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Larry

Bruce in alaska wrote in news:fast-
:

WOM, we miss you......

and KMI as well......

--
Bruce in alaska
add path after fast to reply

One of my buddy radiomen on a nuclear boomer sub sent me a prize I still
cherish. It's a large magnetic panel about 10" long x 4" wide that
glows quite brightly in the dark, especially if charged by the UV coming
from a flourescent light.

It's a WOM operational schedule chart sent out to the radio shacks on
the ships that had accounts with WOM. It says:

AT&T High Seas Radiotelephone Service
To reach an AT&T High Seas Operator call 1-800-SEA-CALL
WOM - AT&T Coast Station - Florida

Address: AT&T Station WOM
1340 N. W. 40th Avenue
Ft Lauderdale, Florida 33313
For Technical Information Call +1-305-587-0910 Collect

Then there's a chart of the 2, 4, 8, 12 and 22 Mhz duplex channels for
all services.

Under that is the VOICE BROADCASTS on 403, 802, 1206, 1601 and 2215 with
a chart showing the times for TFC and WX. WX was only at 1300 and 2300
UTC

The bottom says:

SITOR/DSC Data
Broadcasts - NONE

Morse Data Broadcasts
Freq Carrier 4423.0 and 8746.0 Khz
Traffic Lists Continuously

Copywrite At&T 5/1991

It makes a great nightlight stuck to the door of my beer fridge next to
the computer...(c;

Back when I was a kid 9 or 10 years old, I learned Morse from WCC and
WOM on a Hallicrafters Sky Buddy on a long wire strung up through the
trees behind my bedroom in Moravia, NY. I used to copy ship traffic for
hours. WCC had trouble, one night when I was glued to my headphones,
instead of studying American History, hearing a ship that needed some
engine parts for their steam plant that was dead in the water. I rushed
out and begged my father to let me call WCC in Chatham on the phone, an
expensive proposition in the mid 1950's on New York Bell. Seeing my
excitement that I could hear them and WCC couldn't on the coast, he
relented and we made the call. WCC listened to my Sky Buddy over the
long distance phone and got the message from the ship running on low
power because I suppose her charging system was also DOA. When the guy
at WCC found out I was a little kid he got our address and sent me a
letter of commendation for my participation that said I was an honorary
WCC Morse Operator. Another letter arrived from England, from the
shipping company office of the ship, to thank me for helping procure
their parts. Even my father, who never paid much attention to my radio
station, was really impressed. Unfortunately, we never did get to
Chatham to meet the station operators and take the tour I was invited to
do. I got my ham license about a year later, breezing through the Morse
test complaining to the Novice License tester that 5 WPM was way too
slow to move ship traffic I'd been listening to. After he signed off on
my Morse skills, I showed him my WCC operator priviledges to his
amusement....(c;

Ham radio was lots more fun when I was 12. Debbie Hart (a man down the
street) helped get me my Novice license so he could get to use HIS
station once again. I used to camp out in front of his National NC-303
and Hallicrafters HT-32 KW transmitter a lot. I could find a DX station
on the receiver, tune the transmitter to match the frequency, then tune
up the big amp to full power to work him by the time I was 11. We
worked some great DX together from his station behind his house in the
horse barn's tack room on West Cayuga Street, Moravia, NY. Those old
guys ruined many boys' lives with their slick electronics and ham radio
doublespeak and Morse Code....(c;

Roger Long's grandfather, 2ABT after the stations were licensed in the
20's, was one of the real pioneers of ham radio...long before Hiram
Percy Maxim's ARRL, 1AW. Simply an amazing historical story in itself.

73 DE W4CSC

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