Now that's a PW transmitter I'd like to own.

[k4kyv]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaiwKJgS-Q4

[W2PFY]

Good one Don, Sadly here's another one that just went dark last year this month. You will note a large section on motor generators in the background. Those were used to supply DC filament voltage, bias voltage and medium voltages to the large transmitters of yesteryear. I hope it is keep for all to see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtzyhmvHR-Y

[K6JEK]

As a kid growing up in the Valley of the Hearts Delight, when I was ineptly working on a receiver and almost everything on it was kafluey, I could always still hear the CW loop from that transmitter.  -.-  ..-.  ... 

If I didn't think about it and just let the dots and dashes flow, I might be able to come up with the whole tape loop.  CQ CQ de KFS KFS etc.

Anyone who finds himself in west Marin County should find his way to KPH.

[flintstone mop]

BIG BLOWERS and a very impressive TX. I wish there would be a little narrative on these YouTube things.

Fred

[K6JEK]

And here it is for your listening pleasure, the KFS wheel which might very well be from that very transmitter.

Those interested in big, beautiful transmitters and amazing fields of antennas should visit the MHRS website:   http://www.radiomarine.org/index.html

I particularly liked this part of the website:  http://www.radiomarine.org/kph-today-1.html

These guys have preserved a lot of KPH  They've also acquired their very own Maritime license and operate some of those big, gorgeous transmitters on the air.  That would be radio KSM on Saturday mornings. 

[Opcom]

I joined the radiomarine group. CW is the deal, but the old transmitters rule!

[KA1ZGC]

Every time I think of the marine ops, I think of this:

http://www.radiomarine.org/500-6.html

It's poorly formatted, but you'll get the point. I can't imagine being the guy at the key that night.

[W2DU]

Very interesting view of KSM, Don. However, I must be behind the times, cuz I thought that all ship-to-shore and vice versa CW transmissions on HF were totally replaced by satellite. It was also my understanding that ROs were dismissed because CW was no longer used. So if no CW ops are aboard ship, who works KSM?

When I was a monitoring ofcr with the FCC RID I routinely used KFS and KPH as reference bearings when taking bearings on an unknown station in a similar direction and on a nearby frequency.

In fact, one of my friends here in DeLand, Chuck, W5IW, was an op at KPH for many years before it went dark.

Walt, W2DU

[k4kyv]

Very interesting view of KSM, Don. However, I must be behind the times, cuz I thought that all ship-to-shore and vice versa CW transmissions on HF were totally replaced by satellite. It was also my understanding that ROs were dismissed because CW was no longer used. So if no CW ops are aboard ship, who works KSM?

I think they shot themselves in the foot by dismissing the RO's with cw skills.  I just read an article about a small bi-plane in the 70's  that was doing mail runs to remote villages in the Amazon valley.  At a scheduled stop at an unattended landing strip many miles from nowhere, there were hidden tire tracks or gullies across the strip, and the plane ended up with its nose in the mud, its tail up in the air, and one of the two people aboard seriously wounded.  There was no radio on board and the transmitter that was supposed to be at the landing strip had been stolen long ago.  But there was a pedal-powered a.c. generator still in the shack.  The crew member with no serious injury was able to find a cylindrical ignition coil or transformer marked "24 volts input, 6000 volts output" in the rubble.  He made a crude spark transmitter using that transformer, connected to the 400Hz 60v foot generator, with spark plugs taken out of the plane's engine for a spark gap, a condenser made from tinfoil food wrappers and paper for insulation, and the coil was made by salvaging some of the wire used to support the wings of the plane, held together with strips of dry bamboo and tar-like resin from some tropical plant.  They did have a transistor receiver, and once the transmitter was going, they sent a mayday message giving their location, asking for voice replies on the aviation frequencies.  No reply was heard, but the next morning a rescue helicopter arrived.  Someone had deciphered the weak mayday message and notified authorities.  Luckily one of the plane's crew members happened to know morse code.

[Ed-VA3ES]

KSM - KSM is the coast station of the MRHS. Our goal is to honor and commemorate the men and women who made the profession of radiotelegrapher one honor and skill. We feel that the best way to do this is to preserve their skills and traditions through actual use at a real coast station. Somewhat to our surprise, the FCC granted our application for a full, commercial, common carrier public coast station.

KSM is a commercial, common carrier coast station in the grand tradition of KPH and the dozens of other such stations that once existed in the USA. When the license for KPH was sold to Globe Wireless the MRHS felt it needed its own coast station to carry on the traditions and preserve the skills of the art of maritime radio through actual use.

KSM uses the original transmitters, receivers and antennas of KPH. The station is licensed for communications with ships at sea using both CW and RTTY modes in the MF and HF marine bands. KSM accepts traffic from ships at sea for onward transmission to addressees ashore. No charge is made for this service.

Click  http://www.radiomarine.org/ksm-proj.html   for details about KSM.

Very interesting view of KSM, Don. However, I must be behind the times, cuz I thought that all ship-to-shore and vice versa CW transmissions on HF were totally replaced by satellite. It was also my understanding that ROs were dismissed because CW was no longer used. So if no CW ops are aboard ship, who works KSM?
Walt, W2DU

[w3jn]

Bunch of us had a pre-Timonium get together at a restaurant in Fell's Point, Baltimore, just across the street from the old WMH Marine Radio station.  The csll letters are still proudly displayed on the old towers.   You can see them in this photo

[Opcom]

BIG BLOWERS and a very impressive TX. I wish there would be a little narrative on these YouTube things.

Fred

He's got the ker-chunk!