[Milsurplus] coded confusion

[Ralph Cameron]

Under Canadian radio regs, coded transmissions are prohibited and must be in plain language. 

You can imagine the consternation when Japanese fishing boats operating off the east coast employed coded cw trasnmissions "in the exclusive ham bands" from 1979-1985. I know because I intercepted them and reported them and the transmissions were not only simply encoded by reversing many of the kanji characters but the operation was commerical operating in an exclusive amateur allocation (below 3.75Mhz _ITU says is exclusivley amateur in North America. )  The fact it was not plain language- when operating in Canadian waters didn't seem to faze the gevernment officials who investigated but they were supremely embarrassed to have a ham bring it to their attention. 

Of course, overfishing was widely reported in those days and that was the reason their covert catch reports were done in that manner. 

This carried on for five years and was much more interesting than any of the 2 bit TV programs we hear about today. 

I would think with proper presentation and support of a military group there wouldn't be much problem doing a re enactment on this side of the pond. In fact, I'm not suggesting it be done without permission. 

73 

Ralph
VE3BBM
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