This article is about the radio station located at Arlington, Virginia from 1913-1941. For the station in Cutler, Maine currently operating with the NAA call sign, see VLF Transmitter Cutler.
Arlington "three sisters" wireless towers (1913)
NAA was a major radio facility located at 701 Courthouse Road in Arlington, Virginia. It was operated by the U.S. Navy from 1913 until 1941. The station was originally constructed as the Navy's first high-powered transmitter for communicating with its bases across the U.S. and the Caribbean. During its years of operation NAA was best known for broadcasting daily time signals, however, it also provided a variety of additional services, using multiple transmitters operating on frequencies ranging from longwave to shortwave. The station also conducted extensive experimental work, including, in 1915, the Navy's first transatlantic transmission of speech.
The establishment of NAA was the first step of an ambitious U.S. military project to establish reliable long distance radio communication. (At this time radio was commonly known as "wireless telegraphy".) The site chosen for the NAA installation, which became known as "Radio, Virginia", was across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., adjacent to the Fort Myer military base in Arlington, Virginia.[1] Construction began in 1911, and the most visible feature was the free-standing towers, known as "The Three Sisters", which supported the antenna wires. The main tower reached 600 feet (180 metres), while the other two towers were 450 feet (140 metres) tall. Two additional 200-foot (61-metre) towers were constructed in 1923.[2]
Arlington was the first station in a proposed "High-Powered Chain" that would link the U.S. capital with much of the rest of the world. The initial transmitter was a 100 kilowatt rotary-spark, designed by Reginald Fessenden. Test transmissions that began in November 1912 were promising enough to convince the U.S. Congress to finance the construction of similar stations at San Diego, California, Darien in the Panama Canal Zone, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Cavite in the Philippines.[3]
The Lincoln Memorial dedication ceremonies on May 30, 1922 were the first to be carried by two radio stations simultaneously—NAA and NOF in Anacostia, D.C.
Shortly after the NAA installation was completed, the Federal Telegraph Company got grudging permission to install one of its 35 kilowatt Poulsen arc transmitters, for comparative tests with the rotary-spark transmitter. To the surprise of Navy personnel, even though the arc transmitter had only about half the power, it was found to be clearly superior. As a result, arc transmitters would be installed at the other high-powered stations, and they became the standard for naval installations until the development of vacuum tube transmitters in the early 1920s.[4] However, the Fessenden spark transmitter remained in use until July 8, 1923, when it was replaced by a vacuum tube transmitter.[5]
From its inception in 1913 NAA was used to transmit daily time signals, which were supplied by the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Accurate timekeeping was critical for ocean navigation, since an error in a ship's chronometer of even a few minutes could result in the vessel dangerously miscalculating its position. U.S. Navy radio stations had begun daily broadcasts of time signals in 1905, however due to their low power these station's transmission ranges were limited.[6] NAA's high-powered signal meant it could be heard over a much greater area, covering much of the eastern United States and Atlantic ocean.[7]
In addition to mariners, the time signals soon found two appreciative civilian audiences: amateur radio operators, interested in a practical benefit from their hobby, and jewelers, who previously had been reliant on time services transmitted over telegraph wires, which had a reputation for being both expensive and of questionable reliability, especially compared to the free and very accurate NAA transmissions.[8]
NAA's original transmitters were only capable of producing the dots-and-dashes of Morse code. The later development of vacuum tube transmitters made audio transmissions practical, and in 1915 the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) received permission from the Navy to conduct a series of tests at the NAA facility. These experimental transmissions set impressive new audio distance records, and were heard as far west as Hawaii.[9] They were also received in Paris, France, which marked the first transmission of speech across the Atlantic.[10]
