| Ship's Diary |
| During her time at sea, HMS Endurance will be sending back regular diaries to keep us all up to date with what is happening on this deployment. Use the links below to read extracts from the diary. |
| HMS Endurance – Communications in Antarctica |
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In today’s technological age, the ability to communicate with anybody, wherever they are in the world, is a luxury that is often taken for granted. A telephone call from one continent to another was once an expensive and challenging proposition; however with the advent of satellite communications and the Internet, it has become a reliable and affordable technology that everybody from all walks of life can enjoy.
While global communication is commonplace in the civilised world, it is not so simple in some of the more remote places on the planet. HMS Endurance’s voyage to Antarctica presents a good example of how contact with the rest of the world in such an isolated region pushes modern technology to its limits. Maintaining contact with the UK is essential to Endurance’s mission, though not all communications onboard are related to work. About 25% of all of the ship’s communications traffic is of a personal nature and this allows the crew to correspond on a daily basis with their friends and family back home. How then is this made possible? Well… Endurance utilizes a relatively new form of global communications system called INMARSAT (International Maritime Satellite). It allows the ship to send and receive such transmissions as email, telephone and faxes. It even allows the crew to access the Internet! INMARSAT can be used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, anywhere in the world – even in the Antarctic Circle. It is not susceptible to adverse weather conditions or the movement of the ship, as it keeps a direct fix on the satellites that are orbiting the Earth. The main drawback to INMARSAT is the cost of using the system but as the technology improves this is becoming less of an issue. The ship’s primary form of communications however is with HF (High Frequency) transmissions. Though this is a comparatively old form of radio transmission, it still forms the backbone of Royal Navy communications due to the fact that it is very difficult to intercept or jam the signal. It is not without its weaknesses however as it is badly affected by the weather. Extreme heat and cold have a detrimental impact on its ability to pass information back to the UK (this is especially the case in the harsh environments where Endurance works). HF has also been known to be affected by fog and even the sun and the moon. Huge advancements have been made since the time when flags were the only form of communications onboard a Royal Navy ship. Though flags are a very basic form of communicating with other ships, they played an important role in Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. The immortal words “England expects every man to do his duty”, in one flag hoist, helped inspire his men to victory against incredible odds; thus ensuring Britain ruled the waves for many years to come.
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