MRHS NEWSLETTER No. 19
Dedicated to True Believers World Wide 
9 October 2012   
 

 



 

MRHS AT PACIFICON 2012! 

12, 13, 14 October 

Santa Clara, California

 
The MRHS attended Pacificon 2011 and we had a great time.  We set up two operating positions using vintage gear, remotely keying the KSM and K6KPH transmitters in Bolinas while receiving on heavyweight gear at Pacificon.  We'll be there again this year at the kind invitation of the organizers.

Here's your chance to meet some of your fellow True Believers in person and operate K6KPH (and KSM if you have a commercial radiotelegraph ticket).

For full details please see Newsletter No. 18.

                                                  
    

MRHS Merchandise

 

The photo of the MRHS T shirt in Newsletter No. 18 brought quite a response!  Many writers wanted to know if they could buy the T shirt even if they would not be at Pacificon.  Others demanded other MRHS merchandise such as mugs!

 

To be honest, we were a little overwhelmed by this unexpected response.

 

Here at the MRHS we just don't have the facilities to set up a merchandise operation, involving as it does keeping track of the orders, making sure everyone gets what they ordered, replacing lost items and keeping on the right side of the tax man.

 

However... we are looking into the possibility of setting up an on-line merchandise store with all the details handled by an outside company.  No promises at this point since we're just in the investigation stage.  But we wanted to let you know that we heard the requests for MRHS merchandise loud and clear.

 



Remote Control by Tone Set - A History

 

By William F. Ruck, MRHS Maintenance 

 

Part III of a three part series...

  

The first part of this series explained why communications is best with separate transmitter and receiver locations and how the transmitters could be remotely controlled. The second part went into detail on the narrow frequency shift tone sets used by KPH and now KSM. This final part explains how the six operating positions in Point Reyes are connected to the tone sets.

 

Before we get into wiring we need to take a look at the operations side. The maritime radio business had a traffic load that changed from hour to hour and from day to day. The frequencies used also changed from day to night and back.

 

There was definite skill and some luck in assigning the appropriate number of operators to each shift. Too many operators on duty and they didn't have enough traffic to keep them busy, which meant that company resources weren't spent efficiently. Too few operators on duty and they couldn't process all of the messages which meant that some of the potential messages went to the competition and revenue was lost.

 

In any event, there needed to be a lot of flexibility in the operations at KPH.

 

We know from historical pictures that the operating positions evolved over time. We can also tell from those pictures that at least by the time that the receiving station moved to Point Reyes after WWII that there was some method of selecting different transmitters.

 

The first post war KPH operating room had two positions and was located in the former lunch room of the point to point receive station at Point Reyes, known as RS on the telegraph and teletype lines.   

 

One of two post war operating positions at KPH located in the point-to-point receive building at Point Reyes.  Note the paper loop for the wheel to the operator's right and other loops hanging on the front of the table. 

 

When the point to point receivers on the second floow were converted from DC to AC operation the battery and motor generator rooms below were made available to KPH.  This is the same location KSM uses today.    

 

This early photo of the KPH operating after it moved to the rear of the Point Reyes building shows the elaborate paper tape keying system known to operators around the world as "the dotter".  We have the keyer but not the pulley system.  The transmitter selection panel may be seen to the operator's left. 

 

When KPH moved into the rear of the first floor six operating positions were established. Over time those positions were changed and improved to what we are today using for KSM. Different equipment and different desks were used but each time there was some form of switch panel to allow the operator to select which transmitter he (or she) needed for communications with a ship.

 

To be honest, the first time that I was asked to trouble-shoot a keying problem I was both lost and scared. One issue was that some of the multi-pin connectors were never latched so when I touched anything all of the transmitters would stop keying. This did not improve the temperament of the Operations Department in any way! But once I found a few historical sketches in the files and was able to translate them into the reality that exists I found the keying system to be relatively straightforward.

 

Further complicating the keying situation is that left behind was transmitter keying selection systems for both KPH and WCC.  WCC on Cape Cod was keyed remotely from KPH in the last several years of operation. Today we use little of the WCC system because it is hard wired to relatively modern tone sets that used to feed a DS1 circuit to WCC. We don't have the other end of that circuit so that equipment basically goes nowhere.

 

This article will explain in detail how the KPH system works at Point Reyes (RS).

 

All six positions can select one or more of ten High Frequency transmitters to manually key. Positions 1 and 2 can also key the MF (500 / 426 kc/s) transmitter and select the MF transmit frequency (500 or 426 kc/s, known as the "ZAL" switch). Position 1 can also select one of two sources of continuous Morse streams.  The first is generically known as "The Wheel", the second is for weather and press broadcasts.  One is identified in the drawings as "TFC" and the other is "CQ". Note that tradition had the most senior operator on duty at Position 1.

