WCC was the busiest coast station in the public ship-to-shore radio service for most of the 20th century.
Station history
In 1914, inventor
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italians, Italian inventor and electrical engineering, electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegrap ...
sought a more permanent solution to his weather-induced radio station woes on
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
. This need was made manifest by the damage and destruction wrought by nature at his
original 1903 South Wellfleet location. The erosion and wind damage suffered by Marconi's first Cape Cod station continues to this day. Almost the entirety of the historic station is now long gone over the cliffs onto the beach and into the waters of the Atlantic below.
![Remains of the Marconi Station in Wellfleet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Remains_of_the_Marconi_Station_in_Wellfleet.jpg)
Marconi realized that a permanent presence would require a more inland and somewhat sheltered location. So it was that Marconi's
Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America
The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (commonly called American Marconi) was incorporated in 1899. It was established as a subsidiary of the British Marconi Company and held the U.S. and Cuban rights to Guglielmo Marconi's radio (then ...
built his new trans-oceanic
receiver station in Chatham and its companion high power trans-oceanic transmitter station forty miles to the west in
Marion, Massachusetts
Marion is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,347 at the 2020 census.
For geographic and demographic information on the village of Marion Center, please see the article Marion Center, Massachusetts.
His ...
through a contract with J.G. White Engineering Corp.
In 1920, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America sold the Chatham and Marion stations to the
Radio Corporation of America
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
. RCA removed all remaining Marconi equipment from the Chatham receiver station and converted it to a public coast station for communications with ships at sea. In 1921 Chatham was licensed under the callsign WCC for communications on 500 kHz, 750 kHz and 1 MHz. In 1922 RCA moved the WCC radio transmitters to the Marion transmitter station to eliminate co-site interference to the sensitive receivers at Chatham. In 1929 WCC Marion began operations on maritime HF frequencies (6, 8, 12, 16 and 22 MHz).
In 1948, the WCC marine radio transmitter equipment was moved from Marion Station to RCA's newly built oceanfront transmitter station on Forest Beach Road in
South Chatham, Massachusetts. The U.S. Air Force continued to use the
Alexanderson alternator
An Alexanderson alternator is a rotating machine invented by Ernst Alexanderson in 1904 for the generation of high-frequency alternating current for use as a radio transmitter. It was one of the first devices capable of generating the continuou ...
at Marion Station for weather and other broadcasts to its air base in
Thule
Thule ( grc-gre, Θούλη, Thoúlē; la, Thūlē) is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek and Latin literature, Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shet ...
, Greenland and other arctic locations through 1957 under the callsign AFA2.
In 1951, RCA sold Marion Station to the U.S. Government and the U.S General Services Administration sold it to a private investor in 1960. Most of the 143 acres that comprised the Marion Station was donated to the Sippican Lands Trust in 1986 and is publicly accessible
Radio Tower Property
In 1988, RCA Global Communications sold the WCC stations to Western Union International, a subsidiary of
MCI Communications
MCI Communications Corp. (originally Microwave Communications, Inc.) was a telecommunications company headquartered in Washington, D.C. that was at one point the second-largest long-distance provider in the United States.
MCI was instrument ...
, as part of the breakup of RCA. In 1993 WCC became a remotely controlled station, using fiber optic cable to receive signals, transmit signals and issue such commands such as selecting and rotating directional antennas. Even the keying of Morse Code (CW) and
Radioteletype
Radioteletype (RTTY) is a telecommunications system consisting originally of two or more electromechanical teleprinters in different locations connected by radio rather than a wired link. Radioteletype evolved from earlier landline teleprinter o ...
(RTTY) was issued remotely at this early date in the public internet's infancy. WCC was operated from
KPH Radio in
Point Reyes, California
Point Reyes (, meaning "Point of the Kings") is a prominent cape and popular Northern California tourist destination on the Pacific coast. Located in Marin County, it is approximately west-northwest of San Francisco. The term is often applied ...
until its closing.
In 1999, MCI/Worldcom sold the WCC receiver station in Chatham and the transmitter station on Forest Beach Road in South Chatham — nearly 100 acres in total — to the town of Chatham for a fraction of their value.
The
Chatham receiver station is now the
Chatham Marconi Maritime Center
The Chatham Marconi Maritime Center is a maritime communication history and STEM education center. Chatham Marconi includes the
Marconi/RCA-Wireless Museum featuring interactive exhibits, an Education Center offering workshops for children and fam ...
, and the home of
amateur radio station
An amateur radio station is a radio station designed to provide radiocommunications in the amateur radio service for an amateur radio operator. Radio amateurs build and operate several types of amateur radio stations, including fixed ground sta ...
WA1WCC, licensed to the WCC Amateur Radio Association. The South Chatham transmitter station is now preserved in its entirely as the Forest Beach Conservation Area by the town of Chatham
The callsign WCC is now used b
Globe Wirelessby a
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
station it operates to transmit automated e-mail-by-radio.
Chatham station was the subject of the
Mooncusser Films
Mooncusser Films, LLC is the film and video production company founded by documentary producer/director Christopher Seufert. Notable projects include cinema verité films with alterna-folk musician Suzanne Vega, the late illustrator Edward Gorey, ...
documentary ''Chatham Radio: WCC the Untold Story'', narrated by
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
and directed by
Christopher Seufert
Christopher Seufert (born 1967) is a documentary film producer and director, and photographer based in Chatham, Massachusetts. His production company is Mooncusser Films.
His film work has appeared on HBO, VH-1, the Discovery Channel, the Histor ...
.
Historic contacts
*1928: communication with
Richard E. Byrd
Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957) was an American naval officer and explorer. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for valor given by the United States, and was a pioneering American aviator, p ...
's first South Pole expedition
*1929: communication with the ''
Graf Zeppelin'' during world's first around-the-world trip by air
*1933: sends weather information to
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...
*1937: possible last communication with the ''
Hindenburg'' prior to explosion
*1961: communication with ''
Santa Maria'' (callsign CSAL) during hijacking
See also
*
Marconi Wireless Station Site (South Wellfleet, Massachusetts)
The Marconi Wireless Station Site in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts, is the site of the first transatlantic wireless communication between the United States and Europe, on January 18, 1903. At this location, now part of the Cape Cod National Seas ...
— first station site, at
Cape Cod National Seashore
The Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS), created on August 7, 1961, by President John F. Kennedy, encompasses on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. It includes ponds, woods and beachfront of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion. The CCNS includes ...
*
Marconi-RCA Wireless Receiving Station — Chatham station site
**
Chatham Marconi Maritime Center
The Chatham Marconi Maritime Center is a maritime communication history and STEM education center. Chatham Marconi includes the
Marconi/RCA-Wireless Museum featuring interactive exhibits, an Education Center offering workshops for children and fam ...
— the museum now at the Chatham station site
*
Coast radio station
A coast (or coastal) radio station (short: coast station) is an on-shore maritime radio station which may monitor radio distress frequencies and relays ship-to-ship and ship-to-land communications.
A coast station (also: '' coast radio station ...
*
KPH (radio)
KPH is a coast radio station on the Pacific Coast of the United States. For most of the 20th century, it provided ship to shore communications including telegrams (using Morse code) and marine telex service (using radioteletype). The station di ...
*
Marconi station
A list of early wireless telegraphy radio stations of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. Guglielmo Marconi developed the first practical radio transmitters and receivers between 1895 and 1901. His company, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph ...
(general list)
References
{{Reflist
External links
WCC Amateur Radio Association, operating WA1WCC from the WCC site
CC
Shortwave radio stations in the United States
Coast radio stations
Defunct radio stations in the United States