The Telegraph Office

Wireless PhotoGallery

by Neal McEwen, K5RW

k5rw@telegraph-office.com

Last updated 10 November 1999

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Welcome to the Wireless Photo Gallery, a special feature of the Telegraph Office. Presented here are priceless old photos of very early wireless installations, both on ship and on shore. Most of the photos are from the pre-1920 period. Special thanks to Will Jensby of the Perham foundation and Harry Lord, ex 8WY for providing many of the photos.

Shipboard Installations

Wireless room of SS Oduna, KDID: Notice IP-501 receiver and 2 KW Federal arc transmitter. This ship was one belonging to the Alaska Steamship Co.
USS Cheyenne, wireless room, 1916: Looking forward to port side. Notice mat for operator to sleep on when needed. There are two large keys to the right.
USS Nero, wireless room, 1916: Notice IP-76 receiver and quenched gap transmitter. The gap is on the front panel.
Wireless room of ship with call letter WJDF: Notice the "mill" (an all caps typewriter) for copying radiograms.
Wireless operating room of unknown ship of South American registry: Notice calendar in Spanish, February 1920. Pancake tuner in upper part of photo.
Quenched gap transmitter and Navy type receivers: c. 1920, ship unknown.
(NEW) Radio Room of WGAO: c. 1940 on S.S. Koolmotor, a Cities Service tanker. Note RMCA equipment.

Shore Installations

Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 1914: Building 273. Notice the IP-76 double decker receiver
Station at San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1905: The operator is G. S. Iradell. He is using a DeForest station with the "pancake" receiver.
Unknown, 1904: Notice the receiver in one room and the transmitter in the back room. This was common.
Unknown: Notice the clock on the wall. It has the silent periods at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour marked for 600 Meter watches.
Early U. S. Navy Communications photo: circa 1918, notice the DeForest detector, Western Electric amplifier and automated Continental Morse code transmitter!
W.W.II era listening post: Notice the newspaper headline -- "Blitzkrieg England". This pretty well dates the photo!
(NEW) Staff of WSO / WCC: c. 1920, RCA Cape Cod site. Ted McElroy in photo.
(NEW) RCA Operator: c. 1922, note RCA 106 receiver and 2 KW spark PSA Panel transmitter. (photo from RCA license manual)

Amateur Installations

Station at 8WY, Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, c. 1920: Note tubular audions, loose coupler and Grebe receiver. Station assembled by Harry and Bruce Lord.
Station at 8WY: c. 1916, Notice rotary gap sitting on top of large spark transformer in upper right.
Station at 8WY: c. 1921, note tube transmitter to the right. Detail of 20 Watt tube transmitter.

Equipment

Federal Arc Receiver: Tunes 15-30 Kilohertz
Federal Arc Transmitter, 30 KW: Type 100017, c. W.W.I
Federal Arc Transmitter: Brought from Denmark by Elwell. Later kept by Leonard Fuller.
RCA Transmitter ET-3627: Transmitter on 175 to 350 meters, using CW or ICW. It ran UV-211 oscillator and a pair of UV-211 in the final amplifier. c. 1925

Wireless Operators

Jack Phillips: Radio Office John George "Jack" Phillips, senior wireless operator on RMS. Titanic. He lost his life when the Titanic sank April 14, 1912.
Unknown Operator: Notice the bug. It appears to be a SPEED-X
Ted McElroy and the staff at WCC / WSO, Cape Cod, 1921.
Karl Orth, c. 1920s, one of the founders of the VWOA. Can you identify the equipment? See Karl's license. These photos from the VWOA home page.
Harry Lord, Radio Officer, in white hat, upper right: c. 1918 -1920.

Paper

RCA wireless advertisement, 1921: "Radio Links The Continents"
(NEW) RCA License Manual, 1922: details of Amateur and Commercial license requirements.

The Telegraph Office

Wireless PhotoGallery

by Neal McEwen, K5RW

For more information, visit the Telegraph Office home page

Neal McEwen, k5rw@telegraph-office.com