The QE2 Story Gallery has many wonderful photos of QE2, like these pictures taken by Bob C's father around 1969 and when I noticed the aerial in the picture I asked Roger Latham and Willum for more information. Willum's firsthand information and Roger taking time to label the aerials gives us important information on the use of the mast for communications.
Photo: Bob C taken from the Sports Deck (circa 1969) Labels by Roger Latham
Photo of Forward Mast: Bob C's father took the photo from Signal Deck (circa 1969) labels by Roger Latham and Willum
Information from Roger Latham:
LF (Low Frequency up 300 kHz) MF (Medium Frequency300kz to 3Mhz) and HF (High Frequency 3 to 30MHz) Receiving Aerials: There were four LF/MF/ HF Receiving aerials - two to the Port side and two to the Starboard side. They fed to the radio room where they were distributed to a number of receivers.
Not shown as mounted aft were two whip HF Receiving Aerials in the vicinity of the swimming pool.
There was also an HF notch receiving aerial mounted directing at the front and top of the wheelhouse looking like a "tram indicator board"!
VHF (Very High Frequency 156 to 160 MHz )Aerials:The notch VHF fed the Maritime transceivers on the bridge.
Satellite Aerial: The Transit Satellite Navigation aerial was a double helix aerial as Transit used two frequencies unlike GPS which only uses one.
Radar Aerials: There were two 3 cm (centimetre)(10.000 MHz) AEI Radar aerials.
TV Aerial: Also seen a TV aerial used to receive normal broadcast TV when in the vicinity of land.
Willum provided the following information on the TV aerials:
"They would have gone down to the SRE on 3-deck to VHF Tuners for broadcast to the passenger cabins on the speaker entertainment channels.
The range on VHF broadcast is just up to 100 miles before the signals disappear. Also the North Atlantic would have made short work of the rotator and the aerials were domestic and probably didn't last long in the mighty winds. They were certainly gone by my time. Interesting to see them in detail, they are cross Yagis for VHF - the old Black & White Band 1 and Band 2 Broadcast FM"
Direction Finder Aerial:The MF Direction Finder was a double loop aerial used to find the direction of a transmitter in the MF(Medium Frequency 300KHz to 520Khz Band. It was used to find the direction of NDBs (Non Directional Beacons) and also for use to find the direction of any ship in distress.