[SMCARA] NSS Annapolis

[Tom Clarke]

Hi Chris,

Interesting Story.  NSS was a famous Navy Radio Station and was often 
used for code practice by hams, since all comms were encrypted into 5 
letter groups and transmitted on CW. (NRK NRK NRK DE NSS NSS NSS - 
that's for you Sam!) I listened to it as a kid growing up in CT (K1AST), 
struggling to get my CW speed up for General.  We also set our clocks 
using the WWV, Time Signal which was in Arlington Va before moving to 
Colorado!

After I joined the Navy, as a ham. I used to hang out in the radio shack 
on the ship.  The Radioman (RM) would copy the Fleet Broadcast from NSS 
at Annapolis on CW and they would give me, as the junior Ensign on the 
ship, the encrypted traffic to decode. The old KW-7 mechanical crypto 
machine was loud, cranky, needed lots of oil, and TLC, but such was the 
life of a "Blackshoe" Ensign (O-1) in the 60s!

The RMs were amazing as they could copy 30-35 WPM on a typewriter and 
have a conversation at  the same time! I would come up to his receiving 
position and wait for his nod. Then I would ask the question or let him 
know what he needed to know and he would not miss a single group on the 
typewriter (mill). This was all on HF and LF. Our ship was later 
equipped with Radio Teletype for comms, but the RMs still copied the 
Fleet Bcst for practice.  Eventually SatCom took over the traffic 
handling and Morse became a dying art.

Being on a ship was fun (at times! ), but I got tired of going 
everywhere at 12 Knots, so off  I went to Pensacola and got my wings. 
All our our long range communications were on HF. Primarily RATT or RTTY 
(Radio Teletype, but with voice and CW as backup. When we started 
getting the new P-3C Orions, the CW keys were gone! The little cubby 
hole at the comm station was still there, but no key! The new P-8 
replacement for the P-3 only has one HF and all comms are via satellite, 
except for local and some overwater long range air traffic control. They 
don't even carry an RM, as the Comm duties are done by the Navigator. 
The Nav duties are handled by the computer now!

After I retired here, I got into Packet (before internet!) and we had 
quite a network, all at 1200 Baud! Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, the developer 
of APRS,  had a magnificent  digipeater on one of those 300 foot 
historical towers.  Through a foul-up the tower with the digi on it was 
demolished instead of one with no antennas! No more wide coverage digi! 
There was another tall digi (called a Node) up at Andrews AFB that had 6 
or 8 different frequencies and if you came in on 145.01 for instance, it 
would repeat the packet on 2 meters, 6 meters, 220, 440, etc. We had a 
digi here at Pax that allowed us to access any of the bulletin boards up 
in DC or Balto.  Along came the internet at 19,500 baud or so and "so 
long" packet. There were also DX Clusters on packet that moved quickly 
to the internet.  About the only packet anymore is APRS on 144.39.

That big antenna array with the 1200foot  center tower was for the VLF 
transmitter, which also served as station in Omega Navigation System. 
There are several larger and higher power VLF stations around the world 
and Annapolis became redundant. We used to use it for TACAMO testing 
here at Pax, but when it was decommissioned, we had to go to Hawaii or 
Spain for our VLF testing. Darn the bad luck!

Time marches on!

73 Tom W4OKW, ex K1AST, WA4DGM,(TN), W4OKW (FL), EA7BXP (Spain) Used 
change callsigns when you moved, but no longer.

> A sailing friend who runs tours out of Annapolis is often asked about the 3 remaining radio towers near the Naval Academy.  Here is a great video she found on the history of the installation and some detail on naval communication and VLF submarine communication (21.4 kHz).  At the end is the way to get rid of a tower if you no longer need it!
>   
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=jWuJ6DB9drw&feature=youtu.be
>   
> Hope you enjoy it!
>
>
> Christopher Olson
> Sent from my iPhone
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