August 2025

MRHS Newsletter No. 100

Dedicated to True Believers Afloat & Ashore

After Action Report: Night of Nights XXVI

Announcement: Enigma Encrypted Broadcast Event

"Rust Never Sleeps": Previews of Coming Attractions

LIVING History: Keeping It Real



After Action Report: Night of Nights XXVI

At 0001 GMT 13 July 2025 Night of Nights XXVI commenced: the annual commemoration of the supposed end of Morse Code in the maritime radio service in the United States and the celebration of the continuation of that great historical and cultural legacy through the ongoing operations of the "Wireless Giant of the Pacific" ... seemingly the last of the line, but standing proud still,

With Night of Nights falling on a Saturday this year the staff at KPH had a very long day ... providing the usual service on Saturday and then kicking off Night of Nights at 5pm local time and running until just beyond midnight.

If you were not able to be there we provide this "After Action Report" to present the highlights of another successful event.

As tradition demands the event began at 0001 GMT -- the beginning of a literal and metaphorical "new day" for the history of maritime radio -- with the Opening Message. This year the opening broadcast was in the capable hands, or should we say "fist"? of veteran Operations Department staff member Wally Pugh/WP.

To see and hear a bit of the transmission of the opening message, Click Here.

And here is the text of the Opening Message ...

Following the Opening Message KPH began a time of listening for ship calls, as the station has done for over a century, and broadcasting the "Traffic List" (a broadcast that lists the callsigns of ships that KPH is holding radiogram message traffic for), weather forecasts, and commemorative messages. These operations keep all the transmitters at Bolinas Radio humming for the entire seven plus hours of the event.

Overseeing the operations at the Bolinas Transmitter site is Transmitter Manager Steve Hawes/SH. Here we see Steve in the Control Room at Bolinas Radio at the Logging "Mill," or typewriter.

Also supporting the operations at Bolinas Radio were Roy Henrichs/RH and Maintenance Director Bill Ruck/RK.

The MRHS is blessed to have staff members who can multitask. As well as helping with operations at the receive and transmitter sites, Roy has been invaluable in helping with the management of the various engineering projects undertaken by your MRHS in recent years. When Bill is not wielding a soldering iron or crawling like a snake under an operating console at the receive site he is also a master chef, who once again provided his world-famous "Radioman's Stew."

While keeping the classic transmitters on the air at Bolinas is a deadly serious business (Literally! These transmitters use lethal voltages!) there is also a great spirit of camaraderie amongst the staff. Here we see Bob Venditti/VI enjoying a lighter moment at the power panels.

After seven hours of continuous operations (that always seem to fly by) the on-air celebration concludes with the "Benediction" Closing Message. This text was composed in the earliest days of the MRHS by Our Beloved Denice Stoops/DA, the first woman hired as a coast station Morse operator by RCA at KPH. Denice was not able to send the message this year so the honor of sending this beautiful text was taken up by Rob Harris, who travels from his home in Southern California each year to help make Night of Nights the success that it always is.

The sending of the "Benediction" is always the most solemn moment of Night of Nights. As the ether is electrified with the "Music of Morse" the staff observe a dignified respect in memory of all those men and women who spent their lives, sometimes literally and totally, as radio operators, serving to protect the safety of life at sea for over a century.

With the on-air activities completed the staff gather to continue the celebration by sharing in the traditional "Night of Nights" Chocolate Cake .... which is always even better than it looks.

In the last newsletter True Believers were invited to send pictures and video of how they marked "Night of Nights" at their home stations.

First, we would like the acknowledge a signal report from our good friend "Eddie from Australia" who has been known to call the landline phone at Point Reyes during "Night of Nights," holding his phone up to his speaker so we can hear what KPH sounds like on the other side of the planet. Thanks, Eddie! You are a most cherished and appreciated part of "Night of Nights" tradition!

We received two short videos from Guillermo Gustavo Llorens/LU5WE in Argentina. Thanks, Guillermo! If you would like to hear what KPH sounds like on 6 mc at Guillermo's station in Argentina, Click Here. To hear what KPH sounds like on 12 mc, Click Here.

Closer to home, we received a report from Jim Emrich/N6NRV in Novato, CA. Jim was copying the broadcasts on the KPH MF frequency of 426 kc on a real "mill" (i.e., a typewriter specifically designed for communications use ... it functions only in Upper Case). Here are a few pics from Jim's classic station.

And here is a bit of his copy of the broadcast message on the "mill."

We did a little detective work and discovered that Jim was a Viet Nam era US Coast Guard veteran who served as a Radioman at the USCG martime radio coast station on Guam, NRV. Jim, thank you for your service. We do what we do to honor you and all of your brother and sister radio operators throughout time.

If you would like to know more about Guam Radio/NRV, with a lot of fascinating detailed information about maritime radio during the Morse era, see Jim's excellent, poignant web site by Clicking Here.

We hope you enjoyed this "After Action Report" of Night of Nights XXVI. Mark your calendars now .... Night of Nights XXVII begins at 0001 GMT 13 July 2026. We hope you can join us!

Announcement: Enigma Encrypted Broadcast Event

The MRHS in cooperation with our good friends at the Cipher History Museum will send a coded message in 5-letter groups via the facilities of coast station KPH on Saturday August 30, 2023. The message will be encrypted using the famous Enigma code machine. 

