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Ferry van Eeuwen
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Ondina On this page some photos are shown of the radio room on board the Ondina, call sign Papa Golf November Bravo (PGNB), which in those days was very state of the art.
The Ondina's radio room with part of the equipment to the left is the Marconi Globespan medium and short wave transmitter. To the right the Marconi Reliance emergency transmitter which was to be used if the ship's mains failed. It was powered by a 24 Volt lead battery of 200 Ampere-hours (Ah). To the right the main receiver Philips BX-925 for medium and short wave reception to the right the Radio Holland emergency receiver H2L7U. Above the receiver the receiving aerial switching box and a bit higher the transmitter switching unit. The transmitters were connect to this unit with copper tubing. The same material was used to connect the unit to the main and emergency transmitting aerials. To the right of the receivers a part of the KOKA unit is visible. This function of this unit is explained below. Also visible is the special radio room clock with green and red sectors, indicating the silence periods for radio telegraphy on the 500 kHz calling and distress frequency and for the telephony calling and distress frequency on 2182 kHz.
This an original radio room clock which in my possession. The green and red silence periods are clearly visible.
The so called KOKA unit contained switching gear, a loudspeaker and the switches for the emergency battery charging, including the monitoring charge and discharge meters. To the left in front are the Junker Morse keyers connect via this unit to the main and emergency transmitters. The ship's call sign PGNB is shown beneath the radio room clock. To the right above the KOKA unit is the Redifon automatic alarm equipment which sounded a loud bell signal when a vessel in an distress situation had sent the international alarm signal. There were bells sounding in the radio room, on the bridge and in my sleeping cabin. To the right is the Murphy Amplitude Modulated (AM) VHF transmitter used to communicate with Persian Gulf oil ports exclusively. The entire world was standardised on Frequency Modulation (FM) except for this region. Above it is a recess giving access to the wheelhouse. It was a through and through square opening to the wheelhouse which could be closed by little doors on both side. The radio room's little door can be seen. I sometimes a put in an order for coffee, light on the cream and heavy on the sugar, to the bridge but to no avail! In the recess are the remote controls for the Murphy and the FM VHF equipment and gave the captain and watching keeping deck officers the possibility to communicate directly with radio stations and/or ships from the bridge.
The 'Van der Heem' FM VHF equipment is to the left. The famous Radio Holland calendar to the right. In the radio room was a telephone booth for crew members giving them some privacy when speaking to their family at home.
Not located in the radio room but on the chart table in the chart room is the Marconi Lodestar automatic radio direction finder. The correction curve is attached to the bulkhead to left.
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