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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment. |
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16th May 2021, 11:00 pm | #1 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Fakenham, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 4,259
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Cooling Radio Station, Hoo Peninsula, Kent
Not my field at all, so I don't know if the document is widely familiar, but I chanced upon the 82 page PDF of Historic England's comprehensive researches into many aspects of the planning, design, construction, use, later modifications and present state (in 2010) of this listening station, built in 1938 to accommodate the Multiple Unit Steerable Antenna (MUSA) system. It seems not to have been mentioned here before.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...ARHcqZeZ5pxeeh Paul |
17th May 2021, 6:06 am | #2 |
Hexode
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Helston, Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 304
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Re: Cooling Radio Station, Hoo Peninsula, Kent
Interesting, thank you for posting. The company I used to work for supplied high accuracy positioners and software to CSA wireless for antenna development.
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18th May 2021, 11:54 am | #3 |
Pentode
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Crewkerne, Somerset, UK.
Posts: 114
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Re: Cooling Radio Station, Hoo Peninsula, Kent
The station at Cooling is also discussed in the book 'Point to Point', by Paul M Hawkins which has the self-explanatory sub title, 'A History of International Telecommunications During the Radio Years'.
The book deals specifically with point to point communications as opposed to broadcasting and it is a most interesting commentary on the development of communications in the early part of the last century. We take for granted the ease and simplicity of making an international telephone call today, but in 1927, the cost of a three minute telephone call to New York on one of the two available wireless routes was £15.00 for three minutes. According to Mr Hawkins, however, the service was so popular that on its first day it was extended well beyond the scheduled close down time of 6pm! By 1929 the service was providing an average of 45 calls per day with a duration of 6 minutes. How times have changed! My father spent all of his post-war working life in 'Overseas Telegraphs' with Cable and Wireless and the Post Office, firstly with morse, and then Telex, so I grew up knowing a little about communications routes and the modes of transmission for international messaging. It all seems to belong to another age now, but developments -like the MUSA at Cooling- represent hugely important steps on the road to where we are now. Well done to English Heritage for recording this bit of history and to folk like Paul Hawkins for their own personal recollections as well. Paul's book is published by New Generation Publishing and has the ISBN of 978-1-78719-627-8 Jim Farrant M0GJD |
18th May 2021, 12:40 pm | #4 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Newmarket, Suffolk, UK.
Posts: 613
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Re: Cooling Radio Station, Hoo Peninsula, Kent
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