WLF -- WLC Central Radio Telegraph Company By: Robert F. Crittendon, Manager 1922-1962 The radio station at Rogers City which was originally owned and operated by the Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company is serving ships, shipping interests, and the general public for the twenty-fifth consecutive season and is probably the oldest station in point of continuous service on the Great Lakes. This is actually the twenty-sixth season of operation but the first season the station was not open to the general public. The first equipment was installed and licensed for operation during May 1922. The original call-letters assigned were WCAF and the hours of operation were from 7:00 a. m until 11:00 p. m. During 1922 the station was operated as a "private station" and was licensed to communicate with ships of the Bradley Transportation Company, Wyandotte Transportation Company and Boland & Cornelius. The equipment was installed by R. F. Crittendon under the supervision of C. R. Fisher, Chief Electrical Engineer, and the first full time radio operator was A. J. Leszinske who remained with the company for 23 years. Mr. Fisher was vitally interested in the development of radio and visualized the importance of communication with ships on the Great Lakes. He was directly responsible for a station being established at Rogers City. The first transmitter was a Half kilowatt spark set which was purchased as Navy surplus material after the first world war. The modern vacuum tube transmitter had not made its appearance on the Great Lakes at that time. It was soon learned that the half kilowatt transmitter was inadequate, and a program of increasing the power was started almost immediately and that same little transmitter probably took the worst beating of any piece of radio equipment ever used on the lakes. The first step was to replace the half kilowatt generator, which furnished power to the transmitter, with a five kilowatt machine. Then came the problem of increasing the power of the transmitter itself. This was done in stages, each successive increase being tried very cautiously for a few days to see whether or not it could take it. The final compromise was four kilowatts which looked like about the limit as it had become necessary to keep a 16 inch cooling fan going continuously to keep from burning up the equipment, and even with the fan going it was necessary to shut down occasionally and let it cool off. Knowing that eventually something would fail if that type of operation continued, it was decided that more suitable equipment would have to be installed. Vacuum tube transmitters for ship-shore communication were being constructed in very limited numbers at that time, although they had not yet made their appearance on the lakes. It was learned that a combination 1000 watt radiotelegraph (wireless) 500 Watt radiotelephone transmitter which was being manufactured by the Radiomarine Corporation of America was available on a rental basis. This was during the latter part of 1922 and arrangements were made to install this equipment in the station with a microphone extension being installed in the office of C. B. Willard, Traffic Manager. This arrangement constituted the first ship-shore radiotelephone station on the Great Lakes. A duplicate of the Rogers City equipment, except that it was rated at 500 watts radiotelegraph, 250 watts radiotelephone, was installed on the Steamer Carl D. Bradley (present name John G. Munson. In 1923 the Str. B. H. Taylor was equipped with an exact duplicate of the transmitter at Rogers City. During the period 1922, 1923 and 1924 there were approximately 15 or 20 ships equipped with radiotelephone. The transmission of voice by radio was an innovation at that time, even in the broadcast field, and the quality of transmission could not be compared with that of today. Neither was there a variety of frequencies, or channels, to be used as desired, but it was still possible to carry on a perfectly understandable conversation most of the time. However, it was not possible to cover as much distance in the daytime as can be done with the frequencies being used today. In addition to the ship-shone radiotelephone operation during 1922-23, some experimental broadcasting was done and the late Congressman Fred Bradley was the announcer. Phonograph records were the order of the day except on one or two occasions when the services of St. John's Lutheran Church of Rogers City were broadcast. Many very favorable comments were received on the quality of these broadcasts. However, the Lakes were not ready for radiotelephone at this time and ship-to-shore telephone was discontinued at Rogers City until 1941. During World War 1 the Navy took over all of the coastal stations and continued to operate them after the war until the winter of 1922-23 at which time the stations were closed and this left the lakes without shore station facilities. The communication companies who had operated shore stations prior to the war appeared to have lost interest in the lakes and as the 1923 navigation season approached it looked as if there would be no stations with which radio equipped ship could communicate. At this time some of the vessel operators requested that the Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company open their station to the public and give their ships at least one shore station outlet. The Limestone Company agreed to do so and an application was filed for a general public license. The application was granted and since that time the station has been open to all who cared to use it. When the station was opened to the public the call letters were changed from WCAF to WHT, as it was customary for all public service stations to