[Elecraft] Cw in the military

Sat Feb 22 02:44:01 2003

Some countries continue to use CW for communications. After all, the
last time I worked on a ship the Inmarsat telephone cost was
US$18/minute! When an officer on a ship from some countries is happy
with a salary of US$50/month - often less - the labor is very cheap
indeed. That's why the USA no longer has a significant Merchant Marine.
No way to compete with those labor rates from some countries. And those
countries certainly aren't going to make an Inmarsat phone call if they
can help it! 

What has changed is that CW is no longer the mainstay of the SOLAS
system. Our Coast Guard, for example, no longer maintains watches on 500
kHz, nor is it required of ships at sea like it used to be. So for
medium frequency CW, we are back into a situation like the days before
the Titanic where finding another ship equipped or listening for an SOS
is a matter of luck. Fortunately, a ship can be equipped for basic GMDSS
in case of emergency without spending a lot of money, then depend upon
low-cost  CW or TOR for routine communications. But it is getting harder
for them as the number of coastal stations dwindle. The short waves are
much better for them since they can work much longer distances than on
the old MF band. 

In the USA, the old marine "MF" band  - from about 400 to 512 kHz - is
being turned over to special beacons operated by the US Coast Guard that
will provide super-accurate GPS bearings. It will augment basic GPS with
signals that permit determining one's position within a centimeter or
two for use in automatic control of motor vehicles, automated aircraft
landing, etc. The beacons will transmit "correction" signals to enhance
the accuracy of the basic satellite received position data. 

Ron AC7AC
K2 #1289

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bruce D. McLaughlin

There are a very few CW coastal station still in operation.  Of course
there is CLA, Havana, Cuba but I never hear it with any traffic.  In
contrast, there is URL on 12734 Khz and another freq in the 16 Mhz band
which is quite busy with some absolutely fantastic very high speed CW
ops.  Unfortunately, it usually sends in Russian but it's still a joy to
hear. 

Bruce - W8FU