[CW] Early Radio Operator Licensing
D.J.J. Ring, Jr.
n1ea at arrl.net
Tue Aug 25 19:32:20 EDT 2020
This message is a bit long, but it has something that I've never seen
before in one place, a listing of US Navy stations and call signs.
This email is about Boston Fruit, United Fruit, their ships, and the
radio company that managed the radio stations on these ships, and
ashore, Tropical Radio Telegraph - now TRT.
Then it has a listing of US Navy Stations.
Most of the information here came from the Radio Service Bulletin #66
issued by the Bureau of Navigation, Department of Commerce,
Washington, DC. October 2, 1922.
Boston Fruit became United Fruit then became United Brands.
United Fruit was what they call a vertically integrated company, if UF
needed to import bananas to USA, they needed ships to do this,
they needed radio stations to communicate with this fleet.
United Fruit's radio stations were "Tropical Radio Telegraph." TRT ran
the stations ship and shore stations from their offices at 30 St.
James Ave., Boston, MA.
In the USA their stations - at least those that survived until the
vacuum tube age of CW and had moved away from spark and arc which the
early stations used were.
WBF Boston. This station was closed about 1960 as they're not listed
in my coast station book of 1963, the receiver site was in Hingham,
MA.
They also had a transmitter site in the same town about 10 miles away.
One of my neighbors had a typewriter sales and service shop in Quincy
and he remembers selling a few Olympia all capital desk typewriters to
them in the 1960s.
I believe the MF (500 kHz and working frequency) transmitters of WBF
were located in downtown Boston near the Customs House, I used to see
the rooftop antenna for the station on the World Trades Building near
the FCC offices in the Customs House. (Photos attached.) They had
500, 8, 12 and 16 MHz.
WAX - Ojus, Florida - this station closed around 1978 or so. I heard
them calling CQ on one of the recordings that Bill Gould, 1NP, W1NP,
K2NP made in March 1966,
https://archive.org/details/WilliamB.GouldIiiWirelessRadioPioneer.His500KhzRecordingsOfMarch
According to my December 1963 "ITU List of Coast Stations" (Bern
Book), WAX is authorized 488 and 500 kHz with power of 5 kW both
unmodulated and modulated CW, and 6390, 8526, 13011, 17199.2 and 22431
kHz unmodulated A1 with a power of 3 kW each.
WNU Slidell, Louisiana Radio is listed and was in service perhaps even
today but the CW portion stopped in 1999. They used 463, 478, 500
kHz, and two or three frequencies on the 4,
Outside the USA, Tropical Radio Telegraph (TRT) had:
HONDURAS
Tela Honduras Radio on 310 (sic), and 500 kHz each authorized 5 kW on
medium wave, 6200, 8460, modulated and unmodulated CW with 400 watts,
and AM radiotelephone on 4836.2 kHz with undisclosed power.
PANAMA
Puerto Armuelles Radio / HPN on 438 and 500 kHz with a power of 1.5 kW
modulated and unmodulated CW, and 6467 kHz CW. Puerto Armuelles,
Panama is on the Pacific coast of Panama in Chiriqui county, right
south of the border with Costa Rica.
That's all I can find.
I always thought that Limon, Costa Rica Radio / TIM was run by TRT but
it is listed as being run by Compania Radiografica Internacional de
Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica.
Early on TRT which ran both the radio stations on land and on the
United Fruit ships, had another coast station in Burwood, Louisiana
with call sign WBW and special land staton, 5XE, WNU and special land
station 5XH were then listed as TRT, New Orleans, LA, Fort Morgan,
Alabama, WIO,
>From the early Radio Service Bulletin of the Commerce Department:
RADIO WEATHER BULLETINS, SWAN ISLAND, CARIBBEAN SEA.
The United States Weather Bureau has made arrangements with the United
Fruit Co. for broadcasting and disseminating daily, beginning
September 18, 1922, of special weather bulletins from the radio
station located on Swan Island (United States ) for the special
benefit of shipping in the Caribbean Sea.
The a.m. bulletins will be in two parts. The first part will be
broadcasted only during the hurricane season, June to November,
inclusive, and will consist of weather observations taken at
(approximately ) 8 a.m, seventy- fifth meridian time ( 7 a.m ninetieth
meridian time), at the following places which are indicated by key
letters:
Swan Island........ US
Port au Prince, Haiti...................... PP
Belize, Honduras....... BZ
Cienfuegos, Cuba........ CFG
Bluefields, Nicaragua.... BFD
La Fe, Cuba......... LFE
Willemstadt, Curacao... W [Yes, a one letter call sign!]
Kingston, Jamaica....... KN
San Juan, P. R............ SJ
Turks Island, Bahamas... FI
The names of the stations, as well as the key letters, will be radioed
from September 18 to October 15, 1922, inclusive, in order that
shipmasters may identify the stations;
after that time only the key letters will be used. The key letters
will be followed by a group of five figures showing barometric
pressure, wind direction, and wind force. The first three figures
express actual barometric readings, in inches, reduced to sea level.
The fourth figure is wind direction: 1 = north ; 2 = northeast; 3 =
east; 4 = southeast ; 5 = south ; 6 = southwest; 7 = west ; 8 =
northwest; 0 = calm. The fifth and last figures show wind force in the
Beaufort Scale; except when winds of force greater than 9 occur words
instead of figures will be used. If any portion of a report cannot be
furnished, such portion will be replaced by an equivalent number of
letter “ X. '' Example: US 98643 ( translated ): Swan Island,
barometer 29. 86 inches, wind direction southeast, wind force 3. The
second part of the bulletin will consist of wind and weather forecasts
for the western Gulf of Mexico (west of longitude 90° ), eastern Gulf
of Mexico ( east of longitude 90°), the Caribbean Sea (west of
longitude 739), and for the Windward Passage.
