[Telecom] Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ

Bell Labs wrote a multi-volume history of the company which includes extensive chapters on radio-telephone work. They may be in Vols

There are two telephone history groups that may be able to help you: Telephone Collectors International and Antique Telephone Collectors Association.

Dennis,

The book "A History of Science and Technology in the Bell System, Volume 1, The Early Years" has several pages of detail surrounding the Lawrenceville station (starting on page 410). Apparently the site was chosen to minimize interference from other stations and was used for US - London ( circuits) and US- Buenos Aires (one circuit). The transmitter was at Lawrenceville and the receiver was at Netcong, NJ. The book contains block diagrams of the antenna and the transmitter.

Unfortunately, the book is out of print. Check with your local libraries or Bell Labs Murray Hill (if it still exists....) to see if they have a copy.

Eric T.

I moved to Princeton in 1964, and I distinctly remember the poles and wires being up for a long time after that, perhaps into the 1970s. There was (and is) an orchard across the street where we bought apple cider so we'd be out that way at least several times a year.

R's, John

1) You might look for this on amazon.com (which also serves as a "front man" for numerous used books stores), or on various individual online used book sellers (Abebooks, etc). I have quite often been able to obtain very obscure published works (conference proceedings for important early technical conferences from 50 years ago, etc) in this way -- and often at startling low prices.

Didn't there used to be some similar large antenna facility somewhere out on the salt flats here in the San Francisco Bay Area? Any history on that? Was it also an AT&T facility?

Just as a bit of info, Amazon recently bought up Abebooks.com. At this time the searchable databases are still unique, at some point or another they'll probably get merged together.

(And at this point... it's worth taking the effort to go to both sites. You'll often find the same book, from the same end supplier, at different prices).

Could you be thinking of the KGO Radio transmitter (near the eastern approach to the Dumbarton Bridge and surrounded by salt evaporator ponds)? It's been there since at least the '60s.

I'm a retired Bell Labs / AT&T employee and a member of the Antique Wireless Association (AWA). Sometime between 1978 and 1980 my father, who was very active in the AWA, called to tell me that they had received permission to collect some artifacts from the Lawrenceville site for their museum. But it needed to be done quickly as the station was being dismantled -- could I help? So I spent a few hours there, including a fascinating tour of the facility.

At the end they were using a number of 10kw transmitters, but still had the old 100kw unit -- it had been used by Roosevelt to talk to Churchill during the war. It used four water-cooled Western Electric

The momentos I "liberated" included not only the tubes and tank coil but also a large painting (maybe 3.5' x 7') of the site when the curtain antenna was still in use.

I'll forward this to the AWA in case they have any additional info (I don't remember if there were any documents). You've received some good references to AT&T publications here, but I'll also see if I can discover anything else at AT&T.

You are probably thinking of KFS, the former maritime radio station, located in the Palo Alto baylands along East Bayshore rd, between Embarcadero and San Antonio roads, near the City of Palo Alto corporation yard.

The transmitter building still stands, although I believe that all the large antenna masts have been removed.

The site was established in the 1920's, and operated until 7/12/1999, when Morse Code transmissions from the site ceased.

The station was owned at various times by Federal Telegraph, MacKay Cable and Wireless, ITT World Communications, and KFS World Communications.

The Palo Alto site was the transmitter site. The receive site was located in Half Moon Bay.

I'm guessing that you're referring to the "dinsoaur cage" that was located off of highway 37 at Skaggs Island near Sonoma. That was not an AT&T facility; it was a Navy station that was a very sensitive radio monitoring facility. Back in the 60's I spent some time there learning Russian morse code, since at the time encrypted morse code was the standard Soviet communications mechanism.

I'm not sure how long ago they tore it down, as it is no longer there.