 

The term "Wheel" comes from older mechanical methods of storing Morse code.  The original storage method was an actual notched wheel (the remains of one of these still exists at WLO).  Later, two-level paper tape was punched on a Kleinschmidt perforator and then read on a keying head.  We use a Boehme at KSM today but earlier keying heads were made by Creed.  There was also a home brew keyer based on a military unit that we still have in storage.  Once the paper tape was punched the ends were glued together to make an endless loop. Round loop = "The Wheel". This loop then ran in the reader providing either the hourly traffic loop ("TFC") or the station marker "CQ".

 

The "CQ Wheel" now is:

 

V V V   V V V   V V V   CQ DE KSM KSM KSM QSX 500/4/6/8/12/16/22 OBS? AMVER? QRU? ANS 500/HF CH3 AR K

 

The CQ Wheel was a marker that allowed a ship to tune in KPH (now KSM) and choose which band to contact the station based on the best signal received by the ship.

 

When a ship called the operator would switch from the "CQ Wheel" to manual keying, return the call to the ship, and pass the traffic.

 

After that if no other ship called the operator would switch back to the "CQ Wheel".

 

Because KPH in the past and now KSM is licensed on specific transmitter frequencies we always transmit on the same fixed frequency in each band. None of the HF transmitters change frequency. All the operator at RS can do is select which transmitter to key to select an HF band.

 

A greatly simplified diagram will help explain how it works. There are ten of these circuits at all positions for the HF transmitters.

 

 

 

At Position 1 the operator could select either TFC or CQ or nothing with the "CQ Master Control" switch. Note that all six positions were in series with the master keying and any one of those positions would interrupt that and manually key the selected transmitter. It was arranged such that Position 1 had the final say on whether a transmitter was keyed. This position could interrupt the keying of any other position. Working backwards, Position 2 could interrupt Positions 3 through 6, etc. Because the master keying was in series with all of the positions it went all the way to Position 6 for interruption and then back through all of the positions to Position 1. From CW Position 1 the keying went to the designated 901 F/S Tone Set rack positions.

 

The system still at RS has a red or green LED to indicate that someone had selected that transmitter for manual keying. When any transmitter was selected at any position to manually key the transmitter all of the LEDs for that transmitter lit up at all of the positions. This helped to keep a second operator from accidentally interrupting another operator's contact, although we hear stories of fights over one operator deliberately "poaching" another operator's contact.

 

For the MF transmitter keying the circuitry was greatly simplified as only Positions 1 and 2 could key that transmitter and select its frequency. The ZAL (QSY) switch Positions 1 and 2 appear to be directly wired to the appropriate 901 F/S Tone Set rack position.

 

 

 

Because all of the 901 equipment rack positions can take any frequency 901 F/S Tone Set, if there is a problem one can swap individual modules to move a transmitter circuit from one keying line to another keying line. For example, if a particular keying line was intermittent or broken, one other keying line to another transmitter can be disabled by removing the 901 F/S Tone Set transmitter from that rack position and replacing it with the desired frequency 901 F/S Tone Set. This way the desired transmitter can still be keyed but with a different keying line until the Maintenance Department can resolve the problem.

 

There is also an audio monitor in the 901 equipment rack at FS. The operators learned to patch the audio monitor to any 901 transmitter and listen to the output tone. If it shifted in pitch when keyed there was no problem at RS but the problem resided at the Bolinas transmitter.

 


Make a Donation


This concludes Bill's wonderfully detailed description of the keying and control circuits and equipment used at KPH and now at KSM.  That system is only one of many that are now entrusted to our care. 

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.  
 
Thanks!  

  

 
 

   

More on R-3 Dual Diversity Receivers

  

In Newsletter No. 16 Mr. Steve Pazar of the H set transmitter restoration team presented an excellent and detailed article on the RCA R-3 dual diversity receiver, the companion to the H set (T-3) transmitter.

 

Dick Flint, fourth from left, in the point-to-point receive room at Point Reyes 

  

Now comes Mr. Dick Flint, ex-KPH operator and point-to-point man to provide further details.  Regarding the R-3, he states:

 

None were used at KPH, they were only upstairs [the point to point receive room - ed].  I was first hired at RS & for the first 3 or 4 years did the maintenance.  That top deck was the power supply & consisted of, if memory serves, 10 6550 tubes.  They put out a lot of heat, ergo the top deck to keep the heat away from the transistors.   

