KPH Radio

KPH is the callsign of an historic public coast radio station on the West Coast of the United States. For most of the twentieth century it provided ship to shore communications including telegrams and telex service. Ship to shore telephone calls were not handled by KPH but by other stations such as the nearby KMI.

KPH would broadcast regular bulletins of news, weather and other general information to the shipping community, then relay business and personal messages to and from individual ships. Station operators also monitored the international distress frequencies for calls from ships in trouble.

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, sometimes using the alternative callsign KSM and the amateur radio callsign K6KPH. KPH is located within the Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, California, north of the San Francisco Bay.

History

The station dates back to the dawn of the radio era in the early years of the twentieth century when it began operations at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, CA, using the callsign "PH". Forced out by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, the station moved from one temporary site to another until it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and relocated to Marin County. Eventually it passed into the ownership of MCI Communications and finally Globe Wireless, who still own the KPH operating license.

Physical Plant

The receiving station and control point now occupy a classic white 1920s Art Deco building on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in the Point Reyes National Seashore whereas the transmitter site is about 20 miles south, near the town of Bolinas. The reason for siting the transmitters so far away from the receivers is that their powerful outgoing signals would make it difficult to hear weak incoming signals from faraway ships on the same frequency (or channel). Operators at the receiving site remotely control and key the transmitters by means of landlines connecting the two sites.

Radio Operations

KPH has always been mainly a Morse code station. International Morse code is used on the air, but American Morse code was used on the telegraph lines, so operators at the station had to learn both varieties until the landline telegraph was replaced by the teletype.

In the beginning, all traffic was sent by Morse code ("CW") using hand-operated morse keys. Devices were introduced to allow messages to be typed or "punched" onto a paper tape so that they could be sent automatically at any time. Station IDs and announcements prepared this way are called "wheels".

In the 1930s, 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 transmission mode: 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 such as Clover and Pactor. 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. 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 13, 1999 (Universal time; actually July 12 in the Pacific time zone) 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). This date is celebrated on the air every year as the "Night of Nights" by KPH and other coast radio stations, along with radio amateurs who participate on their own frequencies.

KPH is now part of the Point Reyes National Seashore and is maintained and operated by former employees and volunteers of the Marine Historical Radio Society. The fact that much of the equipment was left behind in working condition when the station was abandoned made the station's comeback possible. The KPH callsign and the licensed frequencies that go with it are made available to the station by the license holder, Globe Wireless. In addition, the FCC has granted the station a new coast station license with the callsign KSM as well as the amateur radio callsign K6KPH for communicating with radio hams on amateur frequencies. K6KPH is unusually powerful and well-equipped for an amateur station, with its professional grade transmitters and operators. Amateurs are not limited in their choice of equipment as long as the frequencies, transmitter power levels and operating procedures conform to the terms of the license.

ee also:

Wireless telegraphy

Guglielmo Marconi

Websites

KPH project home page: [ [http://www.radiomarine.org/kph-proj.html http://www.radiomarine.org/kph-proj.html] ]

National Park Service page about KPH: [ [https://www.nps.gov/pore/historyculture/people_communications.htm https://www.nps.gov/pore/historyculture/people_communications.htm] ]

Night of Nights 2008: [ [http://www.radiomarine.org/non9.html http://www.radiomarine.org/non9.html] ]

References