History of Polish coast radio stations (fourth part)

The Forms used in coast stations in Poland

As many of R/O remember there were many forms that had to be filled in during all the shifts. There was also a lot of accounting work involved. Every coast station had to keep a journal where every message, phone call and SITOR connection was logged. Messages were put down, words were counted, all charges written for collection. Some of the forms had the company logos (like popular and well known MARCONIGRAM). Polish form didn’t have any, only The Eagle – an emblem of the People’s Republic of Poland.

A standard QTC form used in Poland, especially on the vessel’s side.

For voice calls a special form was used, it was called ceduła (ceduła in Polish = stock exchange report or a list of goods being in transit while shipping; this word is quite old). Coast stations in Poland used two forms – „A” (NR 27) and „B” (ZR-28).

Form „A” – NR 27 was used to record information about every single call.

Form “A”

Then form „B” – ZR-28 was used to record information about all calls from/to a single vessel that was in a queue. Then the form with all corresponding “A” forms was delivered to accounting department in the coast station. Everything was logged.

Form “B”.

All filled forms were collected and delivered to an accounting center of Polish Post Office in Bydgoszcz. At this time The Post Office center sent invoices, collected money, paid some bills and did other accounting work.

Marcin Marciniak SP5XMI