about the clock

[makman94]

hello to all ,

does anyone knows what these black and red mark parts on the clock means?

[Lindley]

All I could find:



BRASS RADIO ROOM DECK CLOCK FOR U.S. MARITIME COMMISSION,

WWII era, unmarked, of solid, polished red bronze; 12/24 hour spun brass 6" dial face with second bits at 12 o'clock, black enamel spade hands and numerals, fast-slow regulator, marked with red sectors which reflect periods of silence observed by radio operators to monitor airwaves for distress signals; 7" diameter across screw bezel and 7.25" across mounting flange. Dial engraved and painted in black letters U.S. Maritime Commission.

[vanjast]

I guess if your sinking or sunk between those markers..... you're sunk!!

[Singed]

I'd seen them before and at some point growing up around boats I'd heard there were radio silence periods, maybe in a marine antiques store or something. At least with a starting point, I knew where to look.

The two red bands are periods of radio silence during which only distress signals can be transmitted. The two black bands correspond with the green bands on some other clocks, and those two periods were also radio silence to listen for coastal distress signals.

http://www.chelseaclock.com/site_ass...pdf?1315842133

Go down and look at the radio room clock.

[reaper7]

Very interesting.

[brett25]

this is why i love subsim! great info there mate, great post makman

[Harald_Lange]

Fascinating stuff, never knew that

[Gerald]

@Singed

Interesting link, and explanation of symbols

[Mork_417]

Learned something new today.

[VONHARRIS]

That was new for me as well.
Nice find Singed

[Hitman]

Yup, truly amazing how much uses they got from the same instruments. There were for example other clocks in ships right next to the helmsman that would ring in certain moments (You set the period of time) to remind him to make a course change

[Singed]

Eh the thanks to me are unfounded guys, I just sailed since I was 3 years old and spent some time in musty old ship chandlers. There use to be one at the foot of a bridge in San Leon that had all kinds neat old stuff and a parrot that screamed "help help help". I couldn't have been more than 10.

Real thanks go to Makman94 for finding interesting stuff and posting it to jog memories like this.

The one that would interest this forum is my grandfather telling me about the U-Boat spotted off Galveston by one of the coastal batteries. Sadly that is all I remember and he passed away in 77 (WWII Marine, Pacific).

[HW3]

Might have been U-171. http://www.uboat.net/articles/42.html

[makman94]

Originally Posted by Lindley

All I could find:



BRASS RADIO ROOM DECK CLOCK FOR U.S. MARITIME COMMISSION,

WWII era, unmarked, of solid, polished red bronze; 12/24 hour spun brass 6" dial face with second bits at 12 o'clock, black enamel spade hands and numerals, fast-slow regulator, marked with red sectors which reflect periods of silence observed by radio operators to monitor airwaves for distress signals; 7" diameter across screw bezel and 7.25" across mounting flange. Dial engraved and painted in black letters U.S. Maritime Commission.

Originally Posted by Singed

I'd seen them before and at some point growing up around boats I'd heard there were radio silence periods, maybe in a marine antiques store or something. At least with a starting point, I knew where to look.

The two red bands are periods of radio silence during which only distress signals can be transmitted. The two black bands correspond with the green bands on some other clocks, and those two periods were also radio silence to listen for coastal distress signals.

http://www.chelseaclock.com/site_ass...pdf?1315842133

Go down and look at the radio room clock.

thank you guys !
it is very interesting discovering things like that and i think i got an idea of what possibly these marked areas stood for.
Lindley's post also is giving a good point of their use ,saying ''...reflecting periods of silence observed by radio operators to monitor airwaves for distress signals''.
is this the same point that Signed's post says ?(my english are not helping me much here)
as i get it so far is that these marked areas where only for transimiting sos signal messages.but the question is : sos messages where on specific frequences on radio,what does the clock has to do with this ?

[Lindley]

Here this has more information:
http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/RAMN2012/Pacific/Part4

A bit long however when the clock hands were at the time marked the radio operator would not send messages. Only listen on distress frequencies for any transmissions.