Shortwave "Discone" Antenna, AT&T High Seas Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
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Shortwave "Discone" Antenna, AT&T High Seas Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
All the pixels, none of the risk of sea sickness or scurvy, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4141766569
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Shortwave "Discone" Antenna, AT&T High Seas Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
All the pixels, none of the risk of sea sickness or scurvy, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4141766569
Captured with a DSLR and a 24mm shifting lens.
During the 20th century, AT&T operated a shortwave "radiotelephone" service for vessels on the high seas. Ships could contact an operator, who could connect them with any landline telephone number they wished.
The North Atlantic station, callsign WOO, occupied expansive transmit and receive "antenna farms" in marshlands near the shore in central New Jersey.
Rendered obsolete by satellites, the service ceased operation on November 9, 1999.
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Captured with a DSLR and a 24mm shifting lens.
During the 20th century, AT&T operated a shortwave "radiotelephone" service for vessels on the high seas. Ships could contact an operator, who could connect them with any landline telephone number they wished.
The North Atlantic station, callsign WOO, occupied expansive transmit and receive "antenna farms" in marshlands near the shore in central New Jersey.
Rendered obsolete by satellites, the service ceased operation on November 9, 1999.
There were three AT&T radiotelephone sites in the continental US, each with its own transmit and receive antenna farms: Ocean Gate, NJ (shown here, serving the North Atlantic), Miami (serving the Caribbean and the Gulf), and Point Reyes, CA (serving the Pacific).
All the sites have by now been razed, either for redevelopment or as nature preserves. The antennas (including this one) are mostly gone now.
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There were three AT&T radiotelephone sites in the continental US, each with its own transmit and receive antenna farms: Ocean Gate, NJ (shown here, serving the North Atlantic), Miami (serving the Caribbean and the Gulf), and Point Reyes, CA (serving the Pacific).
All the sites have by now been razed, either for redevelopment or as nature preserves. The antennas (including this one) are mostly gone now.
Ships on the high seas still occasionally make some use of shortwave radio, but its importance has greatly diminished over the last few decades. The Coast Guard still maintains a "watch" on emergency shortwave frequencies, listening for distress calls, but most transoceanic ships are now equipped with more modern, higher-bandwidth satellite communications systems.
Places like this are what the Internet looked like a century ago. Infrastructure is often heroic, and occasionally looks the part.
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Ships on the high seas still occasionally make some use of shortwave radio, but its importance has greatly diminished over the last few decades. The Coast Guard still maintains a "watch" on emergency shortwave frequencies, listening for distress calls, but most transoceanic ships are now equipped with more modern, higher-bandwidth satellite communications systems.
Places like this are what the Internet looked like a century ago. Infrastructure is often heroic, and occasionally looks the part.
I should note that while the site (and its cousins) had a number of large discone antennas like this one, they were mostly there as backups in case the main antennas (which included truly massive wire rhombics oriented toward various oceanic regions) or transmitter combiners failed.
The old Bell System did not mess around.
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Shortwave "Discone" Antenna, AT&T High Seas Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
All the pixels, none of the risk of sea sickness or scurvy, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4141766569
@mattblaze crazy that the antenna was still standing in 2009!
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Captured with a DSLR and a 24mm shifting lens.
During the 20th century, AT&T operated a shortwave "radiotelephone" service for vessels on the high seas. Ships could contact an operator, who could connect them with any landline telephone number they wished.
The North Atlantic station, callsign WOO, occupied expansive transmit and receive "antenna farms" in marshlands near the shore in central New Jersey.
Rendered obsolete by satellites, the service ceased operation on November 9, 1999.
@mattblaze That is so interesting. Thanks for posting.
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Shortwave "Discone" Antenna, AT&T High Seas Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
All the pixels, none of the risk of sea sickness or scurvy, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4141766569
@mattblaze
Burn, baby burn! Discone inferno! Burn, baby burn.... -
Shortwave "Discone" Antenna, AT&T High Seas Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
All the pixels, none of the risk of sea sickness or scurvy, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4141766569
@mattblaze That's pretty amazing. Were you ever there on a windy day? I'm wondering if they moved about very much...
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Captured with a DSLR and a 24mm shifting lens.
During the 20th century, AT&T operated a shortwave "radiotelephone" service for vessels on the high seas. Ships could contact an operator, who could connect them with any landline telephone number they wished.
The North Atlantic station, callsign WOO, occupied expansive transmit and receive "antenna farms" in marshlands near the shore in central New Jersey.
Rendered obsolete by satellites, the service ceased operation on November 9, 1999.
@mattblaze
Had a SSB license as crew on a sailing yacht in the Caribbean, ‘71. You called on the radio and were asked your location in latitude & longitude. They focused an antenna on that location and then placed your telephone call, 2,100 miles away.
Used LORAN and another radio system that gave a bearing from counting dots and dash tones with headphones in ‘65, as return crew from Bermuda. -
I should note that while the site (and its cousins) had a number of large discone antennas like this one, they were mostly there as backups in case the main antennas (which included truly massive wire rhombics oriented toward various oceanic regions) or transmitter combiners failed.
The old Bell System did not mess around.
@mattblaze nice shot! Shifting lens to counter keystone distortion?
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Shortwave "Discone" Antenna, AT&T High Seas Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
All the pixels, none of the risk of sea sickness or scurvy, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4141766569
@mattblaze Not sure off the top of my head what the name for that type of antenna is, but it’s not a discone—there’s no cone. A discone involves a radiating disk, then a cone with its apex at the center of the disk as the counterpoise.
Still really neat history.
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