Onboard Radio Operator - Master of His Domain
October 1932 Radio News

October 1932 Radio News [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Shipboard radio operators have been a crucial part of commercial and military transport since first being implemented in the early 20th century. Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company's operators (John "Jack" Phillips and Harold Bride) onboard the RMS Titanic are credited for saving the ship after it ran into an iceberg in the north Atlantic, as are the radio operators aboard the RMS Lusitania after German U-boats mercilessly torpedoed it. Today's sailing vessels, as well as aircraft, are as reliant upon skillful radio operators and radio equipment as back then. Much has been automated, but ultimately it is the human element in the communications chain that determine the fate of the mission. 

Master of His Domain

"On board" the radio operator is recognized as an officer of his ship with almost as much responsibility for his passengers as the captain. In his cabin, surrounded by complicated radio apparatus of all varieties, he is supreme. Every soul aboard relies on him for contact with the outside world, for weather reports, storm warnings, news and emergency messages. This is the radio cabin of the Discovery II, showing the long and short-wave transmitters and receivers of types easily recognizable at once by the well-informed operator

Posted June 21, 2023
(updated from original post on 11/16/2018)