be assigned three letter calls. It was a known fact even at that early date that no station could adequately serve the entire lakes at all times although it was generally understood that Rogers City, due to its central location, could give the most consistent coverage and would be able to serve more ships than would be possible from any other location. With the thought in mind for giving lake wide coverage, a plan was formulated for opening more stations. Inquiry revealed the fact that the Intercity Radio Telegraph Company had been operating a chain of point-to-point stations around the lakes but had found the venture unprofitable and had been forced to discontinue operations. One of these stations had been located in the Hotel Cleveland at Cleveland and it was further learned that the equipment was still being held by the Hotel for financial reasons. The owner of the equipment, Emil J. Simon of New York, was contacted and he agreed to reopen the station for ship service providing his obligations to the Hotel were satisfied and his equipment released. Satisfactory arrangements were made to satisfy the Hotel and tne station was opened for service early in 1923. The Cleveland station was the first of a chain of stations which eventually included Buffalo, Chicago, Duluth Detroit and Marquette. The Marquette station never geally got into operation as the Inter-City Company failed again and their stations closed in 1930. During the time the Inter-City stations were operating, Point-to-Point and Marine Relay radio circuits were maintained between Rogers City and Buffilo, Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit and Marine Relay only with Duluth. When the Inter-City stations closed arrangements were made with the Radiomarine Corporation of America, who had also established stations at Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Duluth, to handle traffic with Rogers City. The Point-to-point and Marine Relay circuits gave the users excellent service as compared with the wire telegraph systems and the eventual closing of the Duluth and Chicago stations and the ban of Point-to-Point communication which went into effect June 30, 1942 has been a distinct blow to communication of the Great Lakes. Messages that used to he deliverod by radio in a matter of five or ten minutes after receipt, how require any where from 30 minutes to two hours or more by telegraph. In many cases, depending upon the urgency of the traffic, or upon standing orders with the customer, messages are delivered by telephone, and even telephoning requires more time than it used to take by radio. It was hoped that Point-to Point communication would be permitted again after the war but it is quite evident that it will not. In 1924 a 5 kilowatt spark transmitter was installed in the same building with the plant telephone equipment. This transmitter usually operated at from 10 to 12 kilowatts instead of its rated 5 kilowatts. Talking over a land telephone located any place near the transmitter or its associated antenna was anything but pleasant, as the telephone wires, which were not in lead cable those days, became highly charged with electricity which made it very difficult to hear. If the humidity happened to be quite high and you got your mouth too close to the telephone, sparks would jump right out into your face. This happened several times to Mr. Carl D. Bradley, who was president of the Company at that time and on each occasion Mr. Bradley issued orders that the station must be closed immediately. But each time someone would convince him that corrective measures would be taken and he would permit operation to continue. The antenna for this transmitter was supported by two steel smoke stacks. One day it was necessary to change the stack guy wire anchors. The workmen got the guys loose but found that they were so wavily charged they could not secure them again until the transmitter was shut down. Spark transmitters were very unsatisfactory during periods of heavy static. They were also very inefficient from a power consumption standpoint. Vacuum tube transmitters were available in limited numbers but the price of the equipment was almost prohibitive so it was decided to build a transmitter and the services of an engineer from the National Bureau of Standards were secured for this purpose. The component parts for a transmitter were assembled breadboard style, using the 500 cycle spark set generatoy as a power supply. The transmitter was tested and it worked very well. The electrical circuit used was very simple and was ideally suited for converting spark equipment to vacuum tube. Prior to the time that radiotelephone replaced the radiotelegraph equipment, the majority of the ships had converted their old spark sets to vacuum tube, using this same circuit. The first coastal station, aside from Rogers City, to use this type transmitter was the Inter-City station in the Cleveland Hotel. The installation was made under the supervision of Rogers City personnel and was completed during the night of June 28, 1924, which was also the date of the Lorain storm which is so well remembered by the people of Lorain as well as crew members of ships who happened to be in Lorain at that time. The construction of the transmitter used by the Reiss Steamship Company station at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, was also supervised by a member of the Rogers City staff. This equipment eventually went on one of the Reiss ships. In 1925 an experimental license was granted the station for experimentation on high frequencies, which are more commonly known to the average user on the lakes as long range channels. This was the first experimental work done on the Great Lakes and