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Radio Operators Handbook - PDF

50K views 181 replies 70 participants last post by  Robert M Hughes 
#1 · (Edited)
People still keep hitting this old post - and then request a copy of the handbook by replying and inserting email addresses in the thread...

* * * THIS IS NOT NOT RECOMMENDED AS PLACING EMAIL ADDRESSES IN AN OPEN FORUM LEAVES YOU POTENTIALLY EXPOSED TO AUTOMATIC SCAMMER PROCESSES!

THE BEST WAY TO REQUEST A COPY OF THE HANDBOOK(S) (THERE ARE NOW THREE DIFFERENT VERSIONS) IS TO START A CONVERSATION WITH ME (SIMPLY CLICK ON MY AVATAR AT THE LEFT OF THIS POST AND SELECT 'Start Conversation'). I WILL THEN ATTACH THE HANDBOOK TO A REPLY TO THAT CONVERSATION. * * *

Please also see my other posts about the multiple versions of the Handbook that are now available.

If anyone would like an electronic copy of the Post Office Radio Operators Handbook (1975 Edition), drop me a Private Message and I will forward it to you.

I am not posting/uploading/attaching the file because I do not want to upset anyone over copyright.

I have painfully reconstructed the handbook using Microsoft Word/Excel along with image capture and copy/paste to produce a faithful copy which is actually all my own work (I have both the Word version and the PDF) - I will forward the PDF. Even the pagination is faithfully reproduced!

There are scanned versions of the handbook around but I started with the objective of creating a "clean" copy for my personal archive (threw my original away many years ago when we emigrated to South Africa)
 
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#37 ·
Use of Radio Apparatus on Merchant Ships in Harbours of the United Kingdom
15. The use of radio apparatus licensed by the Home Office and installed on board ships is permitted in the harbours and estuaries of the United Kingdom, subject to the conditions imposed by the licence, and for the following purposes only:
(a) For the exchange of communications through coast stations.
9
[Sect. 15-17
(b) for radiodetermination and for the reception of messages sent from authorised broadcasting stations for general reception;
(c) for the exchange of communications in a Port Operations Service, or in a private mobile service licensed by the Home Office for a specific purpose.
 
#56 ·
Loptap?
I have worked with computers for many many years - before most of you had even heard of them! (started at IBM when my spouse-to-be decided that not everyone loves a sailor!) - when I needed to create a user name for a well-known auction site, gave it some thought - and decided I liked 'loptap' - a dyslexic computer!
 
#39 · (Edited)
Some ports was an absolute no-no. In China in the early 70's would have meant a walk up the road on the wrong end of a Kalashnikov.

In Saudi they would come and put a seal on the main power switch for the Radio Room. They did it to me once on a CP Ship but the lad doing it clearly didn't know the difference between green and red, and sealed the switch ON !!

The seal was still there when I paid off months later … :sweat:
 
#40 ·
Only went to Mainland China once and the Radio Room itself was sealed. I also remember that according to their rules the use of Radar was prohibited. After the Pilot came on board there was a severe squall, he immediately asked for Radar to be switched on. Don't recall if he allowed any one else to look at it.
 
#41 ·
I only ever did it once. On my last trip with Brocklebanks I was on their latest ship Mahsud on charter to Mitsui on the USA to Japan run. We were chartered at 18 knots but could only achieve this downhill with the sail up and we were much more in the 17 to 17.5 knot range. Mitsui were not happy with this and we used to get bollocking messages every couple of weeks about not achieving charter speed. We were alongside in Kobe, I think, and the Captain had been called to a meeting. He wanted to get a message to Head Office about what he should say but did not want it to go through the agent. He called me to his cabin and said could I transmit to Portishead. I said we had closed down as per maritime law. He said could I transmit anyway. I replied that I could but there was a risk that either a Japanese coast station or monitoring station would pick up the transmission, quite possibly the ground wave, and I would be in deep trouble. However, I said that if he would sign my log that he had instructed me to send the message I would do so. He agreed and I sent the message to GKA and got a quick reply back. I heard nothing more about it.
 
#48 ·
We were alongside in Pireaus discharging cargo, when the old man asked me to send a telegram back to the UK, he was having some problems with a mortgage arrangement. But as he was quite nasty to me most of the time, I took great delight in advising him this was not possible. What goes around ....
Bill
 
#49 ·
>Love to hear any instance where anyone used their radio installation to transmit when QTP..

