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Australian Naval Amateur Radio Society
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Glenn in the Radio Room of the IRON MONARCH
A couple of quick words on the photograph of yours truly in the old Radio
Room of the BHP Roll On Roll Off (RO RO) vessel "Iron Monarch".
The vessel carries steel plate between Westernport Victoria and Port Kembla,
NSW. She was built in Whyalla, some 27 years ago, and was originally
powered by gas turbine engines. She was re-engined with marine diesels about 20 years ago.
The photograph shows the vessel's original radio room, which was
de-commissioned about 8 or so years ago when the vessel converted to the
Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS).
The new GMDSS radio equipment is located in the wheelhouse, and is operated
by the Deck Officers. No Radio Officer is carried.
The original equipment is all manufactured by the UK company Marconi Marine,
and was installed by AWA at Whyalla. It represents a typical merchant
vessel radio station of the period. Marconi equipment was fitted to nearly
all Australian merchant ships.... I sailed with this equipment (or later
models) for most of my Merchant Navy career
Behind me to the left is the main transmitter - a Marconi Commander (from
memory). This valve unit produced about 400 watts on the MF band (410-512
kHz - CW only) and the HF marine bands (2, 4, 6,8,12, 16 and 22 MHz - CW and
SSB). Frequency control was by crystal. The large knobs in the middle are
the band change and tuning controls.
The main console to my right contains:
A "Salvor 3" emergency battery powered MF transmitter (top row, centre) -
about 100 watts, crystal locked 410-512 kHz.
The "Apollo" main receiver (centre row, centre) - very very common, and in
use well into the 80's. Originally developed for the Centurion tank
(hence
the dial lock knobs) - covered 10 kHz to 25 MHz. "Nixie" tube frequency
readout. State of the art in the early 60's.... Inferior to most amateur
transceivers of today...
Antenna switch (top row, right) - switched the vessel's 2 transmit antennas
to either of the 2 transmitters, or the transmitters to dummy loads. Note
the white porcelain stand off insulators on the deck head (ceiling) - these
supported the copper feeders (now removed), which ran from the transmitters
to the antenna switch box and from the switch box out through a gland
arrangement (known as a "lead in" - out of the picture to the right) to the
wire antennas. This vessel had quite long wire antennas that led from the
monkey island (on top of the bridge) about 200 m aft to the twin funnels.
The box on the bulkhead immediately above the console is the main tx dummy load.
"Lifeguard N" auto alarm receiver (top row, left end) - fixed tuned on the
international Morse distress frequency of 500 kHz - used to keep an
automatic watch on 500 kHz when the Radio Officer was off watch. Rang bells
in the Radio Officer's cabin (next door), the radio room and the bridge if
it received a distress signal.
The Radio Officer on this ship would have kept the following watches
(ship's time):
0800-1200
1400-1600
1900-2100
"Monitor" emergency receiver (centre row, 2nd from right end) - battery
powered receiver, covered MF and HF. Useable on MF, next to useless on HF.
"1097" automatic key (centre row right end) - sent a pre-programmed SOS
signal with the vessel's callsign (VLKG, in this case), and also the "auto
alarm" signal of 12 by 4 second dashes (used to actuate auto alarm
receivers on other ships). A mechanical nightmare - lots of cogs and wheels
driven by a 24 V motor, although it was usually quite reliable. Could be
switched to key either transmitter.
There was a card posted in the Radio Room titled "Instructions to ships
officers for sending an emergency distress call". This card was designed
as
a (pardon the expression) "Idiots guide" to allow Deck Officers to send an
automatic Morse distress call if the Radio Officer was somehow incapacitated
(sick, dead, drunk, whatever). This guide referred to a series of stick on
numbers on the equipment which showed you how to turn the emergency tx on,
connect an antenna to it, and key it with the autokey.
The bottom row contains the battery charger controls (left) and the rx
antenna selector switch (right).
In case you are wondering about my unusual get up - I am wearing Royal
Australian Navy (RAN) "action working dress" uniform - this uniform is
normally worn when undertaking work in dirty or dusty environments (like the
Port Kembla wharves...).
The visit to the ship was part of a Royal Australian Naval Reserve (RANR)
familiarisation trip to Port Kembla by the Canberra unit of the RAN's Naval
Control and Protection of Shipping (NCAPS) branch. This branch is staffed
by RANR personnel, many of whom are ex-merchant navy or navy.
The NCAPS branch effectively provides the interface between the RAN and the
Merchant Navy in times of tension or war.
There are NCAPS units based in all states - I head up the ACT unit (in my spare time..).
73
Glenn VK1XX
President ANARS