[GreenKeys] Point to Point vs. Marine

[ad7i]

Richard --

Thank you for this very informative explanation.

Regarding....

In contrast, in the marine service all operations were (and are) handled at
the receive site.  Outgoing messages were received by *land line Morse*
(later by teleprinter) from the CRO and placed in the message rack for
transmission.

Was that land line Morse conducted in American Morse or International
Morse?  And at the receiving site was the land line Morse receiving
transducer a clickly-clack sounder or tone out of a speaker/earphones
(similar to a HF radio output)?

thanks,

Paul Newland, ad7i


On Sat, Dec 25, 2021 at 8:52 PM Richard Dillman <richard.dillman at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> On Sat, Dec 25, 2021 at 1:29 PM Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
> wrote:
>
>     I think we need to distinguish between the marine radio
>> operation of KPH and the RCA Communications point to point
>> service which was also run from Bolinas Point. The marine service
>> through KPH was telegraph with later some RTTY to ships at sea
>> while the RCA Communications service ran some large number of
>> circuits to Pacific Rim countries. KPH was connected via wire
>> telegraph. Richard Dillman could supply details. The messages to
>> be sent and received from ships would be relayed by telegraph. I
>> suspect these circuits were machine code both ways and later
>> Teletype.
>>
>
> <snip>
>
> Quite correct, the distinction between the marine service and the point to
> point service is important to keep in mind.
>
> The American Marconi Company came to the coast of Marin county north of
> San Francisco to build the point to point transmit station at Bolinas.  The
> corresponding receive station was built at Marshall(s).  The station was
> placed in service in February 1914.  The transmitter was the standard
> Marconi rotary gap rated at about 230kW.  The call sign was KET.
>
> https://www.radiomarine.org/point-to-point/bolinas-high-power
>
> In 1920 RCA replaced the Marconi transmitter with two Alexanderson
> alternators on about 26kc (high for an alternator but necessary at Bolinas
> due to the short antenna) with 200kW output each.  The KET call sign was
> retained.    They were so proud of the alternators that they placed a
> bronze plaque on the transmitter building.
>
> https://www.radiomarine.org/radio-archaeology/alexanderson
>
> RCA was formed, as we know, to absorb the interests of American Marconi
> and thereby prevent that company from obtaining monopoly use of the
> Alexanderson alternator.  It's true that the Alexanderson alternators were
> dead reliable.  But the reason that alternator installations were
> discontinued was the advent of HF as a revenue generating technology.
>
> The the point to point service, from the beginning until its demise in
> 1973, no actual operating was done at the transmit or receive stations.
> This was controlled at the CRO (Central Radio Office) in San Francisco (or
> the corresponding city for other stations).  Outgoing messages were
> transferred to Wheatstone tape at the CRO and sent by wire line to key the
> appropriate transmitter (the alternator or, later, the HF transmitter aimed
> at a particular city).  Incoming messages were received on diversity
> receivers (one of which we have restored) and activated tone keyers at the
> receive site.  These tones were sent to the CRO by wire line where they
> were recorded on ink recorders.  Later, then FSK replaced Morse, the same
> process was followed using Baudot.  Unique to the point to point service,
> on HF each frequency had its own call sign rather than an overall station
> call sign.
>
> In contrast, in the marine service all operations were (and are) handled
> at the receive site.  Outgoing messages were received by land line Morse
> (later by teleprinter) from the CRO and placed in the message rack for
> transmission.  When a calling ship had traffic traffic on hand the operator
> retrieved the message from the rack and sent it manually, remotely keying
> the transmitters in Bolinas.  Incoming messages were also received manually
> and typed on a mill or, later, into a message handling system.  Delivery
> was through the CRO by teleprinter or bicycle messenger except in the case
> of a sea letter message.  These were mailed by station personnel (I have
> one in my collection).  These days they are delivered via email.
>
> WX and PX was received at the receive station on punched 5 level tape.  A
> Baudot to Morse converter was used to key the KPH transmitters from the 5
> level tape.  Today we send PX and WX obtained via the Internet.
>
> Our order wire between Bolinas and Point Reyes is a land line teletype
> circuit which we think may be one of the few remaining, certainly in this
> application.
>
> We are unaware that point to point service handled voice telephone
> circuits although the station did provide broadcast service for the OWI
> during WWI, one transmitter having the call KRCA.  The AT&T station next to
> RCA handled point to point voice circuits as did the station at Half Moon
> Bay/Palo Alto (marine call KFS).
>
> VY 73,
>
> RD
>
>
> Richard Dillman
> Maritime Radio Historical Society
> https://www.radiomarine.org
>
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