> Headlines

     o Antenna Maintenance
    
     o Long Delayed QSL

     o The Geisel Chronicles, Part I

     o Archivist's Corner

     o Operations Report - KSM Crypto Broadcast
 

  

> Antenna Maintenance

  

The winds were strong that day my friends, and the balanced line feeders danced in the air as the gusts brought them perilously close together.  All eyes silently turned to Bill Ruck and Andy Wiskes.  "All right," they said.  "We'll go."  

 

With ladders and tools and Crosby clamps in hand they bushwhacked across the Bolinas antenna field until they reached the most critical junction of feed lines.

 

Andy Wiskes makes the connection to put a feed line back in service

 

Soon the job was done and Bill and Andy returned to the engineer's lounge for some well deserved hot chocolate.

 

Andy is one of several volunteers who can't join us every weekend.  But when he can be with us he makes a significant contribution to the maintenance of our antenna plant - a never ending task.  His handiwork is seen everywhere from the feed lines at Bolinas to the 4-wire restoration at the Point Reyes receive site.

 

Like all of us Andy happily supports The Cause with no thought of reimbursement.  But there are expenses that exceed the capacity of our individual bank accounts.  And that's where you come it.

 

Your support in combination with other True Believers has allowed us to do things like hire the boom trucks and crews we need for high level antenna repair at both sites.  These things quite literally could not be done without you.  So we offer sincere thanks to all who have stepped up to press the yellow button in the past.  We've squeezed the most out of every dollar we've received. 

 

 

 

 

> Long Delayed QSL 

 

This might belong in our Radio Archeology series but we thought it was important and interesting enough to deserve an article of its own.

 

When we began this project back in 1999 we took on not only the physical plant of KPH but the responsibility for the records and paperwork as well.  It's our great good fortune to have the benefit of the skilled and dedicated archivists at the Point Reyes National Seashore who now have custody of these documents and are preserving them in a museum environment.

 

But occasionally a bit of correspondence surfaces that particularly fires the imagination.  Such was the reception report we came across on our first pass through the station's documents.   

 

It was from Malawi, Africa.  It was dated 1978.  It was sent to the wrong address.  And the envelope had never been opened.  The report continued to languish in our files until finally we decided that the person who sent the report had waited long enough!

 

 

"Prepare your gardens early"

 

 The writer was Peter A. Conway of Limbe, Malawi.  The first thought was that we'd write to his PO box in that town with the slimmest possible hope that he might still be there.  But a little further research brought us more information about a Peter A. Conroy who seems almost certainly to be our man.

 

According to the historic record of the Nyasaland Police (the previous name of Malawi)  Mr. Conway "joined the Malawi Police  (Communications) in 1969 until 1972. He was stationed at Zomba and Lilongwe. Previously served in Zambia with Police (Signals) from 1962 to 1969. Continued working in Malawi after 1972 with the Posts & Telecomms until 1980. Stationed in Blantyre/Limbe. Relocated to Hastings UK, worked in the Telecomms  industry until 1996 when he began teaching English to foreign students. Retired 2006." 

 

In his report he stated that he heard KPH on a Collins 51J-4 (the same receiver used at the station) which also indicated that he had the uncommon access to good communications that his post would have provided.   

 

Part of Mr. Conway's reception report

 

Digging deeper, we were able to find the address for a Peter A. Conway in Hastings, UK.  A confirmation letter was finally dispatched to him - with apologies for its lateness!

 

We hope to hear back from him.  We've asked him to tell us all about his career in communications in Africa and will of course publish details here as they are received.

 

Moral: Never give up looking for that special QSL in your mailbox!

 

 

 

> The Geisel Chronicles, Part I   

  

by Ray Smith 

  

A couple of years ago we asked Ray Smith, Senior Morse Operator at KPH and the man who sent the last message when the station closed at Point Reyes/Bolinas, to set to paper his recollections of Frank Geisel, "Mr.KPH".  Frank was by all accounts one of those rare men who was a task master but still managed to be beloved by his men.

 

Ray and Jack Martini were proud to be "Geisel trained men".  They were among the few who met Frank's expectations.  He called them his "pillars of strength".   

 

The time has finally come to publish Ray's accounts here in the Newsletter.  They will appear in installment form.   

 

Ray Smith, KPH Senior Morse Operator.  Things to note in the photo: The first of the solid state receivers, the HRO-500, had just arrived (right) but the old reliable Collins 51J-4 was still in service.  Note the masking tape markers on the 51J-4's dial, marking ship calling and work frequencies.  On the table below the pencil are lengths of tubing.  These could be slipped over the transmitter control switches above Ray's left hand so two could more easily be operated at once.

 

I wanted you to know I've not forgotten my commitment to write my recollections of FG as he was more or less affectionately known to all of us who worked for him during his long tenure as Manager and de facto representative of all that KPH stood for in it's heyday,  

 

FG was a super dedicated Morse operator in the finest sense of that term, and as he often said meaningfully "I would have done it for nothing, I loved the work", while acknowledging that there were always those who didn't love the work quite as much and performed as well as they could anyway. Frank didn't care as long as he felt the man was doing the best he was capable of.  

 

Meanwhile before writing anything about FG I think it is needful to write a timeline for this man to better understand the environment in which he developed his multiple skills as a wireless telegraph operator par excel lance.    

