[Milsurplus] "Marine Operator" years ?

Wed Jun 15 07:50:34 EDT 2016

During the mid 90s my company was negotiating with MobileMedia corporation (a successor to Metromedia in certain business segments) to acquire a big block of operations in California. There were paging companies (both Tone+Voice and digital), several IMTS mobile systems, several 450 Mhz air-ground telephone networks, an answering service/dispatch operation with 24/7 operators, and the "public Correspondence VHF marine channel in Santa Cruz, CA).

When I visited the dispatch center for a 'due diligence' inspection prior to acquisition, I noticed there was still an active marine dispatch position, and even a channel-16 monitor

 .
I inquired about traffic on the marine telephone channel, and was told it was minimal, although not too many years before  they had handled telephone calls from either the RMS Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth which was sailing the coast. Because the owner of the ship (Cunard?) didn't have an established account with Mobilemedia, the captain or purser had to give a creditcard card number over the air (horrors in this day  of CC fraud, but who'd expect to hear it on VHF? to get the call placed). 

You might ask why the station was still operating that late in history. The stations are licensed as "common carriers" and in CA and FL, required Public service Commission approval to cease service, although the FCC would have allowed it. The NYS PSC also regulated the New York Telephone Company's radio operations, but finally gave up when cellular pretty much ate everybody's lunch. In those days even one objection from the public would throw any plans by the Telcos into full hearings.
That happened to us when we tried to buy GTE's FL air-ground business. The deal never happened.

-----Original Message-----
From: Hubert Miller <kargo_cult at msn.com>
To: antiquewirelessassociation <antiquewirelessassociation at yahoogroups.com>; tetrode <tetrode at googlegroups.com>; milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tue, Jun 14, 2016 4:19 pm
Subject: [Milsurplus] "Marine Operator"  years ?

My question is, when was the last VHF “marine ( telephone ) operator” station closed? 
I mean the old channel 28 VHF.
I found a bunch of paper docs for the local operation, “Newport Marine Operator” that indicate the local station
was installed in 1976. The last test spec doc i could find was for 1996. There’s no one in this town who actually
worked on this gear, so i can’t refer to them. 
Do you know when VHF marine operator services started and ended?
For the HF high-seas Marine Operator, wiki says AT&T closed 1999, and Mari-Tel 2003.

I think after “Bell System divestiture” maintenance kind of fell down. I recall complaining about Olympia
( WA ) Marine not working, this around 1983.  After MONTHS i was notified  it was back up, and working for
the company, i could ask what the failure was. I was told a cabinet door hadn’t been properly shut. Interlock
switch had prevented radio powering up. 

I have some station licenses and such. I know no one is interested in that stuff, but i can’t just throw it away.
Probably i’ll have to eventually scan it and offer a page of history online.
I went up to the ruin of the old station once, when i was still working and had a gate key. Fortunately for me,
another fellow went along in his truck, because i went off the cleared area and got stuck and needed a push 
out. The old VHF marine transmitter had been sold off long ago, maybe to Mari-Tel – i have the papers somewhere –
but there was a 450 MHz truck dispatch transmitter still in place. I am a dedicated scrounger so i just had to haul it
away. I took out the decks and ended up giving away the sections, power supply, radio, diplexers, SWR measuring.
So i got nothing cash-wise for it, but i do believe for my trouble i get rewarded otherwise. People have been generous
to me.  I should have gotten some photos of the place when i was there. The antenna, which still stands, was pretty
basic, a VHF antenna on top a telephone pole. 

Not “antique” at this point but someday this too will be “antique wireless”.
-Hue Miller 

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