Newsletter No. 60
MARITIME RADIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
3 May 2020


MRHS  Newsletter No. 60

Dedicated to the True Believers Worldwide



> Operations Still Suspended
> Correspondence  
> K6KPH
> Qualifying run certificate
> Radio News
> KPH Bolinas
> Service car No. 50
> Night of Nights XXI
> Press Broadcast






Operations suspended - KPH, K6KPH, KFS

Point Reyes National Seashore has closed park visitor centers and announced that all volunteer activities are suspended.  Since that includes us, all station operations will be suspended "for the duration". If anything changes between Newsletters, a special bulletin will go out.

Would you like to help?

When we get operational again w e could always use more volunteers with varied skills.  Technical/electronic skills, Morse operation, general maintenance in  the field, personal skills for working with Park Visitors, and more!  We also need more operators on the commercial side. Licensing  Services are available as well as training on commercial  Morse Operations. We have one of the few test centers that can give the written test as well as the code test for Radio Telegraph Operator License.

Come out and visit with us. Let us know your capabilities and what  you would like to do.

Correspondence
 
I want to thank David Eisenberger K8KEM for helping us get out the word of what we do and for his wealth of Knowledge and Experience. David writes in regularly and helps this editor with technical accuracy on specific subjects. Dana KG6WXE in Oxnard tells us he had talked his wife into a trip to KPH and then the Virus shut things down. Dana when we get back in and resume operations, please make that trip and come see us...we will leave the light on for you!
The distance award goes to Phil F5IYJ of France and here is what Phil shares with us:  I am really interested in radiotelegraphy, especially maritime mobile and coastal stations. So my interest in KPH and the amazing information shared from MRHS. It is great you, guys, are making the station to continue to be on the air.  In France, just before we closed the coastal stations, I was using the service of FFL (French coastal station close to Bordeaux in the south-West of France) before it closed to send radiograms to my family while doing recreational boating in the Northern Ireland sea.
I met with one of the operators later, after the closure, and he told me as I was the only telegrapher calling them at that time, and he had a very good time handling my traffic, but he was also a bit sad because he known they were the last messages the station was handling.  Take care and stay safe.



K6KPH

I n the Spirit of supporting our "True Believers" MRHS members have been using the K6KPH Frequencies from our home QTHs and this will continue each Saturday for the duration of the shutdown.  We have been operating Saturdays 1200 hrs to 1700 hrs Pacific Time. Bands have not been that good but we are out there and we are trying!

Operating Frequencies are the K6KPH frequencies of  3550 Khz, 7050 Khz, 14050 Khz, 18097.5 Khz, and 21050 Khz.
We will be calling CQ MRHS. Please join us and if you need us to QRS (Slow down) for you  we will.

Thank you so much for such a loyal, dedicated following and we look forward to hearing you on the air!

 
Code Proficiency Certificate - West Coast Run

I had been wanting one of these certificates and copied a West Coast Run from K6KPH, then followed up with the 20 WPM run from W1AW. When I sent my original copy sheet in with my money I had no idea what the certificate looked like and was very pleased the K6KPH stamp was part of it. The challenge at 20 WPM is writing neat enough to read and fast enough to keep up. ARRL requires you to submit your original copy sheet.    
                            RB




Radio News

Recently a Family Donated some items from their deceased Father's Collection. The Father had been a retired Radio Officer and here is a page from 20 May 1949, Radio Officer's News. That is the newsletter from the Radio Officer's Union. Comments in the article are opinionated however we are honored to hear that KPH and KFS were thought well of.



KPH Bolinas (BL)

This picture was taken on 8 February 2020 at 0831 hrs., a clear morning view of the ocean with no marine layer. Photo is from right when you pull off of Mesa Road with the antenna farm to the left where the poles are. The white building is RCA Building 2 built in 1930 being the front part and the addition, building 2A added on in 1959 being the back part. With the morning being so clear, if it wasn't for the trees you could see the 1914 Marconi Building and the Farallon Islands off the coast. We get an early start at BL as Commercial transmitters need to be brought up for the Press Broadcast at 1000 hrs. Then as time permits we have services at the "Church of the Continuous Wave" which include Coffee and Pastry.


By the way, isn't this the cup to have when you are in a building full of Radio Transmitters?




