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Can you identify this structure in the Palo Alto baylands? |
Travel Info as you drive north on Hwy 101 in Palo Alto, you can see a large, standalone building in the baylands. it is surrounded by a fence and a number of "telephone poles." There is an aerial photo here: http://tinyurl.com/y44ayk What is the purpose of this structure? Who owns it, and is it currently in use? If you answer, please cite references or sources. Thanks! Travel Tips Great question! I knew it was an antenna farm, but here is a link that gives the full history of KFS. Scroll down to Bay Area Landmarks: The Antenna Farm. "On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph and the code bearing his name, sent the first message by telegraph. "What hath God wrought" (from Numbers 23:23) was sent along 35 miles of steel wire from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. " ... In 1910, the Federal Telegraph Company was formed in San Francisco to build a large radio station on the beach near what is now the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. That station, call sign KFS, initially consisted of a single spark wireless transmitter for communication in Morse Code, although additional transmitters were added rapidly. ...the antennas include twelve full-wave dipoles, two inverted cones, and a loaded vertical. Seventeen transmitters were in use for CW. ... KFS was taken over by the U.S. Navy during World War I to allow communication with U.S. battleships. The station was moved in 1921 to the marsh just east of Palo Alto (the current "antenna farm"), and the San Francisco station was closed in 1927.... and sold to Mackay Cable and Wireless. In 1943, a new 50 kW transmitter was installed under the callsign KROJ and provided relay service for Voice of America. For the next 30 years, it was owned by ITT World Communications and then by KFS World Communications. In 1977, ITT transferred most of the site to Palo Alto, but retained an easement. In 1994, PA bought the easement for $370,000. In 1995, the US Coast Guard stopped listening to Morse Code distress calls. The last commercial radiotelegraph transmission in North America was made from the Palo Alto site at 2359 UTC on July 12, 1999. The final words transmitted by KFS? "What hath God wrought". What an amazing bit of history. Thanks for asking and stimulating some interesting research. Source(s): http://www.balearntofly.com/links/bay-ar... Other Travel Tips |
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