Believe it or not, there is more to shortwave radio than what is found on the ham bands! Some of the most interesting listening can be found on the HF maritime and HF aeronautical frequencies. With the proliferation of general-coverage 'all-band' transceivers, many amateurs are re-discovering the joys of short-wave listening. 'Utility' or UTE DXing can often provide some exciting relief from the humdrum of the ham bands.MARITIME DX - Until recently, all large ocean-going vessels were required to carry a radio operator (RO) to maintain and operate the ship's HF station. Almost all of their traffic was in CW. Ships could be heard at all times of the day or night, from 500KHz to as high as the sunspots would permit, passing arrival or departure messages, weather information and traffic to their companies. Although some ships still maintain an RO, most of today's HF activity is confined to SITOR or radioteletype via radio. There are still a lot of interesting targets to be hunted and logged as most coastal countries maintain and operate large land stations to accomodate the daily SITOR traffic. When band conditions are good, ships from all over the world can easily be heard.
The 'M/V FLORIA' was one of the first ships that I ever logged on HF. It was a small 'cement carrier' operated by the Deutsche-Afrika Lines. She was one day out of Los Angeles bound for Manzanillo, Mexico. My first prepared form card (PFC) was dutifully filled out, stamped and returned by the ship's RO. He was on 8363KHz CW and working KFS with fairly low power. The "3E" designator indicates that the M/V Floria was registered in Panama. PREPARED FORM CARDS - Since very few utility stations have an actual 'QSL' card of their own, it is necessary to send a pre-made card in order to verify your catch. Essential details such as time, frequency and date can be filled in ahead of time so that the RO needs only to fill in the missing information (such as power, antenna, location etc) and verify the reception by stamping or signing the card.
Another early card was from a fairly rare catch - a Canadian registered deep sea 'oil tanker', the Kent Line's 'M/V IRVING CANADA'. She was operating on 16783 KHz CW while working VCS in Halifax. The RO reported her position as outbound from Tampa, Florida. My logbook also notes that they were experiencing torrential rain static during the contact with VCS. VCS is the Halifax Coast Guard Radio station in Nova Scotia and can often be heard working vessels from the North Atlantic to the Caribbean. They are especially active during the winter storm season and are often heard co-ordinating rescue effort traffic. Some of the most interesting catches come from the Pacific, with a large variety of ships operating out of Japan. There are still several maritime CW stations operating in Japan. Many of these are owned and operated by commercial fishing companies and can be heard working fleet vessels throughout the Pacific on their daily CW skeds.
This interesting catch from the North Pacific was the Japanese 'fisheries research vessel' 'M/V FUJI MARU'. She was about 1200 miles NW of her CW contact, JNA in Tokyo. I had just started using a newly designed PFC that required most of the details to be filled-in by the verification signer.The 'M/V ORIENT VENUS' was logged early one summer morning while working JNA on 8355 KHz CW. Her position indicates she was in the Mariana Islands.
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