Shortwave “Discone” Antenna, Former AT&T High Seas Radio Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
All the pixels, none of the per-minute toll charges, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4141766569
#photography
Captured with a DSLR and a 24mm shifting lens.
During the 20th century, AT&T operated a shortwave “radiotelephone” service for vessels on the high seas. Ships could contact an operator, who could connect them with any landline telephone number they wished.
The North Atlantic station, callsign WOO, occupied expansive transmit and receive “antenna farms” in marshlands near the shore in central New Jersey.
Rendered obsolete by satellites, the service ceased operation on November 9, 1999.
There were three AT&T radiotelephone sites in the continental US, each with its own transmit and receive antenna farms: Ocean Gate, NJ (shown here, serving the North Atlantic), Miami (serving the Caribbean and the Gulf), and Point Reyes, CA (serving the Pacific).
All the sites have by now been razed, either for redevelopment or as nature preserves. The antennas are mostly gone now.
Ships on the high seas still occasionally make some use of shortwave radio, but its importance has greatly diminished over the last few decades. The Coast Guard still maintains a “watch” on emergency shortwave frequencies, listening for distress calls, but most transoceanic ships are now equipped with more modern, higher-bandwidth satellite communications systems.
These places are what the Internet looked like a century ago.
I should note that while the site had a number of discone antennas like this one, they were mostly there as backups in case the main antennas (including truly massive wire rhombics pointing toward various oceanic regions) or transmitter combiners failed. The old Bell System did not mess around.
Here, by the way, is what I believe was the last published frequency list and schedule for the High Seas service. (A souvenir of my last visit to the station before it went off the air.)
@mattblaze@federate.social nice short call signs in CW!
The Marine Radio Historical Society has restored the CW (Morse code) stations at Point Reyes and operates KPH KSM and KFS (as well as ham station K6KPH, mostly on Saturdays.
More info at:
#radio #AmateurRadio
Photo is of KPH during one of its operations.
@k8quinn@vivaldi.net yes, great folks!
@mattblaze@federate.social Often felt that if AT&T leadership had been visionary, instead of focused on charging you $1.50/month for a long handset cord, there’d be no Internet or cable teevee.
@mattblaze@federate.social It makes sense they’d use something more omnidirectional / lower gain, and broad spectrum for backups.
@mattblaze@federate.social Wow! That’s really interesting, thanks! I wonder if we are going to regret being dependent on satellites for all comms in the next decade or so - the risk/threat profile seems to have changed since 1999.
@mattblaze@federate.social
just a fwiwthere are some wild antenna farms way out in West Virginia
long wave stuff
@mattblaze@federate.social
I know nothing whatsoever about any of this. Thank you for sharing, all of you. Does anyone know of a book or two that tells this story in a non-technical, popular history fashion?@mattblaze@federate.social You say goodbye, I shortwave hello.
@mattblaze@federate.social Love the picture and explanation! Found a couple of these in Portugal a few days ago and was wondering what this type of antenna was for.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/VqovixxVmWNL159J7
37.0105050, -8.9520650
@nicoheijningen@infosec.exchange nice find! I’m not sure what that site is. I’m guessing the transmitter or receivers are in the complex across the road. My guess is Coast Guard.
@nicoheijningen@infosec.exchange Ah, apparently Portuguese Air Force (according to the signs visible on street view).
@mattblaze@federate.social ah cool! The structures across the road looked quite abandoned, but the antennas well maintained.
Could be NATO’s Broadcast and Ship to Shore (BRASS) or its sucessor BRASS Enhancement One Target Architecture (BRE1TA):
“none of the per-minute toll charges”
@mattblaze@federate.social Fantastic! Thanks for sharing that. I lived in Malvern in the UK for years and would often see the huge antennas at the Rugby Radio Station when travelling. Always amazed how large it was (~1,600 acres Wikipedia tells me now). Sad to learn now it was demolished in 2004, just a couple of years after I left the UK.
