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500 Khz in the 70's

18K views 70 replies 20 participants last post by  King Ratt 
#1 ·
#2 ·
I think it's been linked to before but always good to listen to.

I have a recording I made the night 500kc closed down in the UK, using a ham transceiver. The audio file is 465 Mb and too big for my YouTube account, so I wonder if anyone has any ideas for putting it up on YouTube or somewhere for general consumption?

As my laughingly-called "broadband" can only manage 350 kb/s upload, on a good day, downhill and with a following wind, I'd be quite happy to mail a CD of the recording and the text copy to someone with a faster connection.
 
#5 ·
I think it's been linked to before but always good to listen to...
Has it?
I've linked 500 kc/s before but this appears to be new.
Reason? Bringing KR's attention to GPK calling ELML for a link call.
Liberian ELML is a very early Liberian call-sign and I don't recall hearing it on previous threads or from my experience being part of the Niarchos group.
I'd also like to add that 500 kc/s from what I remember in the 50's to twenty years later the morse on this transcript is appalling.
 
#3 ·
Thanks R651400. However I have this stored in my favourite Youtubes. My wife thinks I am crazy because I sometimes run it as background in my study. She is probably quite correct.
For Searcher 2004. I recorded the coast stations going QRT on that Hogmanay many years ago. I have it stored in my iTunes files. I will endeavour to post it on here. I am only 50 miles from GPK and he roared in at my QTH with the opening of the closing "ceremony".
 
#4 ·
OK KR,

That will save me a lot of messing about! I recorded the last evening in East Anglia and I'm sure there's a few "DX" callsigns in the operator's chat at the end, maybe Newfoundland, IIRC. Amazing how quiet the background noise was on 500kc then, no plasma TVs and noisy routers to contend with.

73
 
#21 ·
I think it amazing that when working CW in difficult and crowded conditions, and despite narrower filters with very sharp skirts and latterly variable digital filters, the main discriminator for resolving wanted transmissions was the operators ears and brain. I know not strictly 500 Kcs but never the less an amazing feat in an advanced technical age. Just thought I'd mention it.

LouisB. (Scribe)
 
#14 ·
The Inspector of Wireless Telegraphy Q code went from QRA to QUZ.. My 1956 PMG2 written regs question QUI?... Are your navigation lights working?

