4 ms·

>The Radioman is the most elusive of the Coners. He spends his time locked in his >‘Radio Shack’ both off watch and on. This limited access space offers a small

>The Radioman is the most elusive of the Coners. He spends his time locked in his >‘Radio Shack’ both off watch and on. This limited access space offers a small >amount of privacy not seen anywhere else outside I dont understand this. Is there one and only one radio person, and that person sleeps, and works in the same "office". Since messages might need to go out at any time, would it not require a shift change? A different nicely rested radio person? I suppose in most cases when you can send messages is limited and thus scheduled ahead of time. (When the sub is close enough to the surface?) Yet the persons constant presence would indicate that a message might have to go out at any time. I just feel bad for the person who has to be on guard 24/7. Also is there then only one radio person per crew? Seems like a role that would require a backup. But then so does docs, and there is only one of that person?

yamazakiwi 5y ago
Radioman here, although ship-bound. They combined Radioman and IT into one role so you end up managing quite a lot of systems. I slept in the radio shack more often than I slept in my bed while at sea. My crew was 12 people IT/Radio for a 300 person ship. There are so many different responsibilities within this role, satellite communication systems especially, that usually 6/12 people would be glued to one area of the radio shack for hours and hours working or waiting on one system but the radio shack was at least half full at all times. We had varying hourly schedules for coverage throughout my 4 years aboard including: 12 on, 12 off - 8 on, 8 off - 6 on, 6 off. In addition to your normal job you must also perform hardware maintenance on your own time and you have a tertiary job related to combat/warfare (mine was firefighter) so you end up doing constant drills/training on top of your actual work. Everyone on my ship lived on Monsters and Pre-workouts. While on shore every 6 days you have what is called "Duty". Duty is a 24 hour work window where I did my job for 10 hours and then did one or two 4-hour roving shifts. Roving is essentially just surveying the ship with armor and an m-16. Me and a colleague hated these roving shifts so we would purposefully set systems to alarm at opportune times to get us off those roving shifts so we could do our 4-hour duty shifts in the radioshack, where we work on personal projects or just watch anime off an external hdd. A Submarine's crew is about half the size of my ship so I'd guess they have around 5-6 radioman/IT but I could be wrong.
- jedc 5y ago
  Radio is different on a submarine, in that most of the time you're on watch, you actually can't radio anyone. :) So radio spends a lot of their time routing message traffic, preparing outgoing messages, and then a bunch of day-to-day maintenance/crypto stuff. (On my boat, IT was run by Fire Control division, not Radio.) If anyone spends time in Radio outside of watch, it's because it's pretty private - only officers and people in the radio division can get into the room. No one ever slept in Radio on a submarine. And yeah, there were about 5-6 people in the Radio division, IIRC.
  - ThinkBeat 5y ago
    What is the size of the radio room? I am imagining something about the size of a closet, walls decked out with gear, knobs, blinking lights and what not. One or two big monitors, a keyboard and a chair? All squeezed inside a closet sized space with little movement and problems standing up?
  - yamazakiwi 5y ago
    So if I was considered Radioman by rate, what is the IT rate called on a submarine? I also got out in 2012 so things might have changed
    - jedc 4y ago
      I got out well before you :) but when I was on my boat IT was run by FTs.
- ThinkBeat 5y ago
  I am curious, I had for some reason not imagen energy drinks being available. I was an army dirt pounder, so I know nothing much about ships. but most of the places I found myself did not offer energy drinks. I presume you have to pay for your energy drinks?
  - yamazakiwi 5y ago
    Yes you had to pay unfortunately and you didn't have any space really to store them yourself so if the store was out you were SOL. You would purchase them in the Ship Store which was sort of like a mini-bodega.

yamazakiwi 5y ago

Radioman here, although ship-bound. They combined Radioman and IT into one role so you end up managing quite a lot of systems. I slept in the radio shack more often than I slept in my bed while at sea. My crew was 12 people IT/Radio for a 300 person ship. There are so many different responsibilities within this role, satellite communication systems especially, that usually 6/12 people would be glued to one area of the radio shack for hours and hours working or waiting on one system but the radio shack was at least half full at all times. We had varying hourly schedules for coverage throughout my 4 years aboard including: 12 on, 12 off - 8 on, 8 off - 6 on, 6 off. In addition to your normal job you must also perform hardware maintenance on your own time and you have a tertiary job related to combat/warfare (mine was firefighter) so you end up doing constant drills/training on top of your actual work. Everyone on my ship lived on Monsters and Pre-workouts. While on shore every 6 days you have what is called "Duty". Duty is a 24 hour work window where I did my job for 10 hours and then did one or two 4-hour roving shifts. Roving is essentially just surveying the ship with armor and an m-16. Me and a colleague hated these roving shifts so we would purposefully set systems to alarm at opportune times to get us off those roving shifts so we could do our 4-hour duty shifts in the radioshack, where we work on personal projects or just watch anime off an external hdd. A Submarine's crew is about half the size of my ship so I'd guess they have around 5-6 radioman/IT but I could be wrong.

jedc 5y ago
Radio is different on a submarine, in that most of the time you're on watch, you actually can't radio anyone. :) So radio spends a lot of their time routing message traffic, preparing outgoing messages, and then a bunch of day-to-day maintenance/crypto stuff. (On my boat, IT was run by Fire Control division, not Radio.) If anyone spends time in Radio outside of watch, it's because it's pretty private - only officers and people in the radio division can get into the room. No one ever slept in Radio on a submarine. And yeah, there were about 5-6 people in the Radio division, IIRC.
- ThinkBeat 5y ago
  What is the size of the radio room? I am imagining something about the size of a closet, walls decked out with gear, knobs, blinking lights and what not. One or two big monitors, a keyboard and a chair? All squeezed inside a closet sized space with little movement and problems standing up?
- yamazakiwi 5y ago
  So if I was considered Radioman by rate, what is the IT rate called on a submarine? I also got out in 2012 so things might have changed
  - jedc 4y ago
    I got out well before you :) but when I was on my boat IT was run by FTs.
ThinkBeat 5y ago
I am curious, I had for some reason not imagen energy drinks being available. I was an army dirt pounder, so I know nothing much about ships. but most of the places I found myself did not offer energy drinks. I presume you have to pay for your energy drinks?
- yamazakiwi 5y ago
  Yes you had to pay unfortunately and you didn't have any space really to store them yourself so if the store was out you were SOL. You would purchase them in the Ship Store which was sort of like a mini-bodega.