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Shortwave "Discone" Antenna, Former AT&T High Seas Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
(fedia.io)
Shortwave "Discone" Antenna, Former AT&T High Seas Transmitter Site, Ocean Gate, NJ, 2009.
All the pixels, none of the seasickness, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4141766569
#photography
I should note that while the site (and its cousins) had a number of large discone antennas like this one, they were mostly there as backups in case the main antennas (which included truly massive wire rhombics oriented toward various oceanic regions) or transmitter combiners failed.
The old Bell System did not mess around.
By the way, here's what I believe was the final published frequency list and schedule for the AT&T high seas service, (a souvenir of one of my visits to the station before it went off the air).
You'll notice that each site operated on multiple frequency pairs across the HF spectrum. This was for two reasons. First, each channel could only handle one call at a time, and so this allowed for more simultaneous traffic. Second, not all frequency bands were usable (due to atmospheric and geomagnetic conditions) at any given time. So in practice, at most half a dozen or so ships PER OCEAN could use the system at any moment.
Multiple transmitters shared the antennas using tuned combiners.
@[email protected]
part of the rabbit hole you sent me down 😂
https://www.radiomarine.org/
@[email protected] Worth a visit if you can get out there when they're operating!