QRA What is the name of your station?
QRB How far approximately are you from my station?
QRC How are the accounts for charges for your station settled?
QRD Where are you bound for and where are you from?
QRE What is your estimated time of arrival at...
QRF Are you returning to...
QRG Will you tell me my exact frequency?
QRH Does my frequency vary?
QRI How is the tone of my transmission?
QRJ How many radiotelephone calls have you to book?
QRK What is the intelligibility of my signals?
QRL Are you busy?
QRM Are you being interfered with?
QRN Are you troubled by static?
QRO Shall I increase transmitter power?
QRP Shall I decrease transmitter power?
QRQ Shall I send faster?
QRR Are you ready for automatic operation?
QRS Shall I send more slowly?
QRT Shall I stop sending?
QRU Have you anything for me?
QRV Are you ready?
QRW Shall I inform ... that you are calling him on ... kHz (or MHz)?
QRX When will you call me again?
QRY What is my turn?
QRZ Who is calling me?
QSA What is the strength of my signals?
QSB Are my signals fading?
QSC Are you a cargo vessel?
QSD Is my keying defective?
QSE What is the estimated drift of the survival craft?
QSF Have you effected rescue?
QSG Shall I send ... telegrams at a time?
QSH Are you able to home on your direction-finding equipment?
QSI I have been unable to break in on your transmission.
QSJ What is the charge to be collected to ... including your internal charge?
QSK Can you hear me between your signals and if so can I break in on your transmission?
QSL Can you acknowledge receipt?
QSM Shall I repeat the last telegram which I sent you?
QSN Did you hear me on ... kHz (or MHz)?
QSO Can you communicate with ... direct (or by relay)?
QSP Will you relay to ... free of charge?
QSQ Have you a doctor on board?
QSR Shall I repeat the call on the calling frequency?
QSS What working frequency will you use?
QSU Shall I send or reply on this frequency?
QSV Shall I send a series of Vs on this frequency?
QSW Will you send on this frequency?
QSX Will you listen to ... on ... kHz?
QSY Shall I change to transmission on another frequency?
QSZ Shall I send each word or group more than once?
QTA Shall I cancel telegram (or message)?
QTB Do you agree with my counting of words?
QTC How many telegrams have you to send?
QTD What has the rescue vessel or rescue aircraft recovered?
QTE What is my true bearing from you?
QTF Will you give me my position according to your bearings?
QTG Will you send two dashes of ten seconds each followed by your call sign?
QTH What is your position in latitude and longitude?
QTI What is your true track?
QTI What is your true course?
QTJ What is your speed?
QTK What is the speed of your aircraft in relation to the surface of the Earth?
QTL What is your true heading?
QTM What is your magnetic heading?
QTN At what time did you depart from ...?
QTO Have you left dock (or port)?
QTP Are you going to enter dock (or port)?
QTQ Can you communicate with my station by means of the Internanational Code of Signals?
QTR What is the correct time?
QTS Will you send your call sign for tuning purposes or so that your frequency can be measured?
QTT The identification signal which follows is superimposed on another transmission.
QTU What are the hours during which your station is open?
QTV Shall I stand guard for you on the frequency of ... kHz?
QTW What is the condition of survivors?
QTX Will you keep your station open for further communication with me until further notice?
QTY Are you proceeding to the position of incident and if so when do you expect to arrive?
QTZ Are you continuing the search?
QUA Have you news of ... ?
QUB Can you give me in the following order information concerning: the direction in degrees and speed of the surface wind, visibility, present weather, and amount, type and height of base of cloud above surface elevation at ... ?
QUC What is the number (or other indication) of the last message you received from me?
QUD Have you received the urgency signal sent by ...?
QUE Can you use telephony in ... (language), with interpreter if necessary; if so, on what frequencies?
QUF Have you received the distress signal sent by ...?
QUG Will you be forced to alight (or land)?
QUH Will you give me the present barometric pressure at sea level?
QUI Are your navigation lights working?
QUJ Will you indicate the true track to reach you?
QUK Can you tell me the condition of the sea observed at ...?
QUL Can you tell me the swell observed at ...?
QUM May I resume normal working?
QUN Will vessels in my immediate vicinity please indicate their position, course and
QUO Shall I search for ... (aircraft, ship, survival craft)?
QUP Will you indicate your position by searchlight, black smoke trail, pyrotechnic lights?
QUQ Shall I train my searchlight nearly vertical on a cloud, and if your aircraft is seen, deflect the beam up wind and on the water?
QUR Have survivors ... (1. received survival equipment, 2. been picked up by rescue vessel, 3. been reached by ground rescue) party?
QUS Have you sighted survivors or wreckage?
QUT Is position of incident marked?
QUU Shall I home ship or aircraft to my position?
QUW Are you in the search area designated as ...?
QUX Do you have any navigational warnings or gale warnings in force?
QUY Is position of survival craft marked?
QUZ May I resume restricted working?
 
#28 · (Edited)
Was looking for clues myself as there seems little ship activity and I've never called QRZ? from a coast station.
The morse from each coast station does seem to be very similar keying and far from perfectionist but if the transcript is a fake then one has to admit very cleverly done.
Can anyone with a "dicky-dapple" give me the name of ELML that Portpatrick is calling?
 
#38 ·
R651400 Thank you.Just listened to that PCH clip and replies from so many old familiar coast stations to him. Marvellous! Was hand done I'm sure. Ex R/O soon to be 90,I could and did read every word.. Didn't need to write it down. Remarkable how easy to mind read such perfect morse code. Takes me back to old days '42 - '56. Cheers, Eric
 
#39 ·
If it was Eric it was beautifully keyed unlike my video in posting 1!
Worked at GND and GCC and only learned since being on SN the variation in GB coast station notes was because of a slight frequency offset from 500 kcs as opposed to changing the frequency of modulation. GCC's was certainly very distinctive.
 
#41 ·
Of course, you all do know that the UK was, in fact, in breach of SOLAS by closing the 500 service in 98.

:mad:

The GMDSS did not come into full effect until 1 Feb 99, so ships were fully within their rights to maintain the 500 service until then...

The Aussie stations closed on 1 Feb 99.
 
#42 ·
Of course, you all do know that the UK was, in fact, in breach of SOLAS by closing the 500 service in 98. :mad:

The GMDSS did not come into full effect until 1 Feb 99, so ships were fully within their rights to maintain the 500 service until then...
The GMDSS came into force in 1992 but, as a concession, shipowners were allowed to retain (but not install) and operate non-GMDSS radio stations aboard ships until February 1999. So whether or not they did so was a matter of choice permitted under the concession.