The Radio Service Bulletin from Commerce Department also lists:
Details of time, weather, press, and hydrographic bulletins schedules
broadcasted by Naval Communication Service .
Name of station Call letters, Wave length, Type of emission . Time (
75th meridian ) . Nature of service.
Alpena, Mich . .. . . . NSM 1,200m Spark 0845 1145
1245, 1645, 1845 Weather.
Annapolis, Md......... NSS 17,145m C.W. 1155 Time,
1700 Ice report, 2155 Time, Press.
Arlington, Va......... NAA 5,950m and 2,650m C.W./ spark 1030
Weather, hydrographic, 1135 Time, storm warnings. 2155 Time,weather,
hydrographic, press.
Balboa, Canal Zone.... NBA 10,110m C.W. 0155 Time,
press 12.55 Time.
Baltimore, Md........ NBZ 700m Spark 1030
Weather, hydrographic. 1600 DO.
Bar Harbor. Me. NBD 2,750m Spark 0300 Press.
Boston, Mass......... NAD 1,620m Spark 1100
Weather, hydrographic, 1155 Time, if Arlington (NAA) fails, 1700
Weather, hydrographic.
Buffalo, N. Y.. NNZ 1,200m 1045 1700 Spark 2245
Weather, hydrographic
Cavite, P. I. . .. .. ..NPO 5,200m CW and 2,700 Spark Time
signals at listed times.
Charleston, S.C.... . . NAO 2,250m Spark Weather
and Time if Arlington fails.
Cleveland, Ohio .. .. NRH 1,080m Spark Weather
1100, 1730 and 2300.
Colon, Canal Zone . .. NAX 1,620m Spark Weather 0455, 1255
Duluth , Minn.. ... .. NUX 1,200m Spark Weather 1045, 1645
Dutch Harbor, Alaska NPR 2,250m Spark Weather 0030, 1230
Eureka, Calif . .. . . NPW 2,650m Spark Weather,
Time, and Weather
Galveston, Tex. .. ... NKB 1,813m Spark Weather
Great Lakes, Ill. .. . .NAJ 1,988m Spark Weather and Time
Guantanamo, Cuba... . NAW 1,870m Spark Hurricane
Warnings every four hours
Honolulu , Hawaii . . NPM 2,250m Spark 11,500 C.W. Weather and Time
Key West, Fla . .. . ...NAR 1,988m Spark Time and Press
Miami, Fla . . . . . . NGE 1,620m Spark Weather
New Orleans, La . . .. NAT 1,832m Spark Weather and Time
Newport, R. I. . . . NAF 1,908m Spark Time if
Arlington Fails
New York, N. Y. . . NAH 1,832m Spark Weather
and Time if Arlington Fails
Norfolk, Va . .. . . . NAM 1,851m Spark 507m Spark/MCW Weather
and Time if Arlington Fails
North Head, Wash. ... NPE 2,700m Spark Weather and Time
Pensacola, Fla . . . . NAS 2.250m Spark Weather
and Hydrographic
Philadelphia, Pa. . . NAI 1,948m Spark Weather
and Hydrographic
Point Isabel, Tex. .. . NAY 2,250m Spark Weather
Port au Prince, Haiti. NSC 2,250m Spark Hurricane
Warnings every four hours
Portland, Me. NAB 800m Spark Weather
San Diego, Calif. NPL 9,800m C.W, 1,988m Spark Press, Time
San Francisco, Calif. NPG 1,908m Spark 4,650 C.W Time,
Press, Weather and Hydrographic
San Juan, P . R . ... NAU 5,200m Spark Hurricane
Warnings and Weather
San Pedro, Calif. NPX 1,851m Spark Weather
Savannah, Ga . ... .. NEV 1,813m Spark Weather
Seattle, Wash . .. .. . NVL 1,988m Spark Weather
St. Augustine, Fla .. NAP 1,851m Spark Weather
St. Croix, Virgin Is. NNI 450m Spark Hurricane
Warnings every four hours
St. Petersburg, Fla . NGL 2,700m Spark Weather
St. Thomas, Virgin Is. NBB 1,688m Spark Hurricane
Warnings every four hours
Tatoosh, Wash . .... .. NPD 1,654m Spark Weather
Tutuila, Samoa.. ... NPU 2,250m Spark Weather,
Hydrographic
The Radio Service Bulletin listed the times of transmission, and I
typed some of them, but I abandoned that effort because it was
meaningless at 100 years after the fact.
73
David N1EA
On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 2:48 PM Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> I am not sure who the Great White Fleet was. The term was
> used for a U.S.Navy operation to show off U.S. Naval power during
> the Theodore Roosevelt administration. Was this who was
> advertising in QST? Sildell was Tropical Radio Telegraph Co,
> WNU. TRT was owned by the United Fruit Company. Before WW-2 TRT
> had at least three stations in the U.S. WBF (Boston Fruit) in
> Boston, WNU in New Orleans, and WAX, near Miami (I think Hialeah
> originally). WBF seems to have been discontinued and was not on
> the air after the war.
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