PART V - SUMMARY OF OPERATIONS (CONT) b. Electronics. All electronics equipment functioned satisfactorily. Time spent on repair of outages was not in excess of the average maintenance/operation ratio except in the case of the following equipment: (1) AN/SPN-12X - Omega Navigation System. An inordinate amount of time, both day and night, was spent in synchronizing the Omega stations. Each synchronizing operation would last about one hour and sometimes it would have to be done three times a day. Probably one reason for this difficulty is the fact that no personnel on board have been trained in the maintenance or adjustment of this sophisticated and unique equipment. (2) AN/FRT-23 - Radio Transmitter. A cruise requirement to communicate on a daily schedule with a commercial station as well as a Coast Guard station, together with the ship's operating procedure of using dual transmission for RATT made it necessary to shift frequencies on the AN/FRT transmitters sometimes as often as fifty times in a single day. This placed a burden on the mechanical components involved in frequency shifting which, because of the age of the equipment and the unavailability of parts, created a problem of excessive maintenance and a continual threat of major failure with resultant loss of communications. This condition was controlled during this cruise but it has not been resolved. Long oceanographic trips make necessary an increase in the COSAL spares for the AN/FRT-23 Transmitter. (3) Teletype equipment functioned well for the first six to eight weeks of the cruise. After that time, constant adjustments became necessary due to normal wear on the equipment. Outages became frequent and excessive man hours had to be utilized probably because no personnel assigned have been trained for this equipment. (4) Because of its electronic character, ET's were called upon to repair inoperative oceanographic equipment. Although several effective repairs were accomplished, the time expended was disproportionate due to basic unfamiliarity with the equipment and lack of adequate instruction manuals. c. Communications. (1) Communications with CGRADSTA New York (NNY) and CGRADSTA Portsmouth (NMP) were excellent during outbound and inbound transit of Third and Fifth District waters. (2) For the major portion of the voyage, CGRADSTA New Orleans (NMG) was used as the primary relay point for all traffic. Communications were classed as good, with approximately 93 per cent of traffic volume handled by radioteletype (RATT) and the remainder by code (CH). Whenever contact with CGRADSTA New Orleans was lost, CGRADSTA WASHDC (NMI) was used as a back-up. Less than 1 per cent of the volume was passed by this route.