Rocky Point, Long Island
Rocky Point (RP) was the transmitting station of RCA's Radio Central, at one time the largest radio station in the world. The receive site was at Riverhead. Both were on Long Island, east of New York City.
The business of Radio Central was intercontinental communications. The station had circuits to Europe and South America as well as other locations. But Radio Central was also a center of experiment and technical innovation. Many important developments took place there, not the least of which were Dr. H. H. Beverage's work with his wave antenna.
The original plan called for dozens of 200kW Alexanderson alternators, each connected to a stupendous antenna supported by a row of 410ft steel towers arranged like spokes of a wheel.
Two rows of these magnificent antennas were constructed before the commercial viability of the short waves was confirmed. The expansion of long wave communications ceased at that point (although the existing long wave circuits remained in service) as efforts were aimed at the new high frequency circuits.
Like much of our radio heritage Radio Central has been scraped clean.. or almost so. See the Radio Archeology section of this Web site for what may be seen there now.