The Enigma was the Germans' most sophisticated coding machine for securely transmitting command and control messages via radio communications in WWII. It was considered so secure that it was used to encipher the most top-secret of messages.

All KPH listeners are invited to try their hand at receiving and decrypting the message. Certificates will be awarded for proof of successful decode, first to decode and use of original or replica hardware.

You say your Enigma hardware is a bit rusty? Perhaps it has slipped a cog? No problem, MRHS has you covered! Software simulations exist for the Enigma code machine. Click Here for an easy-to-use Enigma simulator. It is web-based, so no download necessary. 

For additional information on the Enigma please see Ralph Simpsons' Cipher Museum History site.

Crypto broadcast date, time and formats

The crypto broadcast will commence at 2000 GMT (1300 Pacific) on 30 August 2025 on all KPH CW and RTTY frequencies. The CW frequencies are (in kc): 6477.5, 8642.0, 12808.5, 17016.8, and 22477.5. Upon completion of the CW transmissions, the broadcast will be repeated on the KPH RTTY frequencies. The RTTY transmission will be 170cps shift Baudot, 45 baud. The RTTY frequencies are (in kc): 6324.5, 8427.0 and 12585.5.

Further Information 

Full details will be announced in mid-August via a Special Bulletin to all MRHS newsletter subscribers and on the MRHS website. The bulletin will contain a link to a code book where the Enigma machine keys can be found, plus helpful hints on Enigma decoding procedures.

For more information or questions about the KPH cipher broadcast send email to [email protected].

"Rust Never Sleeps": Previews of Coming Attractions

True Believers will recall that in recent years the MRHS has succesfully completed several major restoration projects in the antenna fields at KPH. At the Bolinas transmitter site much of the infrastructure that carries the transmission lines to the antennas was restored and rebuilt. At the Point Reyes receive site the Medium Frequency Marconi T antenna was restored to service, as well as clearing the area around the main High Frequency antenna to protect it from damage from falling trees and branches. All that to say, a LOT of work has been completed, in part, thanks to your support.

But, "Rust Never Sleeps."

Wind and salt air constantly corrode the hardware that keeps the antennas in the air. At Bolinas the transmitting antennas are arranged in long rows, suspended between massively tall utility poles. These poles, peaking out at over 90' in height, are kept vertical by a robust guying system -- or at least it was robust when the current antenna system was constructed many decades ago.

"Rust Never Sleeps"

The hardware that connects the guy lines to the poles corrodes and fails. The soil chemistry eats away at the anchors that are driven deep into the ground. Sometimes "Rust" wins and poles fail, taking the antenna with them.

The good news is that most of the poles are vertical.

The bad news is that in many places "Rust" is winning, and time is of the essence in keeping those poles vertical. Sadly, as you can see from the picture above, several of the poles have succumbed to "Rust" and "Gravity" and are horizontal on the ground.

Currently, efforts are underway to survey the antenna field at Bolinas and the status of the guying system at each pole in order to prepare a proper scope of work plan.

As you can see from the above picture, just gaining access to the poles is a major undertaking because of undergrowth and fallen trees.

Needless to say, the restoration of the guying system of the poles at Bolinas is a significant project that is only just beginning. But time is critical. Fallen poles take antennas out of service. But it also dramatically increases the complexity and cost of restoration when a pole has fallen than if it is repaired while it is still vertical.

Watch this space in future issues of your MRHS Newsletter for updates as this project moves forward. "Excitement Guaranteed"!

LIVING History: Keeping It Real

"... put up the plexiglass ..."

The preceding phrase seems innocuous enough, but it instills fearful dread in the hearts of the members of the operational staff of the Maritime Radio Historical Society.

And it should instill fear in the hearts of all True Believers.

Why?

This phrase, that is spoken with trepidation, is an image of what happens to historical and cultural treasures that have been reduced to museum pieces. Once an artifact is put behind plexiglass it is no longer an object that continues to fulfill the mission for which it was created. It becomes a static display collecting dust. It's "life" has been taken and its ability to communicate meaning is drastically reduced.

Indeed, preserving historical artifacts in static displays is important, and we are grateful to our colleagues around the world who are as committed as we are to preserving the artifacts of the history of wireless communications in static displays. But when the MRHS was founded on that fateful day twenty-six years ago (and counting!) the goal was to preserve the artifacts, culture and history of maritime radio by preserving them in an operational, living state.

The MRHS is primarilly focused on LIVING history.

If you have ever had the opportunity to visit KPH you know what we mean. Experiencing the "Wireless Giant of the Pacific" in operation is an immersion in the history of marime radio that involves all of the senses ... Hearing the keying of the transmitters ... Feeling the heat of the transmitter gallery on a warm summer night ...The smell of warm electronics with the well-deserved patina of dust from decades of faithful service ... The flash of mercury rectifiers as they blink with the keying of the PW-15 ... Put all that behind plexiglass and it would not be the same experience. It would not communicate the same meaning. It would not be living.

As you read in the "Rust Never Sleeps" article you know that the next major project for keeping the plexiglass at bay is on the horizon. In the upcoming editions of the newsletter we will keep you updated every step of the way. This is our project, the project of all True Believers, and we will take you on the journey with us.

As always, thank you for your incredible support.

Only you can prevent plexiglass!

Until next time, Fair Winds and Following Seas!