WCC (radio station)

WCC was the busiest ship to shore radio station for most of the 20th century.

tation history

In 1914, inventor Guglielmo Marconi sought a more permanent solution to his weather-induced radio station woes on Cape Cod. This need was made manifest by the damage and destruction wrought by nature at his original 1903 South Wellfleet location. It should be noted that the erosion and wind damage suffered by Marconi's first Cape Cod station continues to this day. Almost the entirety of the historic station is now long gone over the cliffs onto the beach and into the waters of the Atlantic below.

It was with great foresight that Marconi realized that a permanent (by 1914 commercial) presence would require a more inland and somewhat sheltered location. So it was that Marconi's [http://www.monmouth.com/~eroswell/histmarc.htm Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America] built his new receiver station in Chatham and its companion transmitter site forty miles to the west in Marion, Massachusetts through a contract with J.G. White Engineering Corp.

In November 1919, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America merged with the Radio Corporation of America.

In 1988, WCC was sold to MCI Communications as part of the breakup of RCA.

During March 1993, WCC became a remotely controlled station, using fiber optic cable to receive signals, transmit signals and issue such commands as rotating WCC's directional antennas. Even the keying of Morse Code (CW) and Radio Teletype (RTTY) was issued remotely at this early date in the public internet's infancy. WCC was operated from [http://www.radiomarine.org/kph-proj.html radio station KPH ] in Point Reyes, California until its closing.

The WCC site is now the [http://www.chathammarconi.org Chatham Marconi Maritime Center] , and the home of an amateur radio station, WA1WCC, licensed to the WCC Amateur Radio Association.

The callsign WCC is now used by [http://www.globewireless.com/ Globe Wireless] for a Maryland station it operates to transmit automated e-mail-by-radio.

The station was the subject of the Mooncusser Films documentary "", narrated by Walter Cronkite and directed by Christopher Seufert

Historic contacts

* 1928 - communication with Richard E. Byrd's first South Pole expedition
* 1929 - communication with the "Graf Zeppelin" during world's first around-the-world trip by air
* 1933 - sends weather information to Charles Lindbergh
* 1939 - possible last communication with the "Hindenburg" prior to explosion
* 1961 - communication with "Santa Maria" (callsign CSAL) during hijacking

ee also

* Cape Cod National Seashore

External links

* " [http://members.aol.com/WN1ION1967/wcchistory.htm WCC Calling: Chatham's Marine Radio Station Has Unsung Place In History] "
* [http://www.gb4imd.org.uk/cape_cod__chatham.htm Cape Cod - Chatham WA1WCC]
* [http://homepage.mac.com/mooncusser/iMovieTheater201.html Soundtrack from the WCC Radio Documentary with Walter Cronkite]