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www.southgatearc.org
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Hold the Phone!The impending closure of Australia's VHF Marine Seaphone service will mark the end of an era. At midnight UTC on Friday 1st December 2006, the Australian VHF marine Seaphone service will be shut down. Seaphone was used to connect ships at sea to telephone subscribers ashore via VHF marine radio. It provided an essential communications link for the maritime community. The Seaphone service was established by OTC in the early 1970's, initially operating on VHF marine channels 23 and 26 in major capital cities. The network was expanded around the Australian coastline and eventually provided nearly continuous coverage of the East Coast of Australia from Torres Strait to Melbourne with additional coverage of other main coastal areas. In the mid 1980's, the service was automated with the introduction of a DTMF hand held microphone. Auto Seaphone, as it was known, provided a relatively inexpensive method of making radio telephone calls. The DTMF microphone connected to a standard VHF marine radio. The Auto Seaphone facility provided direct dial calls from ship to shore, store and forwarding of call details in the shore to ship direction, '999' emergency calls and a '333' repeater call facility. The unique Auto Seaphone technology was developed at a time when mobile phones where still a novelty item. The closure of the Seaphone service ends a long tradition of radio communications
services provided to the Australian Maritime Industry by OTC and its predecessors. Glenn Dunstan VK4DU Source: Wireless Institute of Australia
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