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MRHS NEWSLETTER No. 14
Dedicated to True Believers World Wide
4 September 2012
Newsletter Comments - Thanks!The last Newsletter, chock full o' technical details about the PW-15 transmitter, was apparently a big hit among True Believers everywhere. The comments we received have been widely shared and members of the MRHS are even now beavering away at even more such articles on even more impossibly obscure topics.
What would you like to know about?
It's unclear how may such articles we can produce. But you can help. What aspects of MRHS operations would you like to know about? What particular items of equipment do you think are worthy of a full article?
How about the weekend operations report - stations worked, etc.? Interesting?
Please let us know.
As always, your comments and suggestions on all aspects of the Newsletter are most welcome. Just send an email message to info@radiomarine.org.
SUPPORT THE MRHS
While we're busy working on the next dramatic technical paper torn from the flaming pages of the operations manual of a vintage piece of equipment we thought you might enjoy this analysis and report submitted by Mr. Bob Dildine, part of the group that has done such outstanding work on the restoration of transmitter 298.
As a HP engineer, Bob is concerned with precision measurement. This came in handy when the requirement arose to analyze the screen bypass capacitors in the 4CX5000 sockets in the PA of transmitter 298.
You're invited to read Bob's excellent report H Set Screen Bypass Capacitors. But we are compelled by statute to provide this fair warning: actual Smith charts are present in the report!
It's a rare thing when a project like this has the benefit of the skills and dedication of an engineer and craftsman like Bob Dildine and his colleagues who have transformed transmitter 298 from a pile of corrosion to a beautiful, working artifact. We fund work like this and the restoration all the other equipment and antennas out of our pockets - and we do so gladly. But every bit of support from fellow True Believers makes a big difference.
To all those who have sent along a contribution to The Cause we offer a heartfelt thanks. Your support is tremendously appreciated.
If you're a True Believer and can make a contribution to The Cause it will be most appreciated. And remember, we're all volunteers so 100% of your contribution goes directly to purchase the items needed to keep the transmitters and receivers working and the antennas in the air.
Readers of these pages will recall that the big annual MRHS event is called Night of Nights. On 12 July 1999 the supposed last commercial Morse message was sent from the Globe Wireless master station in Half Moon Bay, CA. Many of us were there.
For an emotional inside look at what it was like on that last day read Richard Dillman's report "The End of Morse".
The prediction of the death of Morse was premature. The idea of the MRHS was born on the day of the alleged last transmission. And by 12 July 2000 - one year and one minute after that supposed last Morse transmission - the famous call signs KPH and KFS were once again heard on the air from the first transmitters restored by MRHS volunteers. Every year since the tradition has continued and expanded.
 | | Night of Nights 2012 |
Many have made the trip to join us for the Night of Nights events at the remote and foggy receive site on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Others have joined us over the air, waiting before their receivers with the earphones on, often in the early hours, for the first signals to come arcing over the dome of the Earth at 0001gmt. For those True Believers who are not able to join us in person we present the video above. You'll see the activity in the Morse operating room and the opening message being sent.
The video was produced and kindly made available by Peggy Day and the local on line video news service Seriously Now. We thank them deeply for allowing us to share their work.Modern Age Intrudes on the MRHS
The MRHS is composed mostly of radio obsessed geezers. Mostly but not entirely. There's also a group of scary smart electronic engineers and technicians working at the cutting edge of digital technology. Yet for some reason that defies understanding they are attracted to the MRHS and the older technology at the transmit and receive sites.
For a long time we took a lot of static at the receive site, even from non radio types, for using a laptop computer at Position 1 to play out the traffic list and weather reports. The great large desk top computers used by KPH for this purpose had died long ago, thus the laptop. But these guys took on the project of building a modern computer into the case of one of the vintage computers. They added a vintage CRT monitor and bam!, there we were with a good working computer of historically correct appearance.
But last weekend they pulled a fast one. Balint Seeber, Owen Mehegan, Nick Foster and Rob Leisenfeld brought along a software defined receiver made Ettus Research, where some of the guys work. They plugged it into one of the KPH antennas. The thing scooped up tons of signals and showed them on its waterfall display, all strange and new technology for the geezers.
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Owen Mehegan, Nick Foster and Rob Leisenfeld look on in great amusement as Chief Operator Richard Dillman ponders the display of the software defined receiver, looking for the tuning knob.
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The guys soon turned their attention to the SITOR room, adjacent to the CW operating room. The KPH SITOR service also provided radiogram service to ships at sea but via error correcting RTTY. While it's not possible to return the SITOR operation to service (due to a lack of a high speed data link between the transmit and receive sites necessary for ARQ) we once did have a rack of equipment working in FEC receive mode. Weather broadcasts from NMC next door were copied to show how the system worked.
But it was a tough system to keep operational, not least because the vintage monitors kept failing. But the young guys would have none of it. They soon identified monitors that were still operational, brought some to the Thrane & Thrane modems back on line and figured out the arcane commands needed to make the communications controller do its thing.
 | | The initial examination of the system takes place as Rick Wahl (R), ex-KPH operator, looks on. |
Pretty soon amber letters were marching across the screen, copying the NMC weather broadcast.
 | | By careful adjustment of tuning and audio levels we were able to reduce the errors (represented by asterisks). |
The SITOR equipment has been re-tuned to the KSM 8Mc RTTY frequency. For the first part of the day we copy the Baudot transmission on the Teletype Model 28ASR in the operations room. Now, when transmission switches to FEC, we can copy that too using the SITOR equipment.
Thanks guys! And thanks to Balint Seeber for kind permission to use his photos.
Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea... let's go to press with the KSM and K6KPH report for Saturday 4 September and Sunday 5 September 2012...
Weekend Report from Mike Payne:
So I return from an extended leave of absence to Posn 1, sit down at the console and what is staring me in the face just when I am getting ready to start the KSM Wheel....a dysfunctional A-Tronix. What's new. OK, it's time to do battle once again. However, in the mean time I turn to the Boehme (see Youtube: Punched Paper Tape "Wheel" at Coast Station KSM)
I turn it on with a tape already setup and hit the switch and the KSM Wheel is now on the air. Time to do battle with the A-Tronix. Twenty minutes later the beast has been correctly programmed and I throw the switch back. Now the A-Tronix is once again sending out the Wheel. I turn off the Boehme and all is well. Not really. The tape I had in Boehme was the Night of Nights tape CQing for KPH,KFS, KSM. Right. Next time I look at the tape.
[It was actually Chief Operator Dillman who selected the wrong tape - Ed]
Before I get to the weekend QSO list, just a reminder that K6KPH is also National Traffic System station, NTS (see ARRL website for NTS info) which means that we would be delighted to QSP any TFC you have. We will take your TFC and relay it via the Northern California Net to RN6 and beyond,
so give us a try.
QSO List Sat Sept 1st
KSM
1905 KKUI (KSM 16/KKUI 12) Posn 4
2100 TFC List sent
2130 High Seas Wx sent
K6KPH
Posn 1:
2227 AL7N (14)
2320 WS0I (14)
Posn 4:
1940 W5ZR (21)
1945 AK5X (21)
2157 JH1CMW (21)
2210 W4LNI (21)
2216 NE5E (21)
2225 JJ1RZG (21)
2233 WB3CEG (21)
2239 K7TAB (21)
2252 JA1NUT (21)
Posn 6:
2016 W5YDC (21)
2021 W8IM (21)
2025 NE5E (21)
2236 W7IZE (7)
2242 NY6G (7)
Sun Sept 2nd
KSM
2100 TFC List sent
2130 High Seas Wx sent
K6KPH
Posn 1:
2000 KD0APS (14)
2005 AF6PI (14)
2008 KC0EHH (14)
2150 N5XE (14)
2158 WD0BC (14)
2225 K9ZUP (14) Duplex 14050/14060 Unable to establish contact
2245 K5TR (21)
2253 NZ5K (21)
Note: On Sat contesters all over 14; from QRZ.COM: Band Condx 14 fair; 21 good. Sun Band Condx 14 fair; 21 good. Also please keep in mind that this portion of the Newsletter is about Operations...not soldering irons; and if I have made in errors in the call list or did not include your call please let me know and I will endeavor to correct my mistake in a following Newsletter.
This weeks question: The main receiving antenna I use is the TCI OMNI530.
What can you tell me about this antenna?
Until next time, 73s fm zut central, MP
Hey you! Yeah you, the guy wearing the earphones! Are you a CW op yearning to sling some Morse at the "code factory" (as KPH was once called)? If you are we have an operating position all set up just for you. Bring your key and cans or use ours. Just drop a line to info@radiomarine.org to let us know you're coming.
VY 73,
MRHS Operating Department
NOTE: KSM and K6KPH will be active on Saturdays only until further notice.
Until next week we wish you fair winds and following seas.
MRHS
Newsletter Back Issues
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