FCC CUSTOMS HOUSE BOSTON

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

A Visit to the Customhouse (Former Boston Massachusetts FCC Field Office )

Tropical Radio / United Fruit / United Brands / TRT - Boston station - WBF.

For those who took their Radio Telephone or Radio Telegraph certificate at the Boston, MA FCC Custom House, 16th floor location, before about 1983, a (to me) mysterious object appeared on the roof on a building called the "Board of Trade Building." Four towers on the corner like old fashioned AM broadcasters used in the beginning of broadcast when they broadcast from a hotel, or factory. I later learned that this was the medium frequency transmitter of TRT's Boston medium wave transmitter location, call sign: WBF, frequencies, 500 kc/s, calling ships and distress watch, and 

In 1913, the Tropical Radio Telegraph Company was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of United Fruit to take over and operate the parent company's radio network. it is not known when WBF came into existance but it was in operation in 1928 when Mr. Eldridge joined it. WBF was first located on the Board of Trade Building's roof and the four antenna towers still exist here. Mr. Eldridge passed on two stories he heard of the call letters. One is that they stand for William B. Filene, owner of the famous Filene's Department Store and prominent member of Boston's Board of Trade. The other story was that the letters stand for the Boston Fruit Company. Mr. Eldridge doesn't take stock in either legend.

The receiving station of WBF was also moved from Boston to Charles Street, Hingham located some 12 miles southeast of Boston in 1930 and it stood on the southern half of the property. In 1938, due to increased traffic and its close proximity to the transmitter, the receiver was moved to Derby Street, Hingham and about 2 miles southwest. This used Rhombic antennas for the PTP circuits and Doublet antennas for the high band marine frequencies. Underground hard drawn copper transmission lines ran from the terminating transformers on the antenna poles to the antenna switchboard in the basement of the receiving station.

The northern part of the Hingham, MA property held the transmitters and antennas, both for LF, (143), MF (500) and HF WT Morse.

Two 250 towers, oriented east and west, were built with a four wire flat top aerial. The antenna was divided into two portions, one for 147 kHz and the other for 436/500 kHz on the long wave marine band. The 147 kHz section was fed directly from the main transmitter using a single wire transmission line. The 436/500 kHz section was energized through an open wire food line to a tuner house under the east tower. Inside it was a relay which selected the proper inductance of the leading coil for either 436 or 500 kHz. The relay was under direct control of the radio operator an well as various other relays within the transmitter itself. A storm (possibly the 1938 hurricane) destroyed the flat top aerial and it was replaced by a single wire, divided into 147 kHz and 436/500 kHz portions. 

[RCA's Chatham Radio, WCC only operated LF and HF, while Chatham Radio, WIM operated on 406 kHz and 500 kHz (only.) 

Eventually the MF WT band was changed and WCC was assigned 436 kHz and I do not know what Tropical's WBF was assigned, as my library has a gaping hole in my collection of ITU (Bern) books - 1936, 1978, 1994, 2002. - Editor.]

The main transmitter, covering the low frequency marine band, was rated at 23 kW and used a water cooled tube in the final with 20,000 volts in the plate. The transmitter had come from the TRT Guatemala station at Barrios where it had been a long wave relay between the other TRT stations and as direct communication to New Orleans. The new shortwave transmitters had made it obsolete so it was brought to the US, rebuilt to cover the long wave marine frequencies, and installed at Hingham, No one knows what type it was. Mr. Eldridge said that the nameplate had been removed in the rebuilding and never restored. Despite its age, the transmitter was very satisfactory and under good atmospheric conditions, covered most of the North Atlantic and as far south as Chile.

The auxiliary transmitter was a 750 watt HCA shipboard type. Its antenna was a single line running from the transmitter to half way up the east tower. Switching frequencies on the auxiliary was very clumsy to say the least. The radio operator was unable to do it and he had to call the man on duty at the transmitter to do the switching for him. Fortunately, the short range auxiliary was seldom used. There were also a couple of "home-made" marine high frequency band transmitters rated at 2.5 kw input power. They energized Delta type doublet antennas with one antenna for each frequency used. The transmitters were hand tuned twice a day since there were daytime frequencies and nighttime frequencies. These antennas were oriented northeast-southwest to cover most of the traffic. 

On June 30, 1960, the Hingham station was closed and its traffic then handled either by Miami or New Orleans. This may have been due to the fact that the Port of Boston had been going downhill since the end of World War II. In fact, only a few of its 250 wharves are in use today.

The northern half of the Charles Street property (where the transmitter stood) was sold to the Maryknoll Fathers who built a school on the site. The southern half of the property (where the first receiver stood) was used by the TRT Engineering Service from 1938 to 1971. Then they moved to the Prudential Building, Boston and in 1974, to Washington DC. This section of the Charles Street property was then sold to a "gentleman farmer". The Derby Street property (where the second receiver stood) is now the Hingham Shopping Plaza. Oddly, and as previously mentioned, the original WBF antennas still exist atop the Board of Trade Building in Boston.

The Tropical Radio Telegraph Company is now the Tropical Radio Telecommunications Corporation with headquarters in Washington, DC. It is still wholly owned by United Brands Company.

A very rare FCC license. My license was being renewed and my ship had to be moved. 

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