considerable knowledge was gained in regards to what could be expected of these frequencies for commercial work. Most of the frequencies used experimentally at that time are fundamentally the same as those now used for the present radiotelephone operation. In 1932 a commercial license was granted the station for operating a radiotelegraph transmitter on high frequencies. The operation was very successful in communicating with Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago and Duluth, as well as with ships who were also licensed to work on the high frequencies. WLF was the assigned call. The call letters WHT previously mentioned were Used until Dec. 20, 1924, when they were relinquished for assignment to a Chicago broadcast station controlled by William Hale Thompson who was a powerful political figure in Chicago at that time. When WHT was relinquished, WLC "World Limestone Center" was requested, and assigned to Rogers City. At about this same time the Chicago Tribune who used the "World's Greatest Newspaper" as a slogan, requested call letters WGN assigned to the Steamer Carl D. Bradley. The call letters were relinquished and are still used by the Chicago Tribune station. In 1930 the operating position was moved from Calcite Harbor to Rogers City proper with the transmitter remaining at Calcite and being operated by remote control. This move necessitated the construction of a new transmitter which would be more stable in operation and which would also be suitable for remote control. The transmitter was completed and placed in a temperature controlled room and is still in operation. In 1930 the Central Radio Telegraph Company, so named due to being centrally located on the Great Lakes, was formed and took over the equipment holdings of the Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company and has operated stations WLC and WLF since that time. While Central Radio has never seriously gone into radio servicing, they do take care of the major portion of the maintenance work on the Radio Direction Finders, Inter-communication and Radio Communication equipment for the Bradley Transportation Company ships. A Considerable amount of service work has also been done for ships of other fleets. It has always been the policy of the station to render service to all who requested it if it was physically possible to do so. There is also the human side of radio communication to be considered as well as the revenue to be derived there from. WLF and WLC are never too busy to lend a helping hand. We have always worked very closely with the Coast Guard and assisted with their communication problems whenever possible. On the whole, we feel that the Coast Guard has done a very fine job. In 1934 radiotelephone made its second appearance on the lakes, this second venture being undertaken by the Lorain Radio Corporation. This operation was watched very closely and while it was noted that there was much to be desired from a reliability standpoint, it did have some distinct advantages over radiotelegraph as had been previously proven by our own operation. New and better equipment was developed and different frequencies were tried which did improve the operation. The acceptance of radiotelephone was slow and it was not until after considerable research by the Federal Communications Commission that it was accepted as a primary means of communication for shipboard use but at the present time, with only a few exceptions, radiotelegraph has practically disappeared from the lakes. Observations indicated that one of the principle difficulties with the radiophone program was a lack of coastal stations, particularly in the upper lakes area. Visualizing the need for a station in this area, an application for permission to install radiotelephone equipment to operate in conjunction with the radiotelegraph station was filed with the Federal Communications Commission during December 1939. A hearing on our application, along with several others, was held in Washington during May, 1940. Late in 1940 permission was granted to construct a coastal harbor station. Construction on a building, well removed from any surrounding structures, was started during February 1941. Installation of the equipment was started on March 17th and on April 8th the station was ready for operation. Call letters WLF were assigned. During the first few months of operation the service was anything but good. A program of experimentation and improvement was started immediately and is still underway at the present time. Many changes have been made, the most important being the construction of a complete new receiving station which was put into operation during October 1945 with results far exceeding anything that had been hoped for. We have one of the best receiving stations on the lakes and it present plans work out as expected our transmission will eventually equal our reception. Even with our present setup we feel that we can consistently cover the lakes equally as well as any other station, but there is still much to be desired. We believe that those originally opposed to a station at Rogers City have been proven wrong in their contentions that any additional stations would disrupt the communication system established prior to 1940. We know that ships are able to contact shore much more promptly than was possible before. Where it used to take hours in many cases for a ship to contact her office it can now be done in a matter of minutes. Our station has not been the answer to all communication problems on the lakes but has helped. The excellent cooperation of the users of radiotelephone is directly responsible for our being able to constantly improve the quality of our service and for this we are duly