Service Car No. 50

Original Service Car 50
RCA used Willys utility wagons for the Radiomarine Service Company which provided technical support for Radiomarine equipped ships when they were in port.  This photo shows Radiomarine Service Car 50 on a visit to RS.  





New Service Car 50
Richard had his Willys lettered to match the vehicle shown in the historic photo. Here Richard Dillman and Tom Horsfall pose in front of the recreated Service Car No. 50 parked in same spot as the one in the original photo. The current Service Car No. 50 is a 1958, 6 cylinder 4WD version equipped with a PTO winch, making it useful for jaunts into the antenna fields for maintenance.


To see more historic Photos, visit our website at 
 Open "The KPH Project" and then scroll down to History.


Night of Nights XXI

Sunday, July 12, 2020    Still a ways off and plans are still the same to be operational and that is pending the stay at home orders have been lifted and we are back operational.

Night of Nights is an annual event held on the 12th of July by the Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS) to commemorate the history of maritime radio and the closing of commercial Morse operations in the USA. These on-the-air events are intended to honor the men and women who followed the radiotelegraph trade on ships and at coast stations around the world and made it one of honor and skill.
Many of the KPH transmitters are 1950s vintage RCA sets. KFS uses a 1942 vintage Press Wireless PW-15 transmitter on 12Mc. This is the transmitter that was in service at KFS on the "last day" of American Morse and is thought to be the last PW-15 in service in the world. 

K6KPH, the amateur radio station of the Maritime Radio Historical Society, will also be on the air receiving signal reports and messages from Morse code enthusiasts around the world. This gives Maritime Radio Historical Society information about how well the stations are being heard and gives amateur stations the experience of what it was like to work a real coast station.
Members of the public are invited to visit the receiving station for this event. The station will be open to visitors beginning at 3 pm PDT. The station is located at 17400 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and is on the route to the Point Reyes lighthouse. Transmissions start at 5pm (0000 UTC 13 July) until Midnight (0700 UTC).

Press Broadcast

At 1000 hours West Coast Time the Press Broadcast goes out on the KPH/KFS commercial frequencies. The press broadcast used to be a way that Mariners at sea would get news from the shore to stay in touch with what was going on. Transmitter Supervisor Steve Hawes (SH) takes text out of maritime publications and loads it into a computer. As shown in the photo below, the computer interfaces with a Pk-232 Multi-mode data controller (on the shelf under the computer) and keys the transmitters from the control room in Bolinas. If you follow along there are some pretty good stories you don't hear in the regular press.


The short video clip (Click on the picture below) is of the receivers in the control room at BL monitoring the transmission and scanning the frequencies. Speed is roughly 25 WPM. Should you desire to increase your code speed, this is good practice. 


For those of you that maybe have a little difficulty copying code at that speed, the message reads: PRESS BCST QSW 42 and the first part of the number 6 starts when the video cuts off.

June's Newsletter will go out early morning 7 June 2020. Write in with your questions, comments, anything to share, or just say Hi! So far your editor has been able to keep up and I love to hear from "True Believers". I wish you all lived close enough to come over for a visit but since you don't I am opening the portal to what we do and see every week we are able to operate. Hope you enjoy and Please stay safe in these difficult times!    RB

                              
                            The Hat is Back !    

 



Quite a few "True Believers" have been asking about the MRHS Hat. Our vendor has brought it back in 3 styles and quite a few colors. Click on the above image to go directly to the order information.

For those of you that still prefer a watch you have a choice of a Wrist or Pocket Watch. Click on each item to go directly to the Vendors site. There are various styles to choose from and even if you don't find something for yourself, maybe you need a gift for a friend











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If you would like to show your support of the MRHS through a gift, please click the "Make a Donation" button below, or send your gift to:

MRHS
PO BOX 392
Point Reyes Station, CA 94956

The MRHS is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization, so your gifts are tax deductible. Our Tax ID Number is: 20-1122405.

And don't miss our fabulous MRHS Swag store. Your purchases also provide some much needed income to the MRHS. To access these treasures, click on the picture of our lovely MRHS Model, Tina Shinn/TS, below!



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Make a Donation

Thanks, in advance, for your continued support! 
 We are committed to using your gifts responsibly to help preserve our maritime and communications heritage!





When visiting KPH be sure to tune in to KWMR for 
the great music, 
local knowledge and, 
most important, emergency information.

For more information about KWMR, and to listen to the live stream,  click here.

ds:
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