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Point Reyes National Seashore: KPH [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-04  

Elsewhere on Kos is the diary of a visit to Point Reyes National Seashore, California, featuring the magnificent bird population there. Meanwhile, there’s another little-known attraction at Point Reyes.

Back in the day when radios had glass vacuum tubes that glowed in the dark and generated heat like a blast furnace; back when giants strode the earth; back when an antenna was miles and miles of wire strung on 200-ft towers over acres of ground; back when radio communication was Morse code; back when Morse telegraphers carried in a felt-lined case their own Vibroplex bug, adjusted to their own “fist” . . . there was KPH.

Before the advent of satellite communications, contact between ships at sea, their companies, and government services with weather information was done through a group of coastal radio stations on the east and west coasts. Outfitted with the latest in high-powered transmitting equipment and sensitive, selective receivers, with antenna farms that covered acres, these stations communicated with vessels using Morse code and radio teletype.

The last of the shore stations was KPH on Point Reyes National Seashore. Here is some history.

www.nps.gov/…

Guglielmo Marconi sited and commissioned the building of a wireless telegraphy transmitting station west of Bolinas and a receiving station in Marshall on Tomales Bay in 1913–14. The Marshall station was supplanted in 1929 to support the growing point-to-point business in the Pacific by a new Art Deco-designed facility at Point Reyes Beach on the "G" Ranch. Few of the succeeding generations of antennas—arranged in "farms"—remain at the two sites. However, the radio equipment, ship-to-shore Morse communications, and teletype—some of it dating to the World War II-era—remains intact, has been restored and made functional, and is used to broadcast on numerous frequencies, including KPH.

The last Morse transmission from a US-based station was sent from KPH on July 12, 1999. Since then, the Maritime Radio Historical Society has observed the closing on what is called the Night of Nights by activating the station and transmitting the closing message, then, conversing with amateur radio operators on the amateur radio bands using Morse code (CW — Continuous Wave).

Here is a YouTube video of DA (Denise Stoops, a KPH Morse operator) sending the annual closing message from KPH.

More here:

www.nps.gov/…

dah-dah-di-di-dit di-di-dit-dah-dah

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/4/2191509/-Point-Reyes-National-Seashore-KPH

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