User:No Man But A Blockhead/Sandbox

KPH Radio
KPH is an historic public coast radio station located on the West Coast of the United States. For most of the 20th century it used its powerful Morse code signal to communicate with ships across the Pacific Ocean and beyond. Radio teletype service was also available. With the decline of Morse code the station was retired, but volunteers have preserved it in operating condition so that it can still be heard on the air on weekends and special occasions.

Official site:

History
The station dates back to the dawn of the radio era in the early years of the Twentieth Century. It first operated out of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, CA with the callsign "PH". After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire it had to move, and over the next few years it was based in a series of other locations in the Bay Area. Eventually the Radio Corporation of America acquired the station and installed it at two sites in Marin County, north of the San Francisco Bay. The receiving station and control point occupy a classic white Art Deco building on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in the Point Reyes National Seashore wile the transmitter site is about 20 miles south, near the town of Bolinas, CA. The reason for siting the transmitters so far away from the receivers is that their powerful outgoing signals would make it harder to hear weak incoming signals from faraway ships on the same frequency. Radio operators at the receiving site remotely control and key the transmitters by means of landlines connecting the two sites.

and those of the US Coast Guard had completed their transition from Morse code to

Radio operations
In the beginning, all traffic was sent by Morse code ("CW") using hand-operated morse keys. Later, landline teletype operation was adapted for radio use (radio teletype or "RTTY") which allowed for faster, more efficient messaging. This did not replace Morse code however, because many vessels had no teletype equipment and because Morse was the most reliable system: when dealing with bad conditions and weak signals, dots and dashes were easier to pick up than teletype or the human voice, and all the coding and decoding were done in the brain.

Over the years radio teletype was improved and computerised, giving rise to new digital transmission modes. Satellite communications became an affordable alternative to traditional radio links. Ship radio rooms became more high-tech and automated, requiring fewer radio officers than they had before. Fewer and fewer ship stations were equipped for Morse code or had any use for it, so coast stations converted their Morse frequencies to other uses. Some stations disappeared from the airwaves altogether, as did KPH after being acquired by Globe Wireless in 1997.

KPH closed down on xx.xx.xx. Its traffic was diverted to other stations including KFS in Half Moon Bay, California, another Globe Wireless station. KFS continued to handle Morse code traffic until July 12, 1999 when it made its "last ever" Morse transmission, officially marking the end of commercial Morse code in America (as distinct from amateur Morse code, which continues).

[In a different location, the KPH buildings and antennae might well have been demolished and built over like other defunct stations. But these xxx   acres of highly desirable ocean-front]

The buildings and antenna farm now belong to the Port Reyes National Seashore x.x.xpark. This and the fact that much of the equipment had been left in working condition when the station was abandoned made a KPH comeback possible. A group of volunteers, the Marine Radio Historical Society, adopted KPH and were able to put it back on the air xx yearx to the day after KFS had "officially" declared Morse code dead.

Its 5000 Watt transmitters can be heard across the Pacific Ocean and beyond, relaying relaying news, weather, business and personal messages to and from

sea-going vessels all over the Pacific Ocean and beyond.

For almost a century its powerful transmitters have been heard across the Pacific Ocean, relaying news, weather, business and personal messages

INTRO: KPH is the name and callsign of a famous American "public coast radio station" - a station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to relay messages to and from ships.

The station has been preserved as part of the

HISTORY: At first the station was located at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, hence its callsign "PH". In 19xx it moved to Bxxx and federal regulators added the K.

(ref. common carrier?)

located at Point Reyes National Seashore, California. founded in 19xx