 

It had 3 stages of individually tuned RF, the sensitivity was unbelievable & coupled with our inherent low noise level, we could use commercially signals that would have been useless to our sister station at Riverhead, N.Y,   

 

The captive oscillator was another thing of beauty.  We locked it onto the low level carrier of the incoming signal & it would hold it dead on, keeping the usual 12 frequency shift channels operating perfectly.  We had some at Guam & when hurricane Karen hit there (don't remember the year) [possibly 1962 - ed] they sent a crew of us there to rebuild things.  The transmitter building was gone & the transmitters were just sitting in the open, with tarps over them - a sad sight.   

 

Receiving was better off.  The roof was mostly gone & the worst damage was to the R-3 receivers.  I opened the tops & looked in at piles of broken glass.  The heavy rains had hit those hot 6550s and blown them all up - It looked impossible.   

 

I scraped the old glass out, pulled the tube sockets out & cleaned the decks and replaced the tubes.  I held my breath & turned the power on.  Every one of them fired up & went back to work.  They still had some of those old DC receivers, so I spent the rest of my time there converting them to AC.  Can't recall what their designation was.

 

73, RF

Thanks OM for taking the time to provide that first hand account.

 
  
 Operations Report

  

                                  

Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea... let's go to press with Mike Payne's operations report for KSM and K6KPH...
 

Wednesday Oct 4th GMT

Posn 1

KSM:

0300 TFC LIST (MF/HF)

0330 HIGH SEAS WX (MF/HF)

 

K6KPH:

0318 JH1QKG TOKYO OP KIO QSA 3 (21)

0342 JJ1RZG TOKYO OP SHUN WX SUNNY 22C QSA 2/3 (21)

0350 UA3RF TAMBOV, RUSSIA OP ALEX QSA 3 (14)

0355 RW6CD KRASNODAR, RUSSIA OP VLAD TEMP 19C QSA 4 (14)

0420 WU7F QRP CENTERVILLE, UT OP MARK QSA 2/3 QSB (7)

0605 K6FRC QTH CA OP PS QSA 5 (3.5)

0613 K7GA CATHLAMET, WA OP JEFF (Former RO wrked NMC/NMO

                        with many AMVERS es OBS) (3.5)

 

Posn 4

0243 K5LY QTH NEW HOPE, TX OP LEE (7)

0403 W7ASA REDVILLE, VA OP RAY 88 to DA (7)

0439 UA4LGS ULYANOVSK, RUSSIA OP SERGE (14)

0453 KF7DS PORTLAND, OR OP DON (3.5)

0524 W6SYY RED BLUFF, CA OP ANDY (3.5)

0529 K8RY NO QTH OP CHRIS "Enjoy the Newsletters" (3.5)

0531 N7ED QTH AZ OP ED (3.5)

 

OP Notes: Band condx poor with heavy QRN

 

Saturday Oct 6th

Posn 1

KSM:

1900 TFC LIST (MF/HF)

1915 KKUI SENT QTC 1 (12)

2100 TFC LIST (MF/HF)

2130 HIGH SEAS WX (MF/HF)

2300 TFC LIST (MF/HF)

 

K6KPH:

2000 AL7N QRU/QRU QTH AK OP ED QSA 1/2 (14)

2005 WD0BC   QTH ST JOSEPH, MO OP BILL QSA 3 (14)

 

2033 K6ETM QTH VA OP GEORGE SIG RPT KSM 16MCS QSA 5 12MCS QSA 3 (21)

2108 K6WMR QTH CA OP RD QTC 1 QSP'd to BOLINAS, CA via TTY loop

   (KSM/K6KPH XMTR SITE) (7)

2148 W6TDX QTH SAN LUIS, CA OP CHRIS QSA 1/2 (7)

2209 W7OM QTH WA CONTESTER NO NAME QSA 5 (14)

2218 N4DW QTH TN OP DAVE CONTESTER QSA 5 (21)

2220 JA7AXN QTH FUKUSHIMA, JA OP NUMA QSA 2/3 (21)

2226 W8IM QTH FLA OP DEAN SIG RPT KSM (see OP Notes below) QSA 5 (21)

2233 NT2A CONTESTER QSA 5 NO QTH NO NAME (21)

2234 VA3DX CONTESTER QTH ON NO NAME QSA 3 (21)

2249 VA7ST CONTESTER QTH BC NO NAME QSA 5 (14)

2335 KF6NCX QTH CHICO, CA OP LARRY QSA 5 (7)

0003 N5XE QTH OK OP CARL 30WATTS 3ELE YAGI QSA 5 (21)

0015 JH3DJX QTH HYOGO, JA OP YUKI QSA 3 (21)

 

OP Notes: Here is an example of a full KSM signal report via W8IM...

