[CW] (no subject)

[Richard Knoppow]

     I have read all the history but can't always remember dates 
without looking again. The first international radio conference 
was in 1912 and I think established some rules about calls. There 
was another conference not long after that and then another. So I 
am not sure when the station at Chatham changed from CC (Cape 
Cod) to MCC and then to WCC. M, as you say, for Marconi and 
later(?) G for Great Britten etc. I am not sure where I read that 
four letter ship calls were W in the West and K in the East, 
reverse of land stations and it may not be correct.
     I have been looking for years for old Bern Bureau station 
lists, can't find them. I have one for ship stations c.1970 (if I 
can find where I put it) but have never seen one for land 
stations. Yet ever ship and ever land station had at least one. 
Not in the library either.
     On the main subject, I used to talk with a retired railroad 
operator using American Morse but did not use a sounder. This was 
a long time ago. I had learned American Morse just to know it and 
after a while got fairly good. I have a couple of sounders now, 
one in a resonator, and can drive them from an Instructograph. I 
have only contenental Morse tapes for it. The one in the 
resonator is _very_ loud. Even though I have a severe hearing 
loss it makes my ears ring. This leads me to think that telegraph 
offices must have been very noisy places. I think reading from a 
sounder is a different talent than reading tone but perhaps no so 
for people better at both than I am.

On 6/16/2018 9:59 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> Coast stations were usually two letter call signs before 1917, 
> ships three, when letters were added, at first they were 
> "operating company" identification, M for Marconi, D for Debeg (I 
> think), thus Chatham, Massachusetts was at first, CC then with 
> Marconi prefix, MCC, then national prefixes came out and it 
> became WCC.
> 
> W for Coast stations and ships registered East of the Mississippi 
> River, K for those West of the Mississippi, except for Alaska 
> Territory which was W.  Hawai'i Territory was K as were the rest 
> of the Pacific Islands, the Atlantic islands were W in Virgin 
> Islands and Puerto Rico.  Their three letter call signs added the 
> national letter.   CC became MCC then WCC.  Ships like MGA had to 
> add a national prefix. United Kingdom still has the M prefix.
> 
> There is a wonderful article about WGI the Medford Hillside 
> Station near Tufts.
> https://www.bostonradio.org/essays/wgi.html
> 
> Years ago when I was a new ham I met Eunice Randall who was an 
> engineer and announcer there and I watched "Big Brother" Bob 
> Emory on WBZ TV who used to be on WGI when I was 10 years old, 
> but that was 40 years after his WGI  show.  Arlene Francis was 
> another announcer who came to early television from WGI.
> 
> So KDKA certainly was a freak assignment.
> 
> 73
> 
> DR

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL