This may not mean much to some readers but hard-bitten old ROs will remember the "Berne book" or, more formally, the ITU List of Coast Stations. It was required that a copy be on board. Particulars of every coast station in the world were listed therein. They still are.
We've been talking for years about what it would take to get KSM listed. Somehow we felt it would be meaningful to be in there along with WLO, WCC, KPH and all the rest of them. With the assistance of a very helpful person at the FCC it's been done! Click the button to check our ITU listing.
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| ITU List |
Mike Payne has been the one behind this. He noted that Mongolia is providing "flag of convenience" registration for ships. Mike says that any ship owner who registers his ships with Mongolia is by definition a cheapskate. So he figured that when the Mongolian merchant marine sees our listing and figures out that KSM will handle their traffic for
free the ship owners will be scouring the waterfront bars for ex-ROs and telling them to get their keys, they're back in business. We'll let you know how that plays out. Meanwhile we think this has
got to be the first addition of a Morse coast station to the Berne list in decades.
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Field Day Bulletin Sent From K6KPH
Once again this year K6KPH was the west coast outlet for the ARRL Field Day bulletin. As you doubtless know, stations participating in Field Day get extra points for copying the message.
This is not a trivial task for us. K6KPH uses the fixed frequency commercial transmitters of KPH (Henry HF5000D throttled back to 1.5kW) so shifting them to the W1AW frequencies is a big deal. Plus we need to activate RTTY transmitters on frequencies we don't normally use. And of course the antennas need to be tuned to the different frequencies.
Normally this is done under the direction of MRHS Transmitter Supervisor Steve Hawes who has all the knowledge of the transmitting station in his head. But Steve was on extended vacation this year so Paul Shinn of the Transmitter Department stepped up to spend several weeks with Steve to absorb all he could to be ready for Field Day as well as the weekly Morse and RTTY transmissions keyed from the transmitter site.
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MRHS Volunteers L-R Bill Ruck, Steve Pazar, Mike Payne, Paul Shinn and Greg Farrell participate in our weekly Services of the Church of the Continuous Wave at the Bolinas transmitter site
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For Field Day 2012 Paul needed a hand. So Bill Ruck plus Steve Pazar and Greg Farrell, members of the crew restoring the H set transmitter (more about this in a following update) volunteered to be on hand. Even with their great combined talent they were all very busy.
Paul has done us a great service by writing a full report of the two day event. It's full of drama and passion and not a little humor (the kind radio people understand). It gives an inside look at what coast station operations are really like. We've posted the whole report for your reading pleasure. It's not to be missed.
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| Paul's Report |
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Mike Payne's Report
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Mike Payne bangs away on the Model 28KSR land line TTY order wire to the Bolinas transmitter site. Mike is trying to give the impression he's sending an important message to the Transmitter Department. Actually he's setting up a pizza party for after the close of operations.
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As usual Mike Payne was busy plying the key at KSM and K6KPH this weekend. It was tough making contacts via K6KPH as the bands were wall to wall with Field Day stations. But he did his best.
