[CW] 2012 Visit to KPH Last Commercial Radiotelegraph CW Station

[Richard Knoppow]

    Very interesting. Some of what is shown looks like the photos 
of the RCA point to point installation there. I think they shared 
the same building after WW-2.
    Some details of the kinds of antennas used will be found in
"Radio Antenna Engineering" by Edmund A.Laport who was an antenna 
design engineer for RCA and others. This book has been reprinted 
and is available in a soft cover edition. It is one of the very 
few books covering the design of high power VLF and MF antennas 
and the very large directional arrays used for short wave 
broadcasting. You do not have to be an antenna expert to 
understand much of it. There are pictures of insulators bigger 
than a man in it.
    FWIW KSM was a call used by Globe Wireless in Los Angeles at 
one time. I am not sure but think was probably discontinued 
during WW-2 and never brought back.
    Globe Wireless is still in business. They have a long and 
interesting history being originally Dollaradio, the wireless 
operation of Dollar steam ship lines. When the government ruled 
that all wireless stations had to accept traffic from all senders 
Dollar created  Globe Wireless Ltd to take over Dollaradio. Globe 
had stations in Los Angeles (KSM), San Francisco (KTK) and other 
locations along the Pacific coat.
    When the KPH project was begun the call was not available but 
not too long ago it was released by Globe to the historical 
society along with KFS, which Globe had bought from ITT-MacKay.
     I used to practice code by copying press on KPH and KFS 
nearly every day. Also from WCC (RCA Cape Cod) and WSL (MacKay on 
Long Island) earlier in the day. Same press on all, about two 
hours on most days. It is rather eerie for me to hear the KPH 
wheel again after so long.

On 4/13/2019 5:24 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> https://youtu.be/Wj-IwYPrtTM
> 
> Nice video!
> 
> 73
> 
> DR


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