[Milsurplus] Maritime coastal stations [was: Re: ATD + RAX vs. 1980s Racals]

[Albert LaFrance]

List members may be interested in this map, from a 1968 AT&T Long Lines internal publication,
showing the public coast stations connected to the phone network:
http://long-lines.net/sources/TRNotes/68-Jun/p008.html .

Only one - WLO in Mobile, AL - is still in service, operated by Shipcom (http://www.shipcom.com) .

Albert LaFrance

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael St. Angelo" <mstangelo at comcast.net>
To: <gl4d21a at juno.com>
Cc: <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 9:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] ATD + RAX vs. 1980s Racals


> George,
>
> Thanks for the story. Very interesting.
>
> I worked for ITT World Communications. They ran the Maritime coastal
> stations WSL and KFS. They upgraded their HF receivers in the early 1980's
> with the Watkins Johnson 8718A which costs around $8000. I knew some some of
> the Hams at WSL and asked them them how did the WJ receivers compare with
> Amateur Radio rigs? Someone had an ICOM R71A and did a comparison between
> the two radios and didn't notice much of a difference
> for a receiver that cost a tenth of the WJ.
>
> The 8718A has remote control via a parallel TTL interface. We were going to
> build remote controllers for the receivers but the stations were closed soon
> thereafter.
>
> 73,
>
> Mike N2MS