Of course all coast stations were purely voluntary provisions - no country was obliged to provide any coast stations whatsover! The Radio Regulations and SOLAS only ever mandated what safety radio equipment Merchant ships carried and what radio watches they maintained. SOLAS made no reference to coast stations and the RR only specified how a coast station should be operated if any country should decide to provide one.
 
#43 ·
As you said, Ron, ships were allowed to retain their W/T stations until 1 Feb 99.

Flag states were thus obliged to provide the corresponding shore infrastructure until that date.

Which is why we kept our W/T service in Australia until the full implementation of GMDSS.

The MCA dropped the ball.
 
#45 ·
As you said, Ron, ships were allowed to retain their W/T stations until 1 Feb 99.

Flag states were thus obliged to provide the corresponding shore infrastructure until that date.
Do you have a source citation for that obligation?

Which is why we kept our W/T service in Australia until the full implementation of GMDSS.
As I said earlier, that was purely a matter of choice/preference/politics for Australia, since neither they nor any other country were required to do so by SOLAS or the Radio Regulations.

In 1977 at IMO it had been decided to adopt the proposed FGMDSS (Future Global Maritime Distress and Safety System) and to introduce it (as the GMDSS) in 1987, so as to give the industry 10 years to get things in place. The promoters of the new system were the countries in Europe and North America i.e. the West. In those Cold War times, it was almost axiomatic that Russia would be against it. And so it proved. Foot-dragging by a group containing the USSR/Eastern Bloc, the FOC states and some 3rd World countries, eventually delayed this by a further 5 years, to 1992. Even more haggling extracted the concession to extend the implementation date for existing ships (i.e. that ships that existed in 1992, not the initial date of 1977 or even the initial implementation date of 1987) to 1999.

Some maritime nations in Europe and North America were unwilling to delay beyond the initial date of 1987 and thereafter readily gave concessions to the dropping of W/T watchkeeping requirements aboard ships with satcoms and some other facilities.

Of course when implementation got under way from 1992 onwards, the penny dropped that a GMDSS radio installation was far cheaper than a W/T station and did not incur the staffing costs of a radio officer so the FOC countries jumped ship, leaving only the USSR/Eastern bloc countries and China supporting further delays - for politico-strategic rather than economic reasons.

The MCA dropped the ball.
In your opinion only. Clearly the UK authorities held a different opinion in that they had already (voluntarily) established all the elements necessary to provide the shore-side components of the GMDSS by 1992, in support of their stance at IMO. They saw no advantage for maintaining an unnecessary facility at the expense of the British taxpayer and closed it before the final implementation date.
 
#46 ·
Using your logic Ron, why didn't the UK turn off the W/T watch in 1992, then?

So, what the UK was saying was a gigantic SOD YOU to ships that, quite legally, kept 500 until the final changeover date.

What if one of those ships sent a distress message on 500 on 2 January? Tough luck, mate...you should have fitted GMDSS.

Safety at sea, the MCA way.

Shameful.

Australian ships dispensed with the Radio Officer in 92, but we maintained 500 in our shore stations until the cut off date, as was right and proper.

It wasn't a political decision, it was a decision made (by me) to cater for ships that were in full compliance with SOLAS.

Mind you, nothing has changed....I was disgusted watching the UK's pathetic performance at IMO last week re Iridium.
 
#47 ·
Using your logic Ron, why didn't the UK turn off the W/T watch in 1992, then?
I don't know the reason for that decision but there was political pressure to terminate the 500kHz watch as far back as 1992. Within the DoT they were not in favour of early shut-down but I was told by insiders (but have no evidence) that the Treasury wanted them to save money. By that time the MF coast stations were operated by BT with a subsidy from the DoT for the distress and safety services. (Revenue from MF ship/shore traffic did not cover operating costs and BT were not prepared to fund the 500 kHz service, demanding a subsidy from the DoT to keep the stations open). Since the Treasury had already provided the DoT with the money requested for the GMDSS, they were reluctant to extend any such subsidy and argued that the DoT should not expect to get additional money to keep the old system going.

But as I said, it would have been within the UK's rights to close the old system without replacing it with anything at all - or we could just have declared UK waters to be Area A3 or A4 - as did some other countries. That they didn't and instead kept the MF W/T stations open for several more years is surely to their credit (although there are plenty of taxpayers and other critics of Government excesses who might disagree).

To the best of my knowledge, no seafarer suffered from the UK's choice of discontuation date.
 
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