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- Devonshire's Last Commission 1976 - 78
Devonshire's Last Commission 1976 - 78
- By Robby G
- Published 05/18/2008
- HMS Devonshire
-
Rating:
THE COMMUNICATORS
The Communications department is a sub-division within the Operations department and is responsible for all means of outside communication to and from the ship.
Nobody knows quite how long communicators have served in RN ships but a contemporary report on the Battle of Hastings states that King Harold was killed by an RO. So, it could be since 1066 or thereabouts!
Within the branch itself, we form two groups. The 'Sparkers' deal with all the morse circuits, teleprinter nets and a certain number of the voice nets. They also keep a set of portable radios for the use of the landing and boarding parties.
The 'Buntings', on the other hand, deal mainly with visual communications by signalling lanterns, flags whilst maintaining a high standard of operation on Tactical voice sets which are used to manoeuvre the ship when in company.
In addition, the department
is the provider of all the required circuits in the Operations Room and the EWO.
In the past three years, we have seen many changes in the staff but the advent of the Task Book and a continuous daily training programme have meant that almost all ratings who have been with us for a year have passed for higher rate.
On the sporting scene, the department always fields a soccer team. Unfortunately, we have never won anything although the six-a-side team did win a crate of beer once!
In harbour most of our time is taken up with the care and maintenance of our part of ship but there is still the signal traffic to be looked after.
Another side to our job is Commercial wireless. Since July, 1975 we have sent 354 telegrams and made 375 radio telephone calls. Add to this an average of 1,800 signals in and out of the ship each month and we end up with a total for the commission of around 65,000.
In closing we would like to send our best wishes to all Communicators who have served in Devonshire since 1962 and who have helped to build and perpetuate her reputation within the Fleet as a 'Top Line' communications ship.
The Communications department is a sub-division within the Operations department and is responsible for all means of outside communication to and from the ship. Nobody knows quite how long communicators have served in RN ships but a contemporary report on the Battle of Hastings states that King Harold was killed by an RO. So, it could be since 1066 or thereabouts!
Within the branch itself, we form two groups. The 'Sparkers' deal with all the morse circuits, teleprinter nets and a certain number of the voice nets. They also keep a set of portable radios for the use of the landing and boarding parties.
The 'Buntings', on the other hand, deal mainly with visual communications by signalling lanterns, flags whilst maintaining a high standard of operation on Tactical voice sets which are used to manoeuvre the ship when in company.
In addition, the department
In the past three years, we have seen many changes in the staff but the advent of the Task Book and a continuous daily training programme have meant that almost all ratings who have been with us for a year have passed for higher rate.
On the sporting scene, the department always fields a soccer team. Unfortunately, we have never won anything although the six-a-side team did win a crate of beer once!
In harbour most of our time is taken up with the care and maintenance of our part of ship but there is still the signal traffic to be looked after.
Another side to our job is Commercial wireless. Since July, 1975 we have sent 354 telegrams and made 375 radio telephone calls. Add to this an average of 1,800 signals in and out of the ship each month and we end up with a total for the commission of around 65,000.
In closing we would like to send our best wishes to all Communicators who have served in Devonshire since 1962 and who have helped to build and perpetuate her reputation within the Fleet as a 'Top Line' communications ship.