With the entrance of the United States into World War I in April 1917 the federal government took over full control of the radio industry, and it became illegal for civilians to possess an operational radio receiver. However NAA continued to operate during the conflict. In addition to time signals and weather reports, it also broadcast news summaries received by troops on land[11] and aboard ships in the Atlantic.[12] Effective April 15, 1919 the ban on civilian reception of radio signals was lifted, so NAA's time signal transmissions were again available to the general public.[13]
Broadcasting service
NAA Transmissions as of January 31, 1928
The transmitting schedules of Washington (Arlington (NAA)), exclusive of radiotelephone broadcast on 434.5 meters, 690kc., are as follows: 8.15 a.m.—Special aviation weather on 74.7 meters, 4,015kc., 37.4 meters, 8,030kc.; 24.9 meters, 12,045kc. 10 a.m.—Marine weather—Major bulletin on 2,677 meters, 112kc.; and 18.6 meters, 16,060 kc., followed by ice reports (in season) on 2,677 meters, 112kc. 11 a.m.—Angot message on 24.9 meters, 12,045kc. 11.55 a.m.—Time on 2,677 meters, 112kc.; 74.7 meters, 4,015kc., 37.4 meters, 8,030kc.; 24.9 meters, 12,045kc. 12 (noon).—Navigational warnings on 2,677 meters, 112kc. 8.15 p.m.—Special aviation weather on 74.7 meters, 4,015kc. 9.55 p.m.—Time on 2,677 meters, 112kc., 74.7 meters, 4,015kc., 37.4 meters, 8,030kc.; 24.9 meters, 12,045kc. 10 p.m.—Marine weather—Major bulletin, followed by ice reports (in season) and navigational warnings on 8,328 meters, 36kc. (this wave length is discontinued at 11 p.m.), and 2,677 meters, 112kc. 11 p.m.—Angot message on 74.7 meters, 4,015kc. All times given are eastern standard. Time, weather, and navigational warnings are sent on a.c.w.[14]
Beginning in 1920, a Navy station located in Anacostia, D.C., NOF, began broadcasting occasional entertainment programs. After installing a vacuum tube transmitter, NAA soon followed with a limited schedule of its own. On May 30, 1922 NAA and NOF jointly broadcast the ceremonies held at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial,[15] which was the first time that two stations simultaneously transmitted the same program.
In late 1922 it was decided that NOF would focus on experimental work, and effective January 3, 1923 all of its former broadcasts were transferred to NAA. A special 1.5 kilowatt transmitter had been built at Anacostia for the new operation,[16] and an announcement at the time described the programming that would be now be carried over NAA:
"The broadcasting service of NOF has been taken over by station NAA, United States Navy Department, Arlington, or Radio, Virginia. In addition to the transmission of time signals, news items, crop and market reports, weather forecasts, naval business, communications for the Signal Corps and speeches of celebrities, which NAA has been broadcasting, there will be serviced by NAA the concerts of the Marine and Navy Bands, and educational information originating with the Public Health Service, Veterans' Bureau, Children's Bureau, Bureau of Education and Department of Commerce. NAA operates on 710 meters [422 kHz], Eastern Standard Time. The Marine Band Concerts are scheduled for Mondays at 4:30 P.M. and Wednesdays at 8:30 P.M. and the Navy Band Concerts for Fridays at 8:30 P.M."[17]
The "broadcasting boom" of 1922 resulted in a tremendous increase, to over 500, in the number of private radio broadcasting stations operating in the United States. During this developmental period there was an ongoing search for innovative programming, and a number of stations began picking up NAA's twice-a-day longwave time signal transmissions, at noon and 10 p.m. Eastern time, and rebroadcasting them for their local audiences.[18]
Effective May 15, 1923 the Department of Commerce, which regulated civilian radio in the United States from late 1912 until the mid-1920s, announced that there would be a major expansion in the number of frequencies made available for broadcasting. As part of this allocation NAA was assigned exclusive use of 690kHz, which meant persons who didn't have radios that tuned to NAA's longwave frequencies could now pick up the station on standard receivers.
