An insight into the operation of the operators who manned the Coastal Radio stations is given by the report in the Hobart Mercury of 17 September 1917:
COASTAL WIRELESS STATIONS THE SERVICE WITH SHIPS.
INTERNATIONAL CODE.
Behold the operator at the coastal wireless station of Sydney, Perth or Melbourne. He sits at his table wearing headphones, his hand on the transmitting key - monarch, if not of all he surveys at least of a stretch of ocean a thousand miles square. A ship calls him up. But he is "talking" to some other vessel at the moment and so he rapidly tick-tacks back "QSN," which being interpreted means "I can't receive you now, remain on watch". The beauty of the "QSN" signal is that whether the ship that receives it is British, German, Japanese or Greek, the message is readily understood; the signal is international - one of a series.
AERIAL POLICEMAN'S DUTIES.
So the operator waits his turn while the traffic "cop" of the coastal station tells a ship 500 miles away to deliver his messages and commands another to await his turn - all with a group of letters in a universal language more useful than Esperanto or Volapuk. If a wireless operator at sea should become uppish and insist on pushing his way in out of turn, the coastal operator will have him dealt with under international regulations. But such a thing does not happen. They are a polite lot, the men who tick-tack their way over the waters that cover the earth. They understand that someone has to be the policeman over the ether else confusion would reign.
The paramount function of the coastal-ethereal traffic "cop" is to listen for distress signals. As soon as the S.O.S. arrives, he becomes the man of action. With a sweep of his hand he calls CQ, QRT, SOS - which is an order to all stations to listen and cease transmitting. He then determines whether assistance can be readily rendered by a nearby vessel and immediately he reports to the navigation authorities. For such work, the best possible plant is desirable.
NEW PLANT AT COASTAL RADIO STATIONS.
Within the past few days, the finishing touches have been given to the installing of new apparatus in a number of the coastal wireless stations around Australia, so that the island continent now possesses the most efficiently equipped service for communicating with ships at sea of any country in the world.
Since taking over the coastal radio stations in 1922, Australian Wireless Amalgamated has effected many improvements both in equipment and in operating. In order to provide efficient service and to reduce interference to broadcast listeners, Mr. E. T. Fisk, Managing Director of A.W.A., set his engineers the task of developing several types of modern valve transmitters to replace the old spark transmitter. After much research, this objective was achieved and, during the past two years, modern valve transmitters have been installed at Thursday Island, Cooktown, Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Flinders Island, Adelaide, Perth and Broome. Steel has replaced wood for aerial masts.
As a safeguard against any break in continuity of service, Amalgamated Wireless has also developed an auxiliary universal wave transmitter of low power which can be worked on any wavelength as simply as a radio receiver is tuned into various broadcasting stations. This auxiliary is now in use at practically every coast station. It has a normal range of 500 miles by day and 1,200 miles by night but some of these small sets, using no more power than is required to light an ordinary house, have developed surprising capacity for reaching out.
TALKING ROUND THE WORLD.
When the German liner Bremen was establishing a record trans-Atlantic trip recently, the operator on board was in two-way communication with an operator of the Sydney coastal station who was using a low power short-wave set. A trawler off the coast of Greenland has also been "worked" by the coast station at La Perouse.
Although the coastal stations are intended mainly for ship traffic, they have proved quite versatile when the occasion arises. During the recent floods in Tasmania when nearly everything on the island, including the telephone lines, was washed away, Amalgamated Wireless came to the rescue and maintained the telegraph service.