[Fists] Ships no longer carry CW operators

[Cheryl W. Ring]

YoDoc wrote:

Ships no longer need carry a cw proficient radio operator because the
 technology has moved on.

K3LT de N1EA

Larry, that isn't exactly true.

Radio Officers were eliminated for one reason only:  Money.

That isn't speculaton - that is fact recorded at the International Marine
Organization (IMO) and International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The Global Marine Distress and Signaling System (GMDSS) that replaced the
Morse based system was supposed to be thoroughly tested prior to it's
implementation - but it wasn't.

On 31 January 1999, the GMDSS went into effect - using a mixture of HF, VHF
and satelite communications - a whole basket of communications gear and
frequencies to replace the paycheck and room and board of the Radio Officer.

Within a month - and after the majority of the CW stations were dismantled -
RadioHolland-BV, one of the largest suppliers of GMDSS equipment in the
world admitted what we Radio Officers had tried to tell every one.

Radio-Holland said "The Global Marine Distress and Signaling system is a
failure and it must be COMPLETELY redisigned in order to work."

At the present time, there are thousands of ships on the waters that are
exempted from GMDSS equipment - they're NOT part of the distress system.

The false alarm rate which was practically ZERO for the Morse System is near
99% false, costing thousands of dollars of search and rescue operations
dollars.

Ask anyone you know in Civil Air Patrol (CAP) about the number of false
Emergency Position Indicating Beacons (EPIRBs) (marine) and Emergency
Locator Transmitters (ELTs) (Aviation) that are false.  CAP is volunteer -
the free work of many hams.

According to people on the ships, it is common practice to turn off the
"distress alarm" from the Satellite and automatic navigation warning system
(NAVTEX) on ships because it falses so many times.

Likewise, required Safety of Life at Sea (SOLUS) required communications
logs are NOT kept, nor are predeparture tests made on the majority of ships.
(Regulations require that every Distress (and other events) be logged - the
mates say they "can't be bothered."

If you think using MF, HF, VHF and Satellite to replace CW is "technology
moving on", I disagree.

Currently it is impossible to test the Digital Sequential Calling (DSC) that
is required for ship Distress alerting by radio because the Coastal Radio
Stations have shut down.  Previously, a ship could call up a Coast Station
on SITOR and arrange for a DSC test.  These stations are off the air,
because of change of revenues.

Even though at least one mate has to have a General Radio Telephone
Certificate and a Satellite Maintainer and Operator's License, no one used
the radios because they couldn't figure it out.   They weren't trained -
even though they had a license.

The licenses were learned from memorization of the answers at Elkins
Institute, in Texas.,

Revenues changed because no one onboard could "do" radio.

Within THREE months after the Radio Officers were discharged from ships, the
three huge American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) coastal stations -
running over 50 channels of 10 kW SSB were off the air because revenues had
dropped to zero.

No one knew how to do radio.

Is this what is going to happen to ham radio?

73

David J. Ring, Jr., N1EA
Radio Officer, Chief  (Ret.)
United States Merchant Marine