May We Introduce —The Man Who Keeps A Luxury Liner In Touch With The World

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 35, 8 March 1935, Page 12

May We Introduce —The Man Who Keeps A Luxury Liner In Touch With The World

3 ALF an hour before .nodn on the day the Franconia arrived in port the chief wireless ‘operator, Mr. R..'A. J. Owlett, was dressing. fot He had not been to a party at sea the previous night. He explained that he had been keeping the "middle watch." Just because the ship was a luxury tourist liner was no reason why the wireless men should indulge in the luxury of sleeping overtime. Rather did it mean that there was as much work to do as might be the case on an ordinary trip. When he had finished dressing the chief operator was prepared to talk radio, and, like almost every other ship’s operator one has met, he was as wrapped up in his work as though ‘it had been a hobby. oo Every radio enthusiast has his idea of the perfect set, and most men whose living is the wireless room aboard ship build sets from time to time, which either are, or should be, much better than any set they can buy. Mr. Owlett is no exception. So far his latest effort is one of six valves, which will, in course of time, become an eight-valve set capable of super-selectivity and great wave range. That is for his own‘use in receiving broadcast programmes, of course, which are provided liberally for ship’s receivers, unhampered as they are with that "local station" bugbear borne with so little patience by those ashore. Loudspeakers have not been installed on the Franconia at every corridor corner and in every lounge and public room. For receiving broadcasts the tourists have to provide their own sets and install their own aerialsugually simple matters of a piece of wire round the cabin. The absence of the "community" loudspeakers is probably a popular feature, fot ‘the passengers do- not have music and: announcements. thrust upon them all day when they would rather listen to themselves or one another. For their music they rely on their cabin installations, which they can turn on and off at their pleasure.’ The only drawback to this is occasional in-* terference with the ship’s official communications on short-wave, when some passenger’s set may be oscillat-

ing * much to the annoyance:of the operators on the top deck. , . Although the wireless room on this steamer is not luxurious in keeping with the passengers’ part of the ship, it is capable of making daylight contact with New York fr6m Wellington. Most of the work goes on at ‘ night, however, for the sake of better’ conditions. There is not often much urgent traffic for the ship’s equipment which cannot wait for the hours between dusk and dawn. On this trip of the Franconia the daily transmissions from passengers have varied between two or three and 25 messages. On a cruise of this nature, there is-not so much demand on the wireless as there would be in a trans-Atlantic crossing, for people have usually undertaken the cruise for the leisure they will enjoy, and business is left behind them for a few months. Things might be different if Wall Street started another scare... . So during the daytime the operators have a rather easy time, but at night the generators hum and the keys inspire their high-pitched whistle almost continuously, as they "talk" to the other side of the world. A day’s messages from the Franconia may be transmitted"to a dozen different countries as far apart as Australia, England, Honolulu, Japan and the United States. Talking of talking, it will not be long before every liner of the Franconia’s tonnage and upwards will be fitted with radio telephones for passengers. The advance in this development has permitted some of the trans-Atlantic liners to install a stock-broker’s office aboard ship, so that the hustle of life ashore may be carried on unbroken by business men travelling between Europe and the States. Mr. Owlett has served 11 years in the wireless rooms of the Berengaria and the * Aquitania on the Atlantic run. He described the latest thing in radio-telephones for ships’ passengers, whereby the carrier wave operates only while a person is actually speaking into the telephone. As soon as the voice stops the carrier auto- ' matically ‘cuts out, thus facilitating two-way conversation without interference from the carrier, With a ship the size of the Europa (Continued on page 17.) )

(Continued from page 12.) ocean travel has become so _ steady and palatial that a passenger might: as well be boarding jn a hotel in New York, to step out the front door three and a half days later in. Cherbourg or Southampton. Certainly there is no isolation about the business of being at sea, a thousand miles from the nearest landfall, for the . radio-telephone has added that touch which enables people to "ring up" their Uncle Bzra in Woking as easily as if they were in the heart. of London. The next thing, of course, is television proper after a year or so of the televised newspaper, which the up-to-date ship will be expected to provide everywhere it may go. ‘To-day all ships have at their command a useful

newspaper service over the air: while at sea. This is a news budget which might run into two on three thousand words a day transmitted froni both the east and the west coasts of the -United States. On an extended ‘cruise such ‘as. the Franconia undertakes each year life aboard ship is more leisurely than most Atlantic hops, .yet. little time is spent in each port. There is not an undue amount of work for the’ radio men, but boredom does not often worry them. Their own duties may be light enough to leave time on their hands, but on the air there is soniething doing every hour of the day from sun-up to ‘sun-up-when you _ have equipment as. powerful as the Franconia’s! ©