Where was the AT&T radio station in 1942 in New York?

Upvote:5

A Fourmilab web page (not Fermilab mind you) has information on the system. They quote from a page at the Antique Wireless Association (although I cannot locate that page):

Cooling Radio Station was at the UK end of a point-to-point, shortwave signal beamed from Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The site of the station was carefully selected as the antenna, MUSA (Multiple Unit Steerable Antenna), upon which it depended to receive the incoming transmission, had to be: directly aligned with Lawrenceville NJ, USA; two miles long; comprised of an array of 16 individual rhombic antenna; and have an area of three miles in front of the MUSA that would be free from radio interference

They also link to a Bell System Technical Journal article about the system if you are interested in the technical details.

So, the antennas were in Lawrenceville, NJ (about midway between Trenton and Princeton) and most certainly would not have fit in New York City. A Princeton Online link has some information about the Lawrenceville site, as does the Hopewell History Project.

Upvote:7

The A3-scrambled signals were carried by the ordinary civilian telephone network (AT&T and GPO in the US and UK), and the SIGSALY messages were carried by the military communications network (in particular, the US Army Signal Corps), which used different physical facilities. But of course some of these facilities might have been leased from the phone company.

For the telephone network: the transmitting rhombic antenna array was in Lawrenceville, NJ and the receiving array was in Netcong, NJ and later Manahawkin, NJ. I believe the corresponding UK antennas were in Baldock. The ground links were carried by AT&T and GPO long distance land lines. Thus: White House to the Washington DC long distance operator, who connected to 24 Walker Street in Manhattan where the transatlantic switching took place, then to Lawrenceville, then via radio to Baldock, then wire to a switch in London, and so to 10 Downing Street, and similarly back to the White House, but via Netcong.

A detailed summary of the AT&T side of things, from the pre-rhombic era, is in a paper Transoceanic Telephone Service-Short-Wave Stations Planning and Construction of a Short-Wave Radio System by F.A. Cowan, an AT&T big-wig.

I will dig up my references and supply sources in the near future.

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