
We were
connected world wide and all things started and finished with Whitehall Wireless
[callsign GYA] which is sited in central London at the top of the Mall. . From
here, all long haul communications were met by using RATT [Radio Automatic Tele
Type] circuits known as Fixed Services [FX] of which most were continuous and a
few part time on a scheduled basis. Whitehall Wireless did not talk directly to
ships. Portishead Radio, near Bristol, a GPO [General Post Office]
civilian station received messages from ships at sea and sent them by land line
to Whitehall Wireless. Portishead Radio had a small staff of RN Telegraphists
who were employed on general duties receiving signals from luxury liners as well
as from warships. Whitehall Wireless also ran the messages to ships at sea
system, the Fleet CW [Morse Code] Broadcasts and later the RATT Broadcasts, as
well as the Submarine Broadcast keying the remote transmitters of RUGBY or/and
CRIGGION both of which were GPO civilian transmitter stations. Remote Naval
transmitters and receiver stations many miles from London sent and
received Whitehall Wireless traffic [in/out from/to] around the world.
Signals from ships deployed around the world were received on CW [Morse Code]
ship-shore frequencies in places like Malta, Mauritius, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong
Kong plus a whole host of other allied Radio Stations, and passed back to
Whitehall Wireless over the 100 WPM [75 baud] RATT fixed service links. Many of
these stations ran and controlled their own area Broadcasts CW/RATT for ships
deployed in or transitting through their areas. Below, mainly from the good
memory of John Eilbeck, I list some of the most important radio callsigns of our
time, and their simple three letter devices haunt me with the thoughts of
yester-year and the countless number of times I called to talk to these
stations. It befell to my generation to say goodbye to MORSE CODE and to welcome
in RATT, and from there, the fancy modulation techniques required for high speed
Satellite Circuits both speech and data. Personally, I remember the days
when morse code was king and we operator's prince's, taking enormous pride in
our personal ability to send and receiving signals. There was something
romantic about the whole ethos, and never more so than when 'talking' to
somebody on the other side of the world; in a different time zone; a different
climate, one-to-one, and whether allowed or not, adding a 'cu om' {see you old
man} at the end of my signal, often reluctant to say goodbye, manifest in
having the last dit-dit on the key, symbolic of a don't-let-go hand shake.
Anyway here they are:-
|
RADIO CALLSIGN |
STATION AND FACILITY |
|
4SI |
Ceylon [later years] |
|
ARL |
Karachi |
|
ARM |
Chittagong |
|
CFH |
Halifax |
|
CKN |
Esquimalt Vancouver |
|
GBR |
Rugby Submarine CW Broadcast VLF |
|
GKH GKL GKG GKS GKI GKV |
Portishead Radio [GPO Station] Ship-Shore |
|
GXO |
Mauritius |
|
GXW |
Portland |
|
GYA |
Whitehall RATT Fleet Broadcast |
|
GYB |
Whitehall RATT Fleet Broadcast |
|
GYC |
Whitehall CW Fleet Broadcast |
|
GYL/GYS |
Singapore |
|
GYQ |
HMS Dolphin, submarine base Gosport Hampshire UK. Submarine Ops and Safety frequency 4340 kHz was manned continuously. |
|
GYX |
Malta |
|
GZO |
Hong Kong |
|
GZP |
Ceylon West Trincomalee |
|
MGK |
Londonderry |
|
MTI |
Plymouth |
|
MTL |
Chatham |
|
MTN |
Portsmouth |
|
MTO |
Rosyth |
|
VHK |
Canberra |
|
VHM |
Darwin |
| VPT | Malta Commercial. Malta Navy [GYX] could accept any commercial traffic from any ship for any address, known as QSP, except for Maltese addresses where VPT had to be used. |
|
VIS |
Sydney |
|
VTF |
Bombay |
|
VTO |
Vishakhapatnam |
|
ZLB |
Awarua |
|
ZLE |
Auckland |
|
ZLO |
Irrirangi |
|
ZLP |
Wellington |
|
ZSJ |
Capetown |
1953 Long Distance Ship-Shore Radio Communications map showing the EIGHT main stations as being Halifax, Portishead, Cape Town, Singapore, Ceylon, Sydney, Wellington and Vancouver, and the other SIX minor or supplementary receiving stations.