Day to Day Work of
a Radioman
The work of a radioman naturally
varied depending on whether on ship or shore, or even what
kind of ship. As an example, I'll use a battleship,
whose radio system is set up much like a carrier or
cruiser as well. On smaller vessels, some of these
duties were combined, or eliminated.
Radio Central (Radio I)
Radio central was the location
where most radio traffic occurred. A number of operating
positions, consisting of two receivers and a typewriter(mill),
were manned at the same time by rated men. Their job for
a 4-hour watch was to copy the signals heard on the receiver
using the mill. Most of the time, the messages were the
Fox broadcasts sent by a network of powerful shore
stations. It was not possible to interrupt these
broadcasts to ask for fills if fading or interference caused
the radioman to miss something, so usually the broadcasts were
monitored on more than one frequency or more than one station
at a time.
The messages came in 5-character
groups of numbers and letters. The radioman had no idea
what he was receiving. His transcriptions would be
passed to the supervisor, usually a Chief Radioman. He
would pass the messages to the adjacent code room for decoding
and distribution.
Strikers, or apprentice radiomen,
were usually responsible for keeping the coffee flowing,
passing the messages, and cleaning up. Listening in and
copying messages would give them on-the-air
practice.
As radio silence was important,
the radiomen rarely used the keys at their operating
positions.
Radio II (Transmitter Room)
Radio II had most of the ships
transmitters, and a full set of receivers to cover VLF, LF,
MF, and HF for monitoring or casualty use. Stan Bryn,
Seaman 1st Class/Radioman Striker on battleship ALABAMA,
reported that he shared Radio II duty with one other man, and
they both bunked right there to facilitate manning it 24 hours
a day. His daily job was to set the transmitters on
frequency. Norm Dalling, CWO on escort carrier KITKUN
BAY reported that he gave informal classes for strikers in
Radio II.
Radio III (Casualty)
Battleship Massachusetts has
enough equipment in Radio III to provide back-up
communications in case of failures in Radio I or II. It
is also arranged for Morse code classes for
strikers.
Combat Information Center
(CIC)
CIC was the site of most tactical
communications, especially voice circuits to other ships
and aircraft. A radioman here spent most of his time
transcribing the voice communications on the various
channels. This must have taken some very good typing
skills.
