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Post by Matt Blaze
Matt Blaze
From the 1930's through 1999, AT&T operated a "high seas" radiotelephone service for oceangoing ships to make phone calls over shortwave radio. There were three stations on the coasts of the US: KMI (at Point Reyes, CA), WOM (near Miami), and WOO (on the Jersey shore). The stations had large fields of giant antennas tuned to accommodate changing radio conditions. AT&T discontinued the service, by then rendered obsolete by the advent of satellite telephones, on November 9, 1999.
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Matt Blaze
Sadly, all of the AT&T radiotelephone sites have by now been razed. But there's still a high seas radiotelegraph(!) site operating next door to the old AT&T site at Point Reyes. See www.radiomarine.org
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Matt Blaze
KMI, the AT&T radiotelephone site at Point Reyes, had this very spiffy sign. I didn't see anything nearly as nice at Ocean Gate, however.
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Matt Blaze
It's sometimes hard to remember how recently it was - in living memory for many of us - that trans-oceanic communication (and travel) was still somewhat exotic, unreliable, expensive, and, just a bit, romantic.
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Matt Blaze
Here’s what I believe was the last published frequency list and schedule from the AT&T high seas service.
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