be a true story, Jerry. I hadn't heard it. 

What I do hear from the CW brethren who worked on civilian ships is a
fear or absolute certainty that disaster will strike without CW. There
are occasionally times when an incident occurs that might have been
prevented by CW. 

What changed in the civilian industry is that communications between
ships beyond line of sight now depends upon satellites. That's a major
change.

After the Titanic disaster, it was decided that the basis for SOLAS
(Safety of Life at Sea) would be the ability for ships near each other
to communicate in times of emergency. Ships travel mostly in
well-defined lanes and it is rare that a ship is not within a few hours
of another ship at sea. It is also very rare for a ship to sink in less
than a few hours. Even if one did, having sufficient lifeboats would
allow the people to stay afloat until help arrived. The whole system of
silent periods where everyone listened for an emergency call on 500 kHz,
the system of automatic alarms and regular radio watches, and of 500 kHz
lifeboat radios that ships could home-in on using a direction finder was
designed around the idea that the best help a ship could get was from
any ship in the vicinity. 

That worked beautifully for many years. Then, in the 1950's the
freighter Stockholm, with its tough ice-breaker bow, "T-Boned" the
beautiful Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria off of New York, sinking the
Doria with loss of life. What happened there were mistakes of navigation
in heavy fog, even though the ships each knew the other was in the
vicinity. CW sent by radio operators was not quick enough for them to
coordinate their movements in such close quarters. What came out of that
was the "bridge-to-bridge" VHF radio that has been required on every
vessel since. Small voice VHF radios were available in the 50's and they
were added to the required equipment list to let the captain or officer
in charge of any ship to pick up the microphone and speak to the officer
in charge of any other ship in the immediate area without sending
messages through "Sparky". They have been an indispensable part of every
ship's safety equipment since. Usually there are two or three of them on
the bridge of the ship. Hand-held VHF radios were later added to the
lifeboats to help coordinate movements with the lifeboats in a disaster
as well. 

What changed and eliminated Sparky and his CW key was the adoption of
GMDSS, or "Global Marine Disaster Safety System". GMDSS depends upon
satellite communications with central command centers ashore to handle
any life-threatening disasters at sea. The idea is that one no longer
need to rely on a nearby ship to provide rescue. Aircraft, and ships can
be dispatched from long distances away to assist, when necessary. For
years, TOR (teleprinting over radio), satellite telephones using
INMARSAT (International Marine Satellite) complete with FAX and even
internet service had replaced sparky and his CW for most routine
traffic. Sparky's CW was there only as required by the SOLAS rules in
case of disaster. Now it would be replaced with satellite-based
communications. 

That started happening in the 1980's, and the transition was virtually
complete by 2000. Very few ships in the world use CW, and all ships must
use the new GMDSS system. The GMDSS system does not require a trained
operator. Most ships have a telephone handset on the bridge that can be
picked up and a telephone call placed anywhere in the world. In an
emergency, one simply presses a red button, and a message is sent
automatically to the disaster centers giving the ships' name and precise
location so help can be dispatched instantly. Even if no one touches the
button, special buoys mounted on the outside of the ship and carried in
the life boats send out the emergency message and give the ships exact
position the moment they touch salt water, meaning that the ship went
down or someone threw one into the sea. 

There are those who predict that the satellite systems will fail, and
with them lives will be lost in sea disasters. They may be right, but it
is clear that the maritime community is ready to take that chance and
believes that it has actually improved safety. And there will always be
stories about how a disaster could have been avoided if Sparky was still
there.

With the multiple-redundant bridge-to-bridge communications available on
ships today, I'd be astonished if the military vessels didn't have
several differ rent ways they could have communicated in the situation
you described - hand-held radios, multiple bridge-to-bridge VHF radios,
colored lights that do not require CW, laser phones when radio silence
is required, and even the ship's whistles!  But, as always, anything is
possible! 

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289

-----Original Message-----

A few years back I read an interesting story about the discontinuance of
CW in the military...I am working from memory and all the facts might
not be accurate...I haven't been able to locate the source of the story,
I thought it was the QCWA journal, but I have all the back issues and
cannot find it...

As I recall, a Navy task force was conducting sea trials on a new
radar...Aircraft were launched, the radar was fired up, and all
communication between ships was wiped out...They didn't want to shut the
radar down until all aircraft were retrieved...One ship went dead in the
water and was being overtaken by another ship...The only means they had
to communicate was by visual CW with lamps, and there was a collision
because nobody aboard knew CW, the "dead" mode...

Jerry, wa2dkg