 

Frank Geisel, "Mr. KPH"

 

It is known that Frank was born in the Austro Hungarian region of Europe in the year 1902. a period which is reported to be the most tumultuous and agonizing epic period in European history as the various nations of that era struggled for dominance in the region. By the time World War I was well underway in 1918., FG would have been around 16 years of age and prime cannon fodder.  

 

Fortunately by this time FG had escaped to the friendlier confines of Canada where he sought and obtained employment as a telegraph operator on the Canandian Pacific Railway, but his ultimate goal was to achieve residency in the USA which he gained about the year 1921 or 22.  

 

He then obtained employment on small Oil tankers plying up and down the Pacific coast of the USA.  He speaks of spending time at places like Terminal Island (near Long Beach Ca) and other oil ports some of which are still in use today these were small coastwise tankers which were among the first to realize the value of having wireless telegraphy aboard their vessels. Frank was also employed for a time on the steam schooner "Wapama" a small vessel which journeyed as far north as Alaska for the fishing industry and probably down along the Mexican coast as well.  

 

Not too much more is known to this writer about the early history of FG but in my next installment I will attempt to outline FG's tenure as he becomes manager of Marconi's and later RMCA's flagship Westcoast wireless station the Famous KPH Voice of the Pacific,.  

 

 

> Archivist's Corner

 

by Carola DeRooy

  

 

The main thing to report on the operations side is the KSM crypto broadcast on Saturday 4 May.  As readers may recall, we teemed up with the folks at the Military Radio Collectors Group to send a message encrypted with the military M-209 in both CW and RATT (RTTY) for reception at the MRCG meet in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Thanks to the planning by Mark J. Blair, Tim Sammons and many others on the MRCG side and the work done by Mr. Steve Hawes of the MRHS Transmitter Department the broadcasts went off without a hitch.

The CW broadcast began at 1100LT/1800Z on all KSM CW channels from 426kc to 22Mc.  It was sent twice at 13wpm with Farnsworth spacing and was successfully received by Tim Sammons using a GRC-109. 

Tim Sammons copies the CW crypto broadcast

The 67 group RATT broadcast began upon completion of the CW transmission and was sent twice on all three KSM RATT frequencies.  This was received with some fading problems.

The RATT broadcast as received and printed on a Model 28ASR at the KSM receive site

It was the first time we at KSM got to use the CDE message designator for a coded transmission which in itself made the event special.

John Castorina receives the RATT message on some genuine heavy iron

Reception is good but decoding the message is the real name of the game so once the copy was in hand Mark J. Blair put his M-209 into action to retrieve the plain test.

Mark J. Blair cranks the M-209 at San Luis Obispo

The message was originally sent during WWII to Merrill's Marauders and read:

 

YOUR MISSION COMPLETE NEW MISSION COVER SOUTH APPROACH TO TANAN BE PARTICULARLY CAREFUL OF YOUR RIGHT FLANK    

 

Listeners besides those at the MRCG meet tried their hand at decrypting the message including OM Morgan at AL0I who states that "With considerable aggravation (but no outside help)" he was able to produce a correct plain text copy.  Well done!  

 

This was all great fun and we at the MRHS very much look forward to future events with the MRCG.  For Tim's report on the event please click HERE.

 

And for more information on the M-209 please click HERE for Mark's excellent Web page. 

 

In addition to the crypto broadcast operations continued pretty much as normal at KSM and K6KPH.  RD went directly to the receive site and signed on the logs at 1600Z to be there for the crypto event and stand watch for any calls from the MRCG.

 

At 1652 a wheel was put on the air simultaneously keying  K6KPH 3550 and 7050 as a marker primarily for the MRCG folks but also of course for anyone else who might want to call.  14Mc was the usual shambles with contesters wall to wall so we didn't run the wheel there.  Several callers popped up on both frequencies.  At 1830Z we heard from Tim Sammons of N6CC at the key of his GRC-109, calling to report that the CW message had been received.  At 1850Z we sent the following to the MRCG via N6CC:

 

NR 1 R SANFRANCISCO RADIO/K6KPH 1845 MAY 4 GMT

ALL MEMBERS MRCG
SAN LUIS OBISPOP VIA N6CC

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE SUCCESSFUL RECEPTION OF BOTH CW
AND RATT M209 MESSAGES X WE LOOK FORWARD TO COOPERATION
BETWEEN OUR GROUPS IN THE FUTURE

MRHS

 

At 2000 we heard from OM Walker at N3SW with a KSM signal report on 18Mc.  At 2117Z our good friend George piped up from K6ETM on 18Mc with a KSM report.  George will be visiting us on 18 May so you'll have a chance to work him at K6KPH.  Then at 2151Z old pro Dale of W8IM came up with his KSM report.  There was a little confusion about this for which we apologize to OM Sever.  RD was at lunch at the time of his fiorst call with the scanning receiver turned up to hear any calls while in the engineer's lounge.  A loud signal was heard calling K6KPH, so loud that it was assumed it must be on 3.5 or 7Mc.  But in fact it was Dean blowing the doors off on 21Mc.  Once all that was straightened out his report was copied no sweat.

 

The closing message for KSM was sent at 2300Z and that was it for the day.

 

 

> MRHS Merchandise

  

Support the MRHS and look cool at the same time. Such a deal!  We've got hats, mugs, T shirts, belt buckles and bumper stickers, all with variations of the MRHS logo.  Get a hat and mug for yourself and a put yourself in solid with the XYL by getting her a MRHS hoodie.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 Just click on the images above to go to the MRHS True Believers store and browse our offerings.  Thanks!

 

 

 

 

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

 

VY 73/88

 

MRHS