[Milsurplus] PT Boat Callsigns

[Mike Morrow]

Robert wrote:

>It (the 4-letter call sign) was used in CW traffic, and on carriers could 
>be turned on on the LF Homer transmitter.  Voice traffic used the ship's 
>tactical call sign.  Which for example for CV-45/LPH-8 was BEARCAT (I think 
>because it was the first carrier to fly the F8F).

AFAIK CW was never used in SSBN communications.  Transnsmissions from
the SSBN were extremely rare, at least during the cold war era, unless
forced by emergent needs like arranging a medical evacuation.  The major
voice comms were from the OOD on the bridge using a commercial VHF-FM HT
to coordinate with tugs at beginning and end of trials and patrols.

The Morse skills of our radiomen were very minimal.  In the late 1970s someone
concluded that if an SSBN was ever used in a nuclear exchange, it would be
unlikely that all the sophisticsted comm systems used between SSBN and command
authority would still be functioning post-release.  HF CW circuits just might
be valuable.  Crash courses in radioman Morse skill development were started
on the SSBNs in my squadron.  I was departing the USN at the time, but another
engineering department officer with a GENERAL ham license was assigned to run
this training since there were no enlisted or officer personnel in the
operations department who had even a ham's level of Morse competency.  The
engineering department provided the missing talent.  This program seemed like
a very logical development but I don't know how it all turned out.  This effort
was not universal in the submarine force.

On very rare occassions we communicated with military aircraft on trials or
during a mid-ocean personnel emergency pickup.  UHF-AM from our AN/URC-20 was
used, along with our AN/APX-72 for IFF.  Tactical calls used, of course, which
were not fixed.

That was all about 40 years ago.  I suspect it's become a different world since.
There hasn't even been a radioman rate in the USN for more tha 20 years.

Mike / KK5F