[Telecom] Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ
Dennis Waters
and Princeton).
I am in the midst of compiling a history of the former AT&T shortwave
transmission facility that operated in our town beginning in 1929. For
three decades it was the primary outbound telephone link from the USA
to Europe and Latin America. At its peak it could generate one million
watts on the 16, 22, and 32 meter bands. The 800-acre site is now a
county park.
Here are three questions I would like to throw out to the community:
(1) Does anyone have any personal memories, photographs, or documents
regarding this station, or know of someone who might?
(2) Can anyone suggest why this particular site was chosen? Proximity
to New York was one factor, but AT&T documents say "extensive tests"
were conducted before settling on the site. I have had no luck in
finding any. I assume this has something to do with ground
conductivity but I am no expert on this.
(3) The initial antenna system in 1929 was of the "curtain" variety
and it is well documented. Subsequently that system was replaced by a
rhombic system, probably in the 1940s. There is very little
documentation on this system and I would like to find some. The
rhombic system remained in place until the station was decommissioned
in 1963.
Thanks in advance for any help. Please feel free to forward this query
to other lists or individuals. And apologies if you received more than
one query due to cross-posting.
Dennis Waters
Township Historian
Lawrence Township, New Jersey
hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com
> I am in the midst of compiling a history of the former AT&T
> shortwave transmission facility that operated in our town beginning
> in 1929.
Bell Labs wrote a multi-volume history of the company which includes
extensive chapters on radio-telephone work. They may be in Vols
1 or 2. They may give insights into why Lawrenceville was chosen.
Rider University Library should have copies of them. Extensive
studies were done at that time into radio wave propagation and
reception and probably was a factor in site selection.
There are two telephone history groups that may be able to help you:
Telephone Collectors International and Antique Telephone Collectors
Association.
Eric Tappert
wrote:
Dennis,
The book "A History of Science and Technology in the Bell System,
Volume 1, The Early Years" has several pages of detail surrounding the
Lawrenceville station (starting on page 410). Apparently the site was
chosen to minimize interference from other stations and was used for
US - London ( circuits) and US- Buenos Aires (one circuit). The
transmitter was at Lawrenceville and the receiver was at Netcong, NJ.
The book contains block diagrams of the antenna and the transmitter.
Unfortunately, the book is out of print. Check with your local
libraries or Bell Labs Murray Hill (if it still exists....) to see if
they have a copy.
Eric T.
John Levine
> rhombic system remained in place until the station was
> decommissioned in 1963.
I moved to Princeton in 1964, and I distinctly remember the poles and
wires being up for a long time after that, perhaps into the 1970s.
There was (and is) an orchard across the street where we bought apple
cider so we'd be out that way at least several times a year.
R's,
John
AES
Eric Tappert <e.tapper...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Dennis,
>
> The book "A History of Science and Technology in the Bell System,
> Volume 1, The Early Years" has several pages of detail surrounding the
> Lawrenceville station (starting on page 410). Apparently the site was
> chosen to minimize interference from other stations and was used for
> US - London ( circuits) and US- Buenos Aires (one circuit). The
> transmitter was at Lawrenceville and the receiver was at Netcong, NJ.
> The book contains block diagrams of the antenna and the transmitter.
>
> Unfortunately, the book is out of print. Check with your local
> libraries or Bell Labs Murray Hill (if it still exists....) to see if
> they have a copy.
>
> Eric T.
1) You might look for this on amazon.com (which also serves as a
"front man" for numerous used books stores), or on various
individual online used book sellers (Abebooks, etc). I have quite
often been able to obtain very obscure published works (conference
proceedings for important early technical conferences from 50 years
ago, etc) in this way -- and often at startling low prices.
2) The desire to access this book seems to me to have some relevance
to the current controversy over Google's active proposal to scan
and capture electronically every book ever published. There's some
substantial opposition to those plans, and at least some of that
opposition seems to me to be well justified. This situation gives
a bit of insight into other reasons why it might be a great idea.
AES
> wrote:
>
> > I am the Township Historian in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (near Trenton
> > and Princeton).
> >
> > I am in the midst of compiling a history of the former AT&T shortwave
> > transmission facility that operated in our town beginning in 1929. For
> > three decades it was the primary outbound telephone link from the USA
> > to Europe and Latin America. At its peak it could generate one million
> > watts on the 16, 22, and 32 meter bands. The 800-acre site is now a
> > county park.
