Shipboard Radio Officer Career With Historical ties to Ham Radio Moves Into the Modern Age

Very interesting Sir; I had a few titles in my Navy career, some which I will not post. Sparks was the most common title among U.S. Navy jargon aboard ship's. The Navy had a slang for just about every Rate, snipe (Enginemen) Boatswain Mate was a Deckape. Signalman was a Skiviewaver. So, I could go on and on with Navy slang. The Officer's (Communication) were not trained in the operations of the equipment or even the basic's of the Radio Center Operations. They had to defer to the Chief or senior Radioman-in-Charge. The C.O. would go directly to the Radioman-in-Charge when it "HIT-THE-FAN" and by-pass the O.I.C. They were nothing more than a name on a Command flow chart. 73's

 

When I left school at the age of 15y I wanted more than anything to be a Ships Radio Officer and hopefully with the Blue funnel line here in Birkenhead.
I had been a short wave listener since the age of 7y after building a crystal set.
I would have had to go to Riversdale Tech College in Liverpool to study but my parents were very poor at that time and could not afford the fee's so I became a Radio and Television Engineer.
Many years later I moved to a new house and the man next door was a retired Ships Radio Officer and the tales he used to tell me
Anyway 75y now but still love to see pictures of Radio Rooms and dream if what could have been.

 

I have the equivalent UK qualifications and a Navigation equipment maintenance certificate (NEMC) but I am 73 and no US passport. I was at sea as a radio officer after GMDSS came into force. I was offered a job on ships carrying Nuclear fuel between the UK and Japan. The Japanese insisted the ships carry a fully qualified radio officer due to the nature of the cargo. On these ships it was a full GMDSS station, I was doing mostly maintenance and the deck officers were quite happy for me to do the GMDSS communication as they didnt really want anything to do with it. The salary was only a fraction of what is on offer here. Before GMDSS came into force, I remember reading an article by some professor claiming that voice communication on 2182 KHz was far superior to morse on 500 KHz and other such rubbish. These people must have been bribed to write such nonsense and put their name to it. Merchant ships carry ETO's many of whom originally were radio officers but the ex radio officers will be mostly retired now.
MMOMPA

 

The job has evolved and taken on a critical role in the OPERATION of modern shipboard communications and maintenance of all onboard electronics including navigation and automation systems. Radio Officer is the correct name.

 

The shipowners in the modern world have a certain different take on this.

Only if the quite infrequent option of "on-board maintenance" of the GMDSS equipment is chosen, is a Radio-Electronic Certificate holder formally required as a crew-member.
Very few ship-owners use this option due to high personnel costs.

A different situation exists when a ship has very complex non-navigational electronics onboard that is critically dependent on on-board maintenance. Good examples include cruising ships and cooled or frozen cargo ships.

In this case, one or more electronics engineers or technicians form part of the more senior engine department crew.

As explained earlier, the radiotelegraph operator position was formally not a deck officer rank in many merchant navies.

73/
Karl-Arne
SM0AOM

 

This sounds like an awesome opportunity with the electronics background .