 

NR 112 R W8IM 21 LEESBURG FL OCT 7 KSM VIA K6KPH BT

FLORIDA SWL REPORT KSM SUN OCT 7 2230Z

8 QSA 3 12/22 QSA 4 16 QSA 5 ALL QRK 5 NO COPY 4/6 X 73

DEAN AR NIL (Note this example of rpt send Sunday)

 

K6KPH encourages ops who have general coverage receivers to copy KSM bcsts and send in signal reports. Those reports are greatly appreciated and needed as they provide very good real-time band condx for a given QTH. Many thanks to K6ETM for his constant KSM signal rpts from VA.

 

Here is another example of a KSM sig rpt with this on rcvd via e-mail:

Saturday 6 October

Signal reports for this afternoon are as follows (QSA/QRK)

4350.5 - nil

6474.0 - nil

8438.3 - 1/3

12993.0 - 5/5

16914.0 - 5/5

22445.8 - 5/5

K5HGX

 

So don't be shy...listen up to KSM bcsts es tell us what you hear.

 

Visitors to the station were 6

 

To WD0BC: Sri for the short QSO OM but had visitor at the same time we were trying to chatter, so had to QRT.

 

To K8RY: Tks Chris for your kind remarks about the Newsletter.

 

Sunday Oct 7th

 

KSM:

1900 TFC LIST (MF/HF)

2100 TFC LIST (MF/HF)

2130 HIGH SEAS WX (MF/HF)

2300 TFC LIST (MF/HF)

 

K6KPH:

1930 AL7N NTS QRU/QRU QTH AK QSA 4 (14)

1933 AC5P QTH OK OP MIKE BUG TO BUG QSA 4 (14)

2146 W1KM QTH MA CONTESTER QSA 3 (21)

2233 K6DMT QTH IDLIWILD, CA OP SID QSA 5 (7)

2257 W8IM QTH FLA KSM SIG RPT (14)

2303 W5ZR QTH LA OP BERT (14)

2305 W7GB QTH WASH OP DON QRU/QRU QSA 4 (14)

2335 JF1LXO QTH CHIBA JA OP TOMO 100W 3ELE MONO BAND YAGI

                        COLDEST MORNING OF THE YEAR YAGI UP 25M QSA 5 (21)

2347 JA1KZP QTH TOKYO OP SAM TEMP 16C SUNNY MORNING QSA 4 (21)

2357 KB2RAW QTH NY OP BILL QSA 3 (14)

0013 JL3PHG QTH WAKAYAMA, JA OP SHIN QSA 4 (21)

 

OP Notes: The number of visitors to the station today was 20+! Couldn't figure out what was going on until one of the visitors mentioned that most of the people were bird enthusiasts and that this time of year is especially important due to migratory routes that bring many birds flying directly over or very near the station. If you go to radiomarine.org home page you will see the picture of the radio station. RD, FW, and I work in the room at the bottom right of the picture, where the two vehicles are.  

 

What you don't see in this photo is this. Looking at the front of the building and rotating 180 degrees would bring you to the view of the road into the radio station, which is filled with about a quarter mile of cypress trees - just like a long sleepy hollow. Yea, I know, Halloween is just a few weeks away...and don't think I don't think about this on Wednesday nights, when after closing the station I have to then walk out to my pickup, drive through the hollow, stop at the main road, get out of my pickup and close and lock the main gate behind me. It is normally pitch black with the fog usually so thick that I can't see across the road. So does my hand shake while holding my flashlight (with dim batteries I might add) while trying to secure the rusty hasp on the gate lock...let me put it this way...is there a time it doesn't shake...no. It really has to do with the case of the missing/phantom cow (see previous issue or two) cause I know he is out there just waiting for the perfect time to skewer me. Honest.

 

Wanna have some fun? Send your friend or family a short msg via K6KPH. Don't worry about formatting it. We will do that for you es send it along via the National Traffic System (NTS).

 

All we require is a name (and c/s if appropriate), address, es phone number.

 

Here is an example.

 

Harry T. Squirrel W5XXX

123 Rodent Ln

Warren, Tx 99799

589 555 1212

 

Hello Harry. I hope you are enjoying your new rig

 

73 Mike

 

And if you really want to get into msg sending and formatting see ARRL website under National Traffic System.

 

73s fm ZUT central, MP

Es don't forget that next Wednesday:

 

As always, if I have listed your c/s incorrectly or neglected to list your c/s please let me know and I will make the correction in a following newsletter.  73s from zut central.  MP 

Remember: KSM and K6KPH are on the air Wednesday nights.   MP and FW on watch. 

  

VY 73, 

MRHS Operating Department 
 

Until next week we wish you fair winds and following seas.


VY 73,

MRHS



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