NAA antenna structure configuration (1923)
By 1923, NAA had six transmitters in operation, providing, in addition to time signals and military communication, weather reports and navigational warnings.[20] Station listings from 1926 to 1936 report that the NAA's transmitter on 690kHz was rated at 1,000 watts. Over the years NAA eliminated its entertainment broadcasts, and the time signal broadcasts on 690kHz were ended in 1936.[21] After this time signals continued to be sent, most commonly on a longwave frequency of 113kHz and the shortwave frequency of 9.425MHz. In the mid-1930s NAA was paired with NSS in Annapolis, Maryland to make joint transmissions, with both stations automatically controlled by the Washington observatory.[22]
Decommission
By the late 1930s many of the activities conducted at NAA had been transferred to other sites, and it was decided that the Arlington operations were no longer needed. In anticipation of the shutdown, in 1938 three new 600-foot towers, similar in design to the main NAA towers, were erected for NSS at Annapolis.[23] There were also plans to build a new airport near the NAA site, which opened in 1941 as National Airport, so it was agreed that the NAA radio towers would be torn down because they posed a hazard to aircraft.[24]
In preparation for the decommissioning, transfers were made of transmitting equipment to NSS Annapolis and receiving equipment to NSS Cheltenham, Maryland.[25] In January 1941 bids were solicited for tearing down the "three sisters" towers.[26] The contract to raze the towers was awarded to the Long Island Machinery & Equipment Company, Inc., whose winning bid was only $1.[27] The demolition was completed that summer, ending nearly 30 years that NAA had been at the site. Beginning in 1945, WWV, a National Bureau of Standards station in nearby Greenbelt, Maryland, became the primary station broadcasting time signals in the United States. The NAA transmitter building and the original NAA administrative building at 701 Courthouse Rd in Arlington are still in use by the Navy for administrative functions unrelated to radio.
Related Research Articles
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz ; above the medium frequency band (MF), to the bottom of the VHF band.
AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave transmissions, but also on the longwave and shortwave radio bands.
Low frequency (LF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 30–300 kHz. Since its wavelengths range from 10–1 km, respectively, it is also known as the kilometre band or kilometre waves.
In radio, longwave, long wave or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave broadcasting band. The term is historic, dating from the early 20th century, when the radio spectrum was considered to consist of longwave (LW), medium-wave (MW), and short-wave (SW) radio bands. Most modern radio systems and devices use wavelengths which would then have been considered 'ultra-short'.
WWV is a shortwave radio station, located near Fort Collins, Colorado. It has broadcast a continuous time signal since 1945, and implements United States government frequency standards, with transmitters operating on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz. WWV is operated by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under the oversight of its Time and Frequency Division, which is part of NIST's Physical Measurement Laboratory based in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
JJY is the call sign of a low frequency time signal radio station located in Japan.
WHA is a non-commercial radio station, licensed since 1922 to the University of Wisconsin and located in Madison, Wisconsin. It serves as the flagship for the Wisconsin Public Radio talk-based "Ideas Network". WHA's programming is also broadcast by FM station WERN in Madison. The station airs a schedule of news and talk programs from Wisconsin Public Radio, NPR, American Public Media, Public Radio International, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC.
Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization.
The longwave transmitter Raszyn is a longwave broadcasting transmitter near Raszyn, Poland. It was built in 1931 and rebuilt in 1949. The designer of the mast is unknown. It has been claimed that the rebuilt tower consists of sections from the radio mast of former Deutschlandsender Herzberg/Elster; however, there is no proof of this theory. The mast of the Raszyn longwave transmitter was, at inauguration, the second-tallest man-made structure on earth and until 1962, with a height of 335 metres, the tallest structure in Europe. The tower's height is 1,099 feet.
The Droitwich transmitting station is a large broadcasting facility for long-wave and medium-wave transmissions, established in 1934 in the civil parish of Dodderhill, just outside the village of Wychbold, near Droitwich in Worcestershire, England. The site is the location of the British Broadcasting Corporation's most powerful long-wave transmitter, which together with the two Scottish long-wave transmitters at Burghead and Westerglen forms a network broadcasting on the same frequency. The masts can be seen to the east from the M5 motorway, between Droitwich and Bromsgrove, as well as to the west from the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border. At night, the two sets of aircraft warning lights are visible from a long distance. The station is owned and operated by Arqiva.