Only once, QTP in Aqaba on-board Makrana GWWV and the local coast station JYO had some sort of technical trouble. The Master, Paddy Jackson, had a request from the local harbourmaster to send a message to a ship which was en-route and he gave his permisssion for me to do so.
I don't recollect the model numbers or output powers of the IMR transmitters except to say that they warmed up the ionosphere on full power, key down. When I started tuning the main transmitter, there was clearly something wrong and a lot of jibber-jabber from the cargo-wallahs. It turned out that the jumbo derrick had been rigged and was touching the main aerial. When I tried to tune up, the dried on salt-spray had lit up in a huge blue RF flash and the cargo-wallahs were heading for the shore like rats leaving a sinking ship. Once that was sorted out, I managed to send the message successfully and never heard any more about it.
Happy days,
gwzm
 
This post has been deleted
#54 ·
Jim and JT,
Thats right. Last ship alongside at Warri or Sapele was the 'guard ship', keeping a very short watch on 500 couple of times a day for msg to and from the next ship for the ED agent. I handed over my duty at Warri to another charter ship - maybe 'Industria'. Maybe we should start another thread if we want to have more 'creeks memories', like the Escravos bar TRs, flash for dash etc.
 
#57 ·
If anyone would like an electronic copy of the Post Office Radio Operators Handbook (1975 Edition), drop me a Private Message and I will forward it to you.

I am not posting/uploading/attaching the file because I do not want to upset anyone over copyright.

I have painfully reconstructed the handbook using Microsoft Word/Excel along with image capture and copy/paste to produce a faithful copy which is actually all my own work (I have both the Word version and the PDF) - I will forward the PDF. Even the pagination is faithfully reproduced!

There are scanned versions of the handbook around but I started with the objective of creating a "clean" copy for my personal archive (threw my original away many years ago when we emigrated to South Africa)
It looks as though this thread has now gone "off topic" (round about entry #35 ) after a quote from the handbook?

Not sure how to bring it back on-topic (or even if I should) - I have now forwarded the Handbook over fifty times - but I am still getting occasional requests so people are still finding the post?

Maybe this post will be all that is needed?
 
#58 ·
Previous PMG Handbooks

Only slightly off-topic but does anyone know the colours of the previous issues of the PMG handbook? I think the one before the 1975 edition was orange in colour but I can't remember when that was published. Early 1960's? I believe that came out either while I was at sea or just after I came ashore in 1966 but I have no confidence is correct.

I also think that the one I had at Brooks Bar radio college in 1958 was not orange, and therefore it was an even earlier issue, perhaps dating from the 1940s or early '50s. Again I don't know why I think that - my memory of such matters is all shot these days.

Can anyone clear it up for me - not the memory, just the PMG Handbook colours, I'm not looking for miracles. (Jester)
 
#66 ·
Only slightly off-topic but does anyone know the colours of the previous issues of the PMG handbook? I think the one before the 1975 edition was orange in colour but I can't remember when that was published. Early 1960's? I believe that came out either while I was at sea or just after I came ashore in 1966 but I have no confidence is correct.

I also think that the one I had at Brooks Bar radio college in 1958 was not orange, and therefore it was an even earlier issue, perhaps dating from the 1940s or early '50s. Again I don't know why I think that - my memory of such matters is all shot these days.

Can anyone clear it up for me - not the memory, just the PMG Handbook colours, I'm not looking for miracles. (Jester)
The one I studied with was also this 'cyan' colour (same colour as the 1975 edition) - so that would have been an edition dated sometime to prior to 1964. From various comments I have received, I believe the edition immediately prior to the 1975 one had an orange cover - but that's the only ones I can sort of fix.
I have been looking for an orange edition so that I can compare to the 1975 edition - and if I can find one and there are not too many differences, see if I can also 'pdf' that version.
Couple of things that I do know - i) although there is at least 10 years difference between my original hardcopy and the 1975 edition, I recognised huge swathes of the 1975 edition ii) I have a strong suspicion that the 'watch hours' changed between those two editions - but that may be a trick of my memory?
 
#60 ·
Mine is pale blue also. But I'm sure I sailed on a ship with an orange one up there on that little book shelf they used to squeeze into the radio room.

(Of course, the old man's name at that time was Odysseus. Not someone you'd bring a complaint to.) :eek:
 
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