Every year on July 12, the Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS) commemorates the end of commercial Morse code use in the US. I have a soft spot for Maritime Radio, as that is where I began my radio career. For nearly one hundred years, ship board radio operators, “sparks” communicated with land based stations using Morse keys and relatively simple low powered transmitters. The skills gained by a good CW operator could only be attained by time spent sitting watch.
In order to remember those who did that service, several former coastal radio stations fire up transmitters once a year on July 12th. This year’s frequencies are:
| KPH | KFS | KSM | WLO | KLB | Ship transmit |
| 426 | 426 | 488 | |||
| 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | ||
| 4247 | 4343 | 4184 | |||
| 6477.5 | 6274 | 6276 | |||
| 8642 | 8438.3 | 8658 | 8582.5 | 8368 | |
| 12808.5 | 12695.5 | 12993 | 12992 | 12552 | |
| 17016.8 | 17026 | 16968.5 | 16736 | ||
| 22477 | 22280.5 |
Festivities begin at 8pm eastern time. In addition to those frequencies, K6KPH will be on the air on 3550, 7050 14050 and 21050 KHz.
KPH, KFS and KSM are all operated from Point Reyes National Park, transmitters are on Bolinas. This is a video of the transmitter gallery in Bolinas:
Other video of Bolinas Facility:
Former KPH receiver site, Point Reyes National Park:
This is a former coastal station site in Cape Cod, which was torn down:
Lots more information at the Maritime Radio Historical Society site.
I’ve seen these videos before,…at least one of them,anyway. That one lady,Denise Stoops is her name,I think,…well,anyway,…she can work a key like no one else! I’ve seen her in a couple youtube videos work a keyer paddle and she is fast,…doesn’t seem to miss a beat! I’ll have to fire up the radio on 40 meters at 7.050 and listen in!