What is SSS?

bigboywooly · 08-03-06, 09:22 AM

Interesting

The clocks in the Radio Office were all set to Greenwich mean time, which was always referred to as Zulu time. The clocks had two segments painted on the dial, one segment at quarter to and the other at quarter past the hour. This was to remind the operator not to transmit during this time, but to listen for distress calls.

During World War Two, however, the radio operators had to maintain strict radio silence. They listened for scheduled messages sent to the convoys and independent ships from Portishead and Rugby Radio on the HF band. The rest of the time, they listened for calls on the 500 k/cs (600 metres) MF band. If the ship were attacked, they would transmit a four-letter code. For example, SSSS, would indicate an attack by U-boats, AAAA for aircraft, and QQQQ for armed surface raiders. The SOS code was not normally used in convoys in wartime.

http://www.gordonmumford.com/radio-0...ishead%20Radio

But this is different again - great read this one BTW of a German merchant raider attack

One of the ships signalled by lamp in morse code for the Rangitane to stop and for the radio not to be used; Upton and his officers were too busy to read the message. Following Admiralty standing orders, Captain Upton ordered a QQQQ radio signal to be sent - a standard 'suspicious vessel' message. As soon as the Radio Officer started sending the QQQQ message the raiders immediately tried to jam the transmission, switched on searchlights and started shelling the Rangitane. The radio officer tried to send an RRRR message - the standard 'raider attack'
http://www.thebells.btinternet.co.uk...tane/story.htm

08-03-06, 09:22 AM	#15
bigboywooly Rear Admiral Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Swindon, England Posts: 10,151 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	Interesting The clocks in the Radio Office were all set to Greenwich mean time, which was always referred to as Zulu time. The clocks had two segments painted on the dial, one segment at quarter to and the other at quarter past the hour. This was to remind the operator not to transmit during this time, but to listen for distress calls. During World War Two, however, the radio operators had to maintain strict radio silence. They listened for scheduled messages sent to the convoys and independent ships from Portishead and Rugby Radio on the HF band. The rest of the time, they listened for calls on the 500 k/cs (600 metres) MF band. If the ship were attacked, they would transmit a four-letter code. For example, SSSS, would indicate an attack by U-boats, AAAA for aircraft, and QQQQ for armed surface raiders. The SOS code was not normally used in convoys in wartime. http://www.gordonmumford.com/radio-0...ishead%20Radio But this is different again - great read this one BTW of a German merchant raider attack One of the ships signalled by lamp in morse code for the Rangitane to stop and for the radio not to be used; Upton and his officers were too busy to read the message. Following Admiralty standing orders, Captain Upton ordered a QQQQ radio signal to be sent - a standard 'suspicious vessel' message. As soon as the Radio Officer started sending the QQQQ message the raiders immediately tried to jam the transmission, switched on searchlights and started shelling the Rangitane. The radio officer tried to send an RRRR message - the standard 'raider attack' http://www.thebells.btinternet.co.uk...tane/story.htm __________________ My mediafire page http://www.mediafire.com/?11eoq19bq9r41 Last edited by bigboywooly; 08-03-06 at 09:32 AM.