[KCDXC] Fw: KPH returns to air for one night

[M.Crabtree]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: W0YR at aol.com
To: pvrc at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 6:10 AM
Subject: KPH returns to air for one night


I think the frequencies for this will be  7050 and 14050.  See the 
fascinating Marine Telegraph website.  Some former commercial ops and hams 
have put two stations BACK on the air.  Recently an OPERATING comm'l coastal 
c.w. station was granted a license as KSM.

Their website is fascinating with good pics of the tx's and the ops.

Anyone who loves c.w. should visit this site:

http://www.radiomarine.org/ksm-proj.html
Dots and Dashes: KPH Returns to Air for One Night
On July 12, listeners around the world will be able to tune to Morse Code 
radio station KPH for one night.
According to a timeline provided by the Maritime Radio Historical Society, 
the station would have been 100 this year. It had its roots in 1905, when 
Morse station PH was established. The call letters referred to the Palace 
Hotel in San Francisco, where the station was located; regulators later 
added the K to the call sign. KPH was once known as the "Wireless Giant of 
the Pacific."
“For almost a century, shipboard operators were comforted by the steady 
drone of the KPH signal in their earphones,” the society states. “At KPH 
some of the best Morse operators in the country listened carefully, 24 hours 
a day, for calls from ships. Most messages were routine. But occasionally a 
weak, wavering signal would be heard sending the electrifying letters S-O-S, 
causing the operator to sit straight up in the chair and press the earphones 
close to copy the message from a ship in peril on the high seas.”
The station went silent in 1997; commercial Morse Code use ended in the 
United States two years later.
The annual event is July 12 this year; it is held at Point Reyes Station in 
California. Organizers have invited the public to watch professional Morse 
operators, including several original KPH operators, work the station.
The station moved its transmitters and receivers to West Marin in the 1920s. 
The Maritime Radio Historical Society keeps it alive, with cooperation of 
the Point Reyes National Seashore and using restored equipment of the 
station.