"BNB Sound" wrote in message
oups.com...
So, what else is out there. I know the military has always been
heavily invested in radio gear, but what else was (and is?) there?
Jon
KC2PNF


AT&T High Seas Radiotelephone Service could be used by any ship with
high-frequency single side band radiotelephone service. Worldwide in scope,
the service provided two-way voice communication between ships on the high
seas and telephones on land, at sea or in the air.

While I was employed at A.T.&T. I was given a tour of their international
operating center in Pittsburg PA in the early 1990's. Being a ham I most
enjoyed watching the operators at the High Seas Bureau taking calls from and
to ships at sea.

Staffed 24-hours a day, 365-days per year, AT&T operators at Pittsburg PA
provided mainland telephone connection to ships at sea. In many
circumstances, operators handled distress calls. The operations staff was
trained for all emergency situations and alerted the Coast Guard of pending
crises.

AT&T High Seas Radiotelephone Facility - was the only facility of its kind
in the world, provided lifesaving, two way voice radio-telephone service
communication between ships at sea, or aircraft, and telephones on land,
sea, or in the air.

WOO was the radio call sign of the now-defunct AT&T High Seas Service. The
radiotelephone transmitter station was in Ocean Gate, NJ ( 39°55'38?N,
74°06'55?W) and the receiver station was in Navesink, New Jersey, USA.

Before satellite communication systems were widely available, the only way
ships at sea had to communicate with the rest of the world was via HF SSB
connections to land stations.

The AT&T high seas service consisted of WOO Ocean Gate, New Jersey and her
sister stations WOM Pennsuco, Florida (Miami, Florida) and KMI Dixon,
California (Point Reyes, California). A vessel at sea would make radio
contact with one of those stations, and the operator would patch the radio
connection though to a telephone call made over the PSTN. The charges were
typically settled by making the landline connection a collect call. Larger
vessels maintained accounts with AT&T.

In the years prior to regular telephone service being available in Mexican
towns such as La Paz, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, KMI provided
service to certain hotels and resorts in those locations. Sometimes a hotel
would register a land based transmitter as a yacht, and give it a fictitious
name in order to provide phone service to their customers.

AT&T shut down all three stations on November 9, 1999. It is believed that
the only remaining commercial sources of high seas high frequency
radiotelephone service are WLO in Mobile, Alabama and KLB in Seattle,
Washington. AT&T now uses "Mobile Satellite Services".

To use the High Seas Radiotelephone Service, each ship's radio officer would
select a channel to call one of AT&T's Coast Stations. A technician at the
Coast Station will then pass the call to an AT&T operator in Pittsburg PA .
The person at sea would tell the operator the number he or she was trying to
reach and the call was connected. People on land would call 1-800-Sea-Call
and tell the operator in Pittsburg PA the name and callsign of the vessel
they wanted to call.

Ace - WH2T


..