Wish I knew what time and what frequency range to listen in.
PRESS RELEASE:
HISTORIC RADIO EXCHANGE BETWEEN BATTLESHIP NORTH CAROLINA AND SUBMARINE
TODAY!
The Navy removed almost all of the original radio equipment aboard the
Battleship North Carolina when it was decommissioned. What little
equipment was left no longer worked. Starting in 1997, volunteer ham
radio operators began to restore the remaining equipment and adapt it
from Dept. of Defense frequencies to amateur radio bands. Today, two
of the ship\'s original radio rooms are restored, and this week as part
of the celebration leading up the commissioning of the submarine, the
Capts. of the two vessels will exchange greetings via amateur, or
"Ham", radio. This is the first known conveyance of radio
greetings between two namesake military vessels since the Cold War
era.
Capt. David Scheu of the Battleship North Carolina will be using a
modern radio, but the antenna and the feedline he will use for his
transmission are original equipment installed prior to World War II.
Receiving his greetings at the other end at the State Port about a mile
away will be the submarine\'s skipper, Capt. Mark Davis. Capt. Scheu\'s
message will be transcribed onto a Radiogram, a wireless version of a
telegram. The Azalea Coast Amateur Radio Club of Wilmington will frame
two copies of the historic Radiograms and present one each to the
commanders of the Battleship and the submarine as a memento.
Much of the original radio gear aboard the Battleship was designed for
Morse Code, the predominant form of radio communications through WWII.
By contrast, the submarine contains state-of-the art communications
equipment that is light years ahead in capability from the now
primitive equipment aboard the Battleship. The Navy phased out Morse
Code in the 1990s, so the only way for the two ships to communicate
electronically is through amateur radio voice communications.
"We felt this was an appropriate way for the Battleship to send
best wishes to its namesake successor", said Ed Redington,
president of the Azalea Coast club, which operates the equipment aboard
the Battleship so that many of the world\'s two million licensed ham
radio operators can have a chance to contact the retired dreadnought.
"There are roughly 70 retired military and merchant marine vessels
with restored radio rooms across the U.S.,", said Redington,
"and it\'s fun when the old ships get on the air." Returning
to Wilmington this weekend for a reunion of the crew of the Battleship
will be Richard "Mac" McCullough, a radio operator who served
aboard the Battleship from 1941 to 1945. Now 84, McCullough is a ham
radio operator who uses Morse Code exclusively, and has communicated
from his home in Massachusetts with the Battleship via Morse Code.
Because of the number of hurricanes in our area, the public associates
ham radio most often with emergency communications after cell phones,
landlines and the internet go down. About 20 of the area\'s 1,500
licensed ham radio operators volunteer aboard the Battleship giving
tours of the radio room and letting visitors get on the air. This
weekend the ham radio station aboard the Battleship will be activated
Saturday and Sunday sending commemorative greetings about the
commissioning to hams around the globe.
Bill Morine, N2COP
ARRL Public Information Coordinator
North Carolina Section
