Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:bruceg-
:

I have worked the old AT&T West Coast HF Marine Station, KMI, while
running an N550, with the covers off, and feeding a Bird Kw Dummy Load,
from the Engineering Department, of the Old Northern Radio Building, on
West Commadore Way, in Seattle, Washington, on both 8 and 12 Mhz,
with excellent Signal Reports. It is amazing what can happen when the
Band is open........

Bruce in alaska Lordy, those were the days........


I could hear KMI on my Hallicrafters Sky Buddy when I was a kid learning
the code. I've copied KMI many times while growing code speed when I was
10 years old....er, ah, in 1956...(c; Thanks for the practice, Bruce!

As a kid, one of my prized possessions was a letter and QSL card and some
glossy photos from the guys at WOM in Miami. I was copying their ship
lists one night and they had propagation problems with a freighter I've
long forgotten the name of. The ship was dead in the water out in the
Atlantic and needed some steam engine parts. WOM was all he said he
could hear in the storm.

After sweet talking my dad and promising to mow the lawn for 10 years
without a fuss, he let me CALL WOM on the telephone, which was really
expensive in those days. An operator at WOM answered and I told them I
could hear the ship very well in upstate NY (Moravia SW of Syracuse) and
could relay for them the message the ship had sent. The Morse op came on
the phone and I read him my message copy. He repeated it out on their
powerful transmitter for confirmation. I passed my code test at WOM that
night...(c; I had all the part numbers and addresses correctly. The WOM
guys seemed quite happy I was listening to their freq pair. He took my
address and I didn't think much of it. I was just too excited. After
hanging up the phone, I went back to listening to WOM and his input freq.
The op sent out a thank you message to "The kid in upstate NY" and told
the ship what I'd done. The ship, replied with a thank you to me, too.

I don't remember if I heard a single word in school the rest of that
week. Dad quit yelling at me to take off my headset and go to bed on
school nights. Very unusually, he didn't complain about the ever-
increasing number of uncoiled transformer windings that hung in the trees
in our back yard after that, either. He never understood me. He was a
simple, hard working machinist at Smith Corona typewriters.

Too excited to sit still, my teacher asked what was wrong with me in
class with all the figiting. Her mistake. She DID ask. So, I told
her...er, ah...them...my class. Learning about the French and Indian
Wars long ago didn't nearly hold the classes attention like my story of
relaying steamship parts orders to one of the biggest marine radio
stations on the planet....(c;

We were listening....Sure glad you were transmitting....thanks!

73 DE W4CSC K

I have worked the old AT&T West Coast HF Marine Station, KMI, while
running an N550, with the covers off, and feeding a Bird Kw Dummy Load,
from the Engineering Department, of the Old Northern Radio Building, on
West Commadore Way, in Seattle, Washington, on both 8 and 12 Mhz,
with excellent Signal Reports. It is amazing what can happen when the
Band is open........

Bruce in alaska Lordy, those were the days........

Wasn't that KMI something! When in the Puget Sound area, and they
switched their antenna array on you, it would burn the lint off your
receiver's antenna coils!
What a friendly bunch of operators.... usually asked, "howz the
weather up there?" after an honest and critical signal report.
Yes, those were the days. Every day about dusk, we'd listen for Peggy
and the weather to see if the path was going to be good for our fishermen's
wives limited coast stations.
Don't know if conditions are generally bum, or cell phones and
satellite radio have taken over, but 4125 doesn't sound the same anymore.
Old Chief Lynn

In article ,
"Lynn Coffelt" wrote:

I have worked the old AT&T West Coast HF Marine Station, KMI, while
running an N550, with the covers off, and feeding a Bird Kw Dummy Load,
from the Engineering Department, of the Old Northern Radio Building, on
West Commadore Way, in Seattle, Washington, on both 8 and 12 Mhz,
with excellent Signal Reports. It is amazing what can happen when the
Band is open........

Bruce in alaska Lordy, those were the days........

Wasn't that KMI something! When in the Puget Sound area, and they
switched their antenna array on you, it would burn the lint off your
receiver's antenna coils!
What a friendly bunch of operators.... usually asked, "howz the
weather up there?" after an honest and critical signal report.
Yes, those were the days. Every day about dusk, we'd listen for Peggy
and the weather to see if the path was going to be good for our fishermen's
wives limited coast stations.
Don't know if conditions are generally bum, or cell phones and
satellite radio have taken over, but 4125 doesn't sound the same anymore.
Old Chief Lynn



It has all gone to TracPhones, and MariSat, for 90% of High Seas
commercial traffic. You still hear the Tugs giving Wx Reports to
Cold Bay, and Yakatat NWS Stations, 15 minutes before the WX Broadcasts,
on 4125Khz. Even with all that, when someone gets in trouble, they
still are using 4125Khz to call CommSta Kodiak for help. Those
guys (USCG Operators) are the best, and are very dilligent, for the
North Pacific, and Bering Sea.

Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @

In article ,
Larry wrote:

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:bruceg-
:

I have worked the old AT&T West Coast HF Marine Station, KMI, while
running an N550, with the covers off, and feeding a Bird Kw Dummy Load,
from the Engineering Department, of the Old Northern Radio Building, on
West Commadore Way, in Seattle, Washington, on both 8 and 12 Mhz,
with excellent Signal Reports. It is amazing what can happen when the
Band is open........

Bruce in alaska Lordy, those were the days........


I could hear KMI on my Hallicrafters Sky Buddy when I was a kid learning
the code. I've copied KMI many times while growing code speed when I was
10 years old....er, ah, in 1956...(c; Thanks for the practice, Bruce!


snipped for brevity


We were listening....Sure glad you were transmitting....thanks!

73 DE W4CSC K

No Larry, you have it a bit wrong here. I never worked "AT" KMI at
Point Rayes, California, I "work" KMI from the Northern Radio Co.
Engineering Department in Seattle, Washington, with a Northern N550
Marine HF Radio, with the covers off, and feeding a 1Kw Bird dummy Load,
on both 8, and 12 Mhz one afternoon. I was setting up the radio for
installation on the then NEW Alaska State Ferry M/V Columbia, which
was just completing construction, and about to enter Sea Trials. At
that time I was a Traveling Marine Radioman for Northern Radio Co.
and was the Primary Tech responcible for SOLAS Inspections and
Compliance with the company. Years later, it was that SOLAS work,
that lead to my employment with the FCC, as the Resident Field Agent
for the FCC in Southeastern Alaska. All the Inspectors that I had
"trained" to do SOLAS Inspections, out of the Seattle Field Office, then
got to "train" me, in doing SOLAS Inspections from the Regulatory side
of the house. We had Great fun. Now days, ANY General Radiotelephone,
Licensed tech can preform a SOLAS Inspection. Just the way things are.
I still get calls from SOLAS Required Vessel Owners, to come do Title
III Part III, and GMDSS Inspections, because most Radio Techs don't have
the experience with such Inspections and Compliance Requirments, and
don't want to put the Tickets on the line if they screwup the
Inspections, and something happens.

Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:bruceg-
:

All the Inspectors that I had
"trained" to do SOLAS Inspections, out of the Seattle Field Office,
then
got to "train" me, in doing SOLAS Inspections from the Regulatory side
of the house. We had Great fun.

Oh, sorry. Thanks for the clarification....

Speaking of FCC inspectors, an old friend of mine was chief engineer at
WDIX ("in Dixie") a 5KW, 2 tower directional AM on 1150 and 100KW FM
rocker on 101-something in Orangeburg, SC. DIX is long gone, now, after
a suspicious fire consumed the building and the old 5KW Gates beast fell
into the basement. They covered the station over with bulldozers and
made a mall on top of it. You can still hear the Gates under your feet
if you stand in just the right place on top of it....."we" can, that
is...(c;

Anyways, FCC fun, the Atlanta office sent this nice, young,
inexperienced-but-well-educated engineer over to see JD Black at WDIX.
He had his new shiny AM field strength meter with a fresh cal sticker and
all to check the AM pattern and strength. JD, an old goat who could
remember when the AM transmitters didn't have shields and side panels on
them, complied with this FCC newbies request to accompany him to the
various test points. JD carried his own FS meter. Might as well check
it if we gotta drive out in the country, a little earlier than normal.

According to this young guy, DIX's pattern and power were way, way off
and he had NALs in his mind to be a big hero back at the office. Well,
now it was JDs turn to ask this nice young man how many times he'd used
that FS meter and asked him to show JD how to properly set it up for the
test. ....er, ah..."set it up?".... I suppose the boys at HQ were all
being smartasses turning all the setup stuff to full left, requiring him
to cal the receiver before doing the measurements.

After a bit of instruction on how to do it, JD made a new FCC friend and
demonstrated WDIX to be well within all tolerance levels, just like it
always was all those decades before. That little gleam in his eyes every
time he told me that story took 20 years off his weathered old face.

He and DIX are gone, but I can still see him praying there'd be a little
static discharge to the AM tower my electronic students were standing
inside the doghouse under...just waiting to see them come hauling out of
there when the discharge balls lit up the doghouse....I miss him awful.

Larry