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The presentation was made by Prof. Tom Stevenson & Dorothy Brankin of the Museum of Communication.

Members of the LRS along with several guests and members of the Glenrothes Amateur Radio Club made their annual visit to the Museum of Communication in Burntisland, Fife, on Wednesday 26th September 2012 for a presentation by Prof. Tom Stevenson and Dorothy Brankin of the MOC on "Marine Communication", the theme of this year's exhibition at the museum, which was open to visit after the talk. 

 

Tom took us from lighthouses to semaphore, optical telegraphs to signal flags and the electric telegraphs sent via undersea cable. In 1901 Marconi first bridged the Atlantic by radio and then installed spark transmitters and Marconi radio operators in many ships. Following the loss of the vessel the Isle of Erin near Orkney in 1908 the Postmaster General ordered that there should be a trained wireless operator at each Post Office in the islands. The Titanic sank in 1912 following a collision with an iceberg with large loss of life in spite of the heroic efforts of the two Marconic wireless operators, only one of whom survived. See: Titanic Radio Page  In WWI the Royal Navy was still using flags to communicate betwen ships while the German Navy was already using wireless which, however, the British were able to decode. At the end of the war in 1918  the German fleet was captured and taken from Inverkeithing to Scapa Flow in Orkney where they were scuttled by the Germans. All their morse keys had been confiscated (or so it was thought) to prevent communication among the German ships, but one key was salvaged from the wreck of the Grosser Kurfurst in 1937 and is now in the MOC collection. In WWII Enigma - encoded German signals were decoded at Bletchley Park by Alan Turing and his colleagues. The German Navy added a fourth rotor to their Enigma machines as they did not trust the basic 3-rotor machine coding to be unbreakable.  The working replica of Turing's Colossus computer at B.P., built by Tony Sale in recent years, incorporates a number of valves provided by Harry Matthews of the MOC. Radar was developed by a team led by the Scot, Robert Watson-Watt and became essential equipment for marine use. Modern digital radar displays can even calculate possible collision courses. ASDIC (sonar) has developed to the point where 3-D displays of wrecks can be produced using forward-pointing "pings" and directional microphones. Tom ended his presentation by demonstrating the ADUS sonar hologram (with an amazing resolution of 20mm) of the wreck of HMS Royal Oak which was sunk in Scapa Flow in 1939.  

A vote of thanks to Prof Tom Stevenson, his wife Winnie and Dorothy Brankin was proposed by Brian Flynn GM8BJF.    

The MOC has a completely revamped website with a new address: http://mocft.co.uk/ which includes a description of the exhibition.

 

Peter GM4DTH, Briain GM8PKL and Brian GM8BJF had front-row seats.

 

Dorothy Brankin demonstrated semaphore signalling, sending M - O - C. This is "M". 

 

Bob GM4CMI was very interested in the ADUS sonar hologram

of the wreck of HMS Royal Oak which was sunk in 1939 in Scapa Flow, Orkney.

 

The ADUS sonar hologram was made using forward-pointing "pings" and an array

of directional microphones, giving an amazing resolution of 20mm.  

 

After the presentation the group moved into the exhibition area.

 

Peter GM4DTH with Prof. Tom Stevenson.

 

The Campbells in conversation: Bob GM4CMI and Glen GM3HNE.

 

LRS member Vic JA5VQ / MM0JVQ (R) with John GM4AQO at the MOC amateur radio station. 

 

 

The morse key recovered from the wreck of the Grosser Kurfurst in Scapa Flow.

 

History of the morse key from the Grosser Kurfurst.

 

Your reporter was particularly interested in a demonstration of ShipAIS which provides a real-time display of ships in a particular sea area, in this case the Firth of Forth. By clicking on a ship, its details and recent navigation history are displayed, having been transmitted automatically from the ship. Go to:  http://www.shipais.com/

 

The attractive MOC booklet describing the exhibition.