Didn't there used to be some similar large antenna facility somewhere
out on the salt flats here in the San Francisco Bay Area? Any history
on that? Was it also an AT&T facility?
danny burstein
[regarding finding a copy of the long out-of-print "History
of Engineering and Sciene in the Bell System]
>1) You might look for this on amazon.com (which also serves as a
> "front man" for numerous used books stores), or on various
> individual online used book sellers (Abebooks, etc). I have quite
> often been able to obtain very obscure published works (conference
> proceedings for important early technical conferences from 50 years
> ago, etc) in this way -- and often at startling low prices.
Just as a bit of info, Amazon recently bought up Abebooks.com. At
this time the searchable databases are still unique, at some point or
another they'll probably get merged together.
(And at this point... it's worth taking the effort to go to both
sites. You'll often find the same book, from the same end supplier, at
different prices).
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
John David Galt
> Didn't there used to be some similar large antenna facility somewhere
> out on the salt flats here in the San Francisco Bay Area? Any history
> on that? Was it also an AT&T facility?
Could you be thinking of the KGO Radio transmitter (near the eastern
approach to the Dumbarton Bridge and surrounded by salt evaporator
ponds)? It's been there since at least the '60s.
Bill Brelsford
Dennis Waters <dpwa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am the Township Historian in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (near Trenton
> and Princeton).
>
> I am in the midst of compiling a history of the former AT&T shortwave
> transmission facility that operated in our town beginning in 1929. For
> three decades it was the primary outbound telephone link from the USA
> to Europe and Latin America.
> (1) Does anyone have any personal memories, photographs, or documents
> regarding this station, or know of someone who might?
I'm a retired Bell Labs / AT&T employee and a member of the Antique
Wireless Association (AWA). Sometime between 1978 and 1980 my father,
who was very active in the AWA, called to tell me that they had
received permission to collect some artifacts from the Lawrenceville
site for their museum. But it needed to be done quickly as the
station was being dismantled -- could I help? So I spent a few hours
there, including a fascinating tour of the facility.
At the end they were using a number of 10kw transmitters, but still
had the old 100kw unit -- it had been used by Roosevelt to talk to
Churchill during the war. It used four water-cooled Western Electric
340A tubes (22" long, 4" bulb diameter); the tank coil was made of
copper tubing, also water cooled.
The momentos I "liberated" included not only the tubes and tank coil
but also a large painting (maybe 3.5' x 7') of the site when the
curtain antenna was still in use.
I'll forward this to the AWA in case they have any additional info (I
don't remember if there were any documents). You've received some
good references to AT&T publications here, but I'll also see if I can
discover anything else at AT&T.
--
Bill Brelsford, K2DI
Bend, Oregon
w...@k2di.net
Bob Vaughan
AES <sie...@stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> Didn't there used to be some similar large antenna facility
> somewhere out on the salt flats here in the San Francisco Bay Area?
> Any history on that? Was it also an AT&T facility?
You are probably thinking of KFS, the former maritime radio station,
located in the Palo Alto baylands along East Bayshore rd, between
Embarcadero and San Antonio roads, near the City of Palo Alto
corporation yard.
The transmitter building still stands, although I believe that all the
large antenna masts have been removed.
The site was established in the 1920's, and operated until 7/12/1999,
when Morse Code transmissions from the site ceased.
The station was owned at various times by Federal Telegraph, MacKay
Cable and Wireless, ITT World Communications, and KFS World
Communications.
The Palo Alto site was the transmitter site. The receive site was
located in Half Moon Bay.
http://wikimapia.org/18873/Fomer-Maritime-and-VOA-Station-KFS-KROJ
http://www.radiomarine.org/
http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/events_nightofnights.htm
http://jproc.ca/radiostor/kph.html
--
-- Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine --
Bob Vaughan | techie @ tantivy.net |
| P.O. Box 19792, Stanford, Ca 94309 |
-- I am Me, I am only Me, And no one else is Me, What could be simpler? --
Martin Bose
> Didn't there used to be some similar large antenna facility
> somewhere out on the salt flats here in the San Francisco Bay Area?
> Any history on that? Was it also an AT&T facility?
I'm guessing that you're referring to the "dinsoaur cage" that was
located off of highway 37 at Skaggs Island near Sonoma. That was not
an AT&T facility; it was a Navy station that was a very sensitive
radio monitoring facility. Back in the 60's I spent some time there
learning Russian morse code, since at the time encrypted morse code
was the standard Soviet communications mechanism.
I'm not sure how long ago they tore it down, as it is no longer there.