Grimeton Radio Station in southern Sweden, close to Varberg in Halland, is an early longwave transatlantic wireless telegraphy station built in 1922–1924, that has been preserved as a historical site. From the 1920s through the 1940s it was used to transmit telegram traffic by Morse code to North America and other countries, and during World War II was Sweden's only telecommunication link with the rest of the world. It is the only remaining example of an early pre-electronic radio transmitter technology called an Alexanderson alternator. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004, with the statement: "Grimeton Radio Station, Varberg is an exceptionally well preserved example of a type of telecommunication centre, representing the technological achievements by the early 1920s, as well as documenting the further development over some three decades." The radio station is also an anchor site for the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The transmitter is still in operational condition, and each year on a day called Alexanderson Day is started up and transmits brief Morse code test transmissions, which can be received all over Europe.
WGY is a commercial radio station licensed to Schenectady, New York, carrying a news/talk format which is simulcast full-time over WGY-FM. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves Albany, Troy and the Capital District of New York, and is a clear-channel station with extended nighttime range. WGY is one of the first stations in the United States and the oldest to operate continuously in New York State, having launched on February 20, 1922.
NSS Annapolis, officially known as Naval Communications Station Washington, D.C. Transmitter or NavCommStaWashingtonDC(T), was a Very Low Frequency (VLF) and High Frequency (HF) transmitter station operated by the United States Navy.
ABC Radio Perth is the on-air identifier of a radio station located in Perth, Western Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and broadcasting at 720 kHz AM. It is the flagship ABC Local Radio station in Western Australia. The station was established under the Sealed Set scheme by Westralian Farmers in 1924, sold to the Commonwealth Government in 1928 and provided with programmes by the Australian Broadcasting Company, became part of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1932, which became the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1983.
Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connected to an antenna which radiates the waves. They are received by another antenna connected to a radio receiver. In addition to communication, radio is used for radar, radio navigation, remote control, remote sensing, and other applications.
WJY was a temporary longwave radio station, located in Hoboken, New Jersey and operated by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which was used on July 2, 1921, for a ringside broadcast of the Dempsey-Carpentier heavyweight boxing match.
NOF was one of the call signs used in the 1920s by a radio station located at the Naval Air Station in Anacostia, D.C. This call sign was used when the station was making general and experimental broadcasts, while the call sign NSF was generally used when the station was conducting regular business. From 1920 to 1922 the Anacostia station was the primary radio outlet employed by the U.S. government for making public broadcasts. However, in early 1923 responsibility for these programs was transferred to station NAA in Arlington, Virginia, and the Anacostia station returned to generally being used for research, thus primarily using the NSF call sign. However, a few public demonstrations, most notably Charles Jenkins' mid-1920s television experiments, were later conducted under the NOF call sign.
WDW was a very short-lived AM broadcasting station, licensed to the Radio Construction & Electric Co. in Washington, D.C., which was issued an initial license in December 1921, and deleted a few months later.
WOO was an AM band radio station, which was operated by the Wanamaker Department Store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from early 1922 until mid-1928.
The Sainte-Assise transmitter is a very low frequency (VLF) radio transmitter and military installation located on the grounds of the Château de Sainte-Assise in the communes of Seine-Port, Boissise-la-Bertrand, and Cesson in the Seine-et-Marne department of the Île-de-France region of France. The transmitter's original equipment was inaugurated on 9 January 1921, at the time being the most powerful radio transmitter on Earth. On 26 November 1921 the first French radio program was transmitted from Sainte-Assise. In 1965 the transmitter was used to send VLF signals to FR-1, the first French satellite. Since 1998 the French Navy has used the transmitter to communicate with submerged submarines.
↑ "Development of the High-Powered Chain", History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy by Captain Linwood S. Howeth, USN (Retired), 1963, pp. 221–225.
↑ "Camp Jackson Has Its Own Daily Newspaper", The State (Columbia, South Carolina), March 25, 1918, p. 3. This article's sub-headline reads: "Gets Messages From Arlington and in a Few Minutes Copies Are Posted on One Hundred and Thirty-five Bulletin Boards at the Camp".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
