Maritime Radio Historical Society

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THE KPH PROJECT

The KPH Project

In cooperation with the Point Reyes National Seashore, part of the National Park Service, the Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS) has taken on the job of preserving the historic ex-RCA coast station KPH and returning it to the air.

Bob Schrader W6BNB writes:

To all of you nice MRHS people:

I hope you know how much your bringing back the sound of old KPH to those few of us who are still around from the 1930s Sparks ship days and how much it means to us. I worked KPH almost every day on six trips around the world and for a dozen or so trips over to Manila and back to SF, plus a few others trips... I even had the pleasure of seeing old Marshall and Bolinas in operation in 1932 when only a ham (althouh already with a Radiotelegraph Second license) at Central Trade School with old Fred Mangelsdorf and most of his class. While KTK was my home station for four of my six years. I almost daily received passenger messages from KPH and KFS and would also send them our TR reports.. KPH was one of the first and last stations I worked from shipboard. That was from 1933 to 1939. Real fond memories!

Thanks.

Bob Shrader "RS" W6BNB

COAST STATION KSM

Coast Station KSM

KSM is the coast station of the MRHS. Our goal is to honor and commemorate the men and women who made the profession of radiotelegrapher one honor and skill. We feel that the best way to do this is to preserve their skills and traditions through actual use at a real coast station. Somewhat to our surprise, the FCC granted our application for a full, commercial, common carrier public coast station.

Coast Station KSM

AMATEUR STATION K6KPH

K6KPH

K6KPH is the amateur station of the MRHS. Here's full information about operating times, frequencies, equipment and purpose.

Amateur Station K6KPH

MRHS PROJECTS

MRHS Projects

MRHS members are involved in other radio projects around the San Francisco Bay area as well as projects directly connected with the MRHS program. Here's information about some of these.

MRHS EVENTS

Radiotelegraph Exams

RADIO ARCHAEOLOGY

Radio Archaeology

The sites of historic radio stations surround us, especially along the coasts. As part of our project to record and preserve our maritime radio heritage, MRHS members try to locate these sites and document what is there now. Armed with maps, GPS navigators, historic records and, at least in one case, the plank from a shipping crate, we've had some remarkable success.

INCREDIBLE RADIO TALES

Incredible Radio Tales

When radio officers hit the beach in San Francisco they went immediately to "the Dog House", a rooming house in Powell Street that, for reasons lost to time, was the home away from home for seafaring brass pounders. There were probably similar places in every port around the country if not the world. And what must these Sparkies have talked about at table? Why radiomen, radio conditions, and radio equipment of course!

Ah! What one would give to sit in on one of those bull sessions. These were men who could coax a sweet note from a decrepit quenched gap transmitter, copy through static and interference (using their own personal Audion detector smuggled on board) and look the Radio Inspector straignt in the eye when he strode self importantly into the shack.

Our time machine is out of service at the moment due to a shorted power transformer. So we won't be able to join the boys at the Dog House tonight. But we can preserve and present some of our own radio tales, all of them true, for your enjoyment.

As you read, let the sounds of static on 600m at midnight and the dim light of glowing tubes in a dark room become real. Imagine the silence and smell the dust in the abondoned transmitter gallery of a once great station. And above all remember the men and women who came before us and made the profession of radiotelegrapher one of honor and skill.

REPORTS FROM NMO

Reports From NMO

Jeffrey Herman was a radioman at Coast Guard station NMO Hawaii during the glory days when Morse was king and 500kc was alive 24 hours a day. For the benefit of those of us who were not so fortunate as he, Jeffrey has written this account of what it was like to stand watch on 500kc, what the proper procedures were and what it was like to receive his first SOS. He has kindly agreed to allow us to post his reports here.

HISTORIC COAST STATIONS

"I'd like to get a job sending Vs"

Historic Coast Stations

During the golden age of maritime communications the globe was populated with hundreds of coast stations, each with its own area of coverage, call sign and personality. Many of us remember tuning across the marine bands and hearing these stations, standing shoulder to shoulder with hardly any space between them, calling out for traffic or working ships. Recordings of some of these stations were preserved and are posted in the Coast Station Recordings section of this Web site. But what did these stations actually look like? We here at the MRHS have collected as many photos of these historic stations as we could find and posted them here for your enjoyment. They range from many photos showing the big, well documented to a single photo for a small station that was in operation for only a few years.

Do you have photos like these you'd like to share? Please let us know. We'd be honored to post them.

POINT TO POINT

Point to Point

It was Marconi's dream to bridge the oceans and provide intercontinental communications as a rate that undercut the cost of the undersea cables. His signals first bridged the Atlantic in 1901. Only a little more than a decade later his international system was in place and functinging - and earning money. Soon competitors followed, creating the point-to-point industry - first using giant spark and arc transmitters, then magnificent Alexanderson alternators and finally short wave tube transmitters. Often the elite point-to-point service was co-located with the marine service which often had to make do with a corner of the operating building and antennas that the point-to-point service no longer needed. Here is the story of some of these point-to-point stations.

