WCC de WHNJ = TR = Hospital Ship "Hope"/WHNJ QTP WCC QRU?
David Ring
It seems that the hospital ship SS HOPE - or at least her radio
installation has come to WCC.
I received a message today from Robert Ryder, N1MFW, Director of the
Chatham Marconi Maritime Center, in Chatham, MA USA. He is an ex-
USCG Radioman who worked at USCG COMMSTA Boston and other ships and
duty stations. His uncle, William "Bill" Ryder,ex- W1JNM and
presently W1KL is fondly remembered by many of us for his beautiful
bug fist that we often worked for many years at Chatham Radio/WCC.
Bob Ryder can be contacted directly at "Robert Ryder, N1MFW"
<bry...@c4.net> if you have any questions, comments, or dontations for
the word being done at the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center.
Hello Everyone!
Don't know if you are aware that CMMC acquired the complete
rack-mount radio station from the SS HOPE/WHNJ. It is stored here in
Chatham, and we are in the process of dismantling it in an effort to
clean it up and protect it from the environment and from possible
abuse/theft until we occupy the old Ops.building.
Our present goal is to prove that it is in fact "WHNJ". I have
removed the auto-alarm keyer, thinking that it might be set for more
than just the auto alarm dashes and spaces. Although I have personally
sent auto alarms, they were from shore stations... relays... and I
have no idea if the shipboard auto alarm keyers were preset with the
ship callsign, or if the R/O was left to continue the SOS after the
autoalarm finished. Any ideas? I would appreciate any leads that you
might conjure up. [I replied and told him that those auto alarms had
no individual ship call signs marked on them.= DR]
The whole array, by the way, weighs about 1200lbs. It was
manufactured by Mackay Radio, mostly around 1959, and as yet we have
no manuals. My Uncle Bill Ryder, W1KL, is trying to secure same
through the AWA.
Best regards. Are you settled in MA yet?
Bob Ryder, N1MFW
The story as reported in the Cape Cod Times newspaper.
Radio room comes to rest on familiar turf
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080625/NEWS/806250315/-1/rss01
By Robin Lord
rl...@capecodonline.com
June 25, 2008 6:00 AM
CHATHAM - "WHNJ calling WCC. I'm back!"
The original equipment used for ship-to-shore communication by the
1960s-era U.S. hospital ship, S.S. Hope, has found a home at the place
that relayed many of the ship's messages - the former Marconi wireless
station in Chatham.
A member of the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center, a group dedicated to
starting a maritime telegraph museum at the former wireless station,
saw the radio room listed in an online ad last month. The group jumped
at the chance to get a piece of history to which the Chatham wireless
station was linked, said group member Robert Ryder.
Members hope to use the radio room equipment for a key exhibit in
their museum, which they hope to open in 2010 in the original Marconi
telegraph building on Route 28 in North Chatham.
The 1,200-pound, armoire-sized radio room enabled the S.S. Hope to
communicate from ship-to-shore, as well as to other ships. The ship
toured the globe on a mission of charity to medically under-served
countries from 1960 to 1974.
"If the S.S. Hope had a message to go someplace, they would call
Chatham Radio on the Morse code," said Lewis Masson of Chatham, who,
as a telegraph operator at the Marconi Station for 35 years, handled
many messages to and from the hospital ship during its time in
service. "Our obtaining the operating equipment is very significant."
The Marconi station was built by the father of trans-Atlantic wireless
communication, Guglielmo Marconi, in 1914. By 1920, it had become the
most active marine coastal radio station in the country. It remained
as such until 1993, when the owner at the time, MCI WorldCom, shifted
all of its communications network to its San Francisco station.
The seller of the S.S. Hope radio room wanted $1,200, but eventually
agreed to let it go for half that, Ryder said. He drove a truck he
borrowed from Cape Fisherman's Supply in Chatham 850 miles to Chester,
Penn., earlier this month, to pick up the cabinet. Back in Chatham, it
took members of the town's highway, coastal resources and harbor
master's office, as well as a crane donated by Ryder's Cove owner Alan
Cohen, to unload the prize.
The 15,000-ton S.S. Hope was a converted U.S. Navy vessel that had
three operating rooms, a pharmacy, and a radiology department. It
carried 100 doctors and 150 nurses, who volunteered to treat illness
and injuries and to train physicians in remote areas.
The town of Chatham bought the 17-acre site of the original Marconi
station on Route 28 in Chathamport from MCI WorldCom in 1999. The town
has agreed to lease the former telegraph building to them, if they can
raise the $600,000 needed for renovations, said group president
Charles Bartlett. They are about halfway toward their goal, he said.
The transmitters, receivers and alarms the S.S. Hope used to signal
other ships and points on land are included in the recently acquired
radio room. Members of the Marconi Maritime Center hope to get the
licenses necessary to set up an active transmission system from the
ship radio room to a receiver in another part of the museum, so
visitors can see how the communication was done.
Bartlett envisions the new museum as an important educational center
for students of science and technology. The S.S. Hope radio room will
be "a touchstone with the past," he said.
Museum in the making
For more information about the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center, visit
www.chathammarconi.org. Donations may be sent to p.o. box 421, North
Chatham, MA 02650
=30=
via RCA Global Communications CHATHAMRADIO/WCC and via the Google
Groups Radio-Officers mail group.
wf...@ws19ops.com
The MacKay MRU-29 console which is presumably out of SS Hope was first
advertised for sale in January on Craig's List. It was in a basement
of the (then) owner.
I contacted the owner back then and gave him an offer for it, but by
that time they told me that a museum gave tham an offer (I know the
amount)and I could raise it.
I figured if a museum wanted it, it'll get a better "exposure" and
would have a better educational use hopefully than in my radio
room/radio collection and let it go at that. I just hope they put it
on the air (doesn't matter whether it really came out of SS Hope or
not). I know if I had it, it'd be on the air regularly, just like my
WW2 Victory and Liberty Ship Federal FT-102 console with the Mackay
167-BY transmitter and the RMCA AR-8506B receiver are QRV regularly now.
73, Meir WF2U
Landrum, SC
ray...@peoplepc.com
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WF2U
That was noble and unselfish of you.
73 de RA
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