Electronic Communications

Morse code uses a long blip and a short blip. Combinations of these blips represent a letter. A fast human Morse coder could send ten letters in a few seconds but the accuracy depended also on the human receiver’s ability to decode the message equally as quickly.

Nowadays, gigabytes of data can be sent in a second as a digital signal. It is all a complete Wow! And we’ve seen this invention of technology, including all the working satellites launched into orbit in our lifetimes. Signals travel and are coded and decoded at the speed of light.

All these signals benefit our ability to communicate with each other. AND the field of electronic communication continues to explode. Knowing the importance of knowledge and data, sailors have embraced technology. Even the laggards and Luddites carry an iPhone in their pocket to communicate with their grandchildren via video over 5G or to retrieve tidal information about a port.

Most larger boats these days make use of most of the systems in this diagram.  

Data Communications

Compare this to what Captain James Cook would have carried on the Endeavor when he set out to measure and observe the transit of Venus across the sun in 1769 from the island of Tahiti.

Although telecommunications technology is improving quickly, people at sea need to know how to use many specific maritime communication methods including:

• Communicate with other ships and shore
• Receive real-time weather information
• Send or receive distress alerts in an emergency to or from rescue coordination centers ashore and nearby ships
• Receive navigation information
• Send and receive traffic information

So given all the above, the coming pages discuss these essential technologies that the prudent vessel operator will learn and stay current with.