MISCELLANEOUS AND UNKNOWN

Miscellaneous and Unknown

We at the MRHS spend a lot of time trolling flea markets and eBay for historic radio photographs. When we get extra lucky, the photos show new views of historic stations we know about. These we post in the Historic Coast Stations section of this Web site. But often the photos exist on their own, without explanation or provenance. We present a collection of these photos here - with a request. If you can provide any details about these photos please let us know. Your information will add to the the growing collection of knowledge about our maritime radio heritage.

Miscellaneous and Unknown

PERSONAL COLLECTIONS

Personal Collections

Many of us at the MRHS maintain personal collections of vintage radio gear connected with maritime radio communications. Here's a look at some of those collections.

Radiomarine CRM-R6A

COAST STATION RECORDINGS

Coast Station Recordings

Maybe you're one of those who remember. Late on a winer night night... tubes glowing in the darkened radio shack... earphones on... And one after another they rolled in, the great coast stations of the world. Maybe you listened to improve your code speed. Or maybe you listened for the thrill of it. Once the marine bands were filled end to end with the signals of coast stations from around the world. Twenty four hours a day the skilled operators at these stations carried the messages of maritime commerce. And they were there to lend immediate assistance to mariners in peril at sea. We thought it would never end. But the golden age of Morse code marine communications has passed and now the marine bands are either silent or occupied by digital transmissions. Luckily, recordings of many of that golden age exist. Listen to them here and travel back in time, a time not so long ago, when Morse was king.

Listen

Help the MHRS keep these historic treasures on the air! Your generous donations are greatly appreciated.

Fantastic Insulators come to the MRHS

We believe these fantastic insulators were used to form the giant helices used in applications like the coils for the Alexanderson multiple tuned antenna.

We have one small example of such an insulator that is native to the Bolinas transmitter site. It was badly broken and is now held together with wire.

The large insulators are not original to the Bolinas site but we believe they represent the type that may well have been used there as part of the Alexanderson antenna and possibly even the antenna for the 230kW Marconi rotary gap transmitter that was installed in 1913.

These insulators were mounted on poles or other vertical support, their long dimension at 90 degrees to the support. The cables comprising the helix were laid in and supported by the gooves in the insulator.

MRHS members Bill Ruck and Paul Shinn made the acquisition of these insulators possible through their personal contributions. We also wish to thank Bill Meier who contacted us about the insulators and the previous owner who made them available to us.

We've received this interesting information about the insulators from collector Don Howard:

A friend that knows of my interest in antenna insulators sent me a link to your page with the "Fantastic Insulators."

Here's a little more information about your insulators.

They have been well known in the telegraph and telphone collecting hobby for a number of years and were mistakenly rumored to be cable rack insulators from within submarine hulls. I collect radio-related insulators and had my doubts about the submarine story but couldn't prove anything until I stumbled accross a couple of articles in the Proceedings of the IRE identifying them as tuning coil insulators. I provided pictures from the articles to the National Insulator Association and they published them to their web site http://www.nia.org/notins/nons6.htm which is where I assume Don House acquired them.

If you would like to read more about the insulators (and give credit for the pictures on your web page) the references you seek are:

"Designs and Efficiencies of Large Air Core Inductances" by W W Brown and J E Love, Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, December 1925.
"Main Considerations in Antenna Design" by N Lindenblad and W W Brown, Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers Vol 14 No 3 June 1926 pp. 281-390.

The references for your pictures:
"Figure 2 & 3" appeared on page 757 of the December 1925 article.
"Figure 10 & 11" appeared on pge 763 of the December 1925 article.

The December article indicates that coils using the insulators were tested at RCA's Tuckerton Station. Since Tuckerton dates from after WWI, I think we can be certain that these were in no way related to Marconi's antenna. The article does confirm their use with the Alexanderson alternator, however.

Thanks for the interesting web site. I hope that you find this information helpful in your documentation.

73,

Dan Howard

View all images as a slideshow

This insulator (or spacing block, more appropriately) seems to be very similar to if not identical with the broken example we found at the Bolinas site. The lower photo shows how the insulators were mounted and how the cable was wound. Courtesy of Don Robert House	This photo shows insulators of the size and type we have acquired. Courtesy of Don Robert House	Alexanderson insulator fragment at the Marion, MA transmitter site. Photo by Frank Donovan, provided by Eric Scace	This is the broken insulator found at the Bolinas site, now held together with wire.
The insulators were hidden away in a storage area covered with dust and other detritus, the nature of which may not be mentioned on a family Web site.	The three newly acquired insulators were laid out on the table in the Engineer's Lounge at the Bolinas site for viewing. Their beautiful condition is due to lots of cleaning by MRHS member Paul Shinn. The broken insulator found at Bolinas is included for scale.	This closeup shows the mounting end of the insulator.	MRHS Transmitter Department member Paul Shinn stands proudly next to the insulators. Note that the table is set for Services of the Church of the Cintinuous Wave, held each Saturday at the Bolinas site. Coffee and pastry are served.
This is one of the coils for the Alexanderson multiple tuned antenna at SAQ in Sweden, the site of the last operational Alexanderson alternator. Note the insulators which appear to be identical to the ones the MRHS purchased.	Here's an example of why the coils need to be rebuilt!	This is the new SAQ coil under construction. Note the similarity of the insulators to the ones the MRHS acquired.