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 Previous: WRTC-2006: Preliminary Results Put Canadian Team in First Place | ![Next (later) Story](/images/sty-up.gif "Forrest A. "Bart" Bartlett, W6OWP, SK"){kind=small} Next: Forrest A. "Bart" Bartlett, W6OWP, SK |
July 10, 2006
Coast stations will return to the air this week for an evening of listening for calls from ships and sending messages just as they did for so many years before Morse operations were shut down.
 Ray Smith ("RC") was the senior Morse operator at KPH. He sent the last message when the station shut down in 1997. |
 Last year, the FCC issued the first commercial shore station license in decades to KSM. Here, Richard "RD" Dillman, W6AWO (left), Denice Stoops, and Steve Hawes, WB6UZX, hold open the display case where the license resides. The MRHS applied for the license "in order to assure that American commercial Morse operation on the marine bands will continue into the future." |
 Tom Horsfall, WA6OPE, at the KPH transmitter gallery on the second floor of Building 2A. Horsfall is standing atop a 1950s-vintage RCA H set. To his right the balanced line output of the H set emerges from the filter. |
 A series of H frame antenna structures at KPH. All are fed with balanced feed lines. The antennas are double extended Zepps for 4, 6 and 8 MHz and H over 2 antennas for 12, 16 and 22 MHz. |
 Tuning gear for one KPH antenna system. Each coil sports a "corona ring," and the system uses a "walking beam" frequency-change switch between the two coils. |
 Inside KPH Building 2A, these Henry transmitters remain as they were the day they were shut down. Transmitter B2 is now operational on 7050 kHz in the 40 m amateur band. |
 At KPH, Tom Horsfall, WA6OPE, tunes up transmitter 251K, one of the classic 1950s-vintage RCA H, K and L transmitters that have been painstakingly restored. |
Several commercial coast stations will be back on the air Thursday, July 13 (UTC), to mark the "Night of Nights VII." The annual event commemorates the last commercial Morse message sent in the US. Many commercial radio operators also were Amateur Radio operators. Historic KPH -- which has been maintained in operational order and hosts Amateur Radio station K6KPH -- will celebrate its 101st anniversary this year. Other stations to be on the air include KSM -- celebrating its first anniversary -- WLO, KLB and NMC. Coast station NOJ in Alaska was also to be on the roster but was unable to participate this year. Radio amateurs and shortwave listeners (SWLs) are invited to tune in and send reports.
"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," says Richard "RD" Dillman, W6AWO, of the Marine Radio Historical Society (MRHS). The Society maintains KPH in cooperation with the Point Reyes National Seashore, part of the National Park Service. Transmissions are expected to continue until at least midnight PDT (0700 UTC).
KPH, the former RCA coast station located north of San Francisco, will begin its commemorative transmission at 0001 UTC on July 13 (1701 PDT), which is seven years and one minute after the last commercial Morse transmission in the US.
Dillman has issued a special request for those monitoring KPH on 12,808.5 kHz on the Night of Nights. "The Transmitter Department plans to alternate transmitters and, more important, antennas on this frequency at the top of each hour during this year's Night of Nights," he said. "Both antennas will be directional H over 2 types but one will be oriented north/south, the other east/west."
Dillman says the Transmitter Department will carefully log which antenna is in use at what time and compare this information against incoming reports. "So for all reception reports, but especially those for 12808.5, please include the time you heard the signal and a detailed signal report," he said.
The two KPH transmitters on 12808.5 kHz will be an early 1990s-vintage Henry and a 1950s-vintage RCA "L" set. Dillman says listeners may detect some slight difference in keying between the two transmitters.
Returning from the Dead
ARRL member Brian Smith, W9IND, in Indiana, says the maritime Morse transmissions were a great source of code practice when he was a prospective radio amateur in his teens. "I learned how to send and receive Morse code by listening to the automatic CW loops of these very stations -- WLO, KPH, WCC, NSS and so forth," Smith said. "The rhythms of the characters stuck in my head, which helped me pass my Novice test at the age of 15; I was soon licensed as WN9ICB."
Smith notes that while the coast stations won't be working amateur stations, they'll be offering QSL cards for reception reports. He called the event "a rare opportunity to snare a collectible QSL from CW stations that are essentially returning from the dead."
Veteran Operators and Transmitters
Veteran Morse operators, including former KPH staff members, will be on duty at the KPH receiving station at Point Reyes, California, "listening for calls from ships and sending messages just as they did for so many years before Morse operations were shut down," Dillman says. The transmitting station, some 18 miles south of Point Reyes in Bolinas, was established in 1913 by the American Marconi Co. "The original KPH transmitters, receivers and antennas will be used to activate frequencies in all the commercial maritime HF bands and on MF as well."
Many of the KPH transmitters will be 1950s-era RCA sets. KSM will use a 1940s-vintage Press Wireless PW-15 transmitter on its 12 MHz frequency, and output power will be in the 4 to 5 kW range. Transmitting antennas include a Marconi T for MF, double extended Zepps for 4, 6 and 8 MHz and H over 2s for 12, 16 and 22 MHz.
Dillman says KPH will send traffic lists, weather and press broadcasts as well as special commemorative messages, some of which will be sent by hand. At other times the KPH and KSM "wheel" will be sent to mark the transmitting frequencies.
Streaming Audio Available
A streaming audio feed will be available for Night of Nights VII. "Audio will be from a remote receiver probably tuned to the KPH 4 Mc channel," Dillman said. He notes, however, that picking up the Internet audio feed does not qualify for a QSL card.
"We realize that this way of copying KPH may not be completely in line with the traditions of maritime communications," he said, "but we thought we'd provide it as an option for those who are unable to copy the proceedings any other way."
More Information
Members of the public are invited to visit the KPH receiving station for this week's event. It will open to visitors at 1500 PDT. The station is located at 17400 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, on the route to the Point Reyes lighthouse.
There's more information about the Night of Nights VII event on the Maritime Radio Historical Society Web site or by contacting Dillman (415) 990-7090, or Tom Horsfall, WA6OPE (510) 237-9535.
Frequencies and QSL Info
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