thankful. We have a fine group of operators who are putting everything they have into their work, trying to make Rogers City the outstanding station on the lakes and with the continued cooperation of the users they cannot fail. The value of radio communication with ships is something that cannot be computed in dollars and cents. One communication with a ship or loading dock may save hours of delay which would occur if the contact was not possible. Constant communication with ships allow dock operators to prepare cargoes in advance, reroute ships when it appears there will be congestion at one dock and not at another, and in general to plan plant and dock operations to give the most economical overall operation. Ships and ship operators are enabled to keep in close contact with each other which allows the operator to plan his operation and scheduling days in advance. Safety of life and property is of major importance and prompt contact with shore has been instrumental in the saving of both. During our years of operation many requests for assistance for both ships and crew members have been handled. Several SOS calls have been handled, one of which was the Steamer Charles L. Hutchinson when she grounded on Manitou Island in Lake Superior and sent out an SOS at 12:22 p. in. October 31, 1925. During the November 11, 1940, storm a distress call was received from the Steamer Conneaut. Up until the end of 1940 distress communications were handled by radiotelegraph. On April 27, 1944, at 6:58 a. in. a general call from the Steamer Ashcroft was intercepted on radiotelephone. When no one answered the call our station contacted the Ashcroft and was informed that the Ashcroft and James H. Reed had collided 42 miles west of Long Point on Lake Erie and that the Reed had sunk and requested that we notify either WMI Lorain or the Coast Guard at Cleveland. We called Lorain and repeated the information and an acknowledgement was also received from Cleveland Coast Guard. At 9:13 a. m. on the same date another emergency call was intercepted from the Steamer Philip Minch which collided with the Steamer Frank Vigor off Southeast Shoal in Lake Erie. Investigation of this call indicated that it had also been received by WMI Lorain. A rather amusing incident happened in 1925 when the Michigan Limestone & Chemical Company chartered the Steamer Arcturus to haul stone from Calcite to the dock at Detroit. Having radio on the Bradley Transportation Company ships, they also wished to equip the Arcturus. Captain James B. Lyons, who was in command, was approached on the subject but showed very little interest. He finally consented to the installation providing it was approved by Pickands, Mather & Company, the vessel operator. Pickands, Mather gave their approval and the installation was made. Captain Lyons immediately showed a marked interest in radio and it was not long until he was spending a great deal of his spare time in the radio room. He then began to visit the radio station when he docked at Calcite and shortly thereafter we learned from the radio operator on the ship that Captain Lyons was learning the code. Believe it or not, before the season was over the Captain became sufficiently proficient in the art of radio to send and receive messages, which he did occasionally. There was a Captain who did not care to have radio on his ship. There are several other Captains on the lakes who could also handle radiotelegraph equipment, Captain Nauts on the Steamer T. W. Robinson and Captain Russell on the J. B. John both have acted as radio operators in emergencies. Weather broadcasts are made on assigned schedules, by radiotelephone, four times daily. Storm warnings are broadcast upon receipt both by radiotelephone and radiotelegraph with rebroadcasts following on regularly assigned schedules spaced two hours apart. U. S. Coast Guard Notices to Mariners are also broadcast upon receipt, both by radiotelephone and radiotelegraph, and after the initial broadcast repetitions are made at two hour intervals on regularly assigned schedules by radiotelegraph for three schedules and at six hour intervals, in conjunction with the regular weather broadcasts by radiotelephone. At 12:30 p.m. E.S.T. the standard time signals of the National Bureau of Standards, station WWV, Washington, D. C. are rebroadcast. The object of this broadcast is to provide ships with a means of obtaining highly accurate time once daily. This broadcast is made on 2550 and 6470 kilocycles, commonly known as channels 30 and 20. These frequencies would appear as approximately 2.5 and 6.5 megacyles on a home broadcast receiver. For the benefit of those not familiar with this broadcast, it can be recognized and the correct time determined in the following manner: At approximately 5 seconas before 12:30 p. m. when the broadcast is started a 440 cycle audio tone will be heard. This tone will stop at exactly 12:30 p.m. and will be followed by a voice announcement from station WWV. At the conclusion of the voice announcement, and at exactly 12:31 p. m. the tone will be resumed. This method of making the rebroadcast provides a means for making two accurate checks, one when the tone stops at 12:30 and another when it is resumed at 12:31. Another service which we hope to inaugurate on a commercial basis in the very near future is aircraft to ground communication. Our station license has been amended and a few test calls have been handled, without charge, inorder to determine the feasibility of the service. So far the tests have been highly satisfactory and me only thing remaining is to have our tariff properly amended and approved by the Federal Communications Commission. In answer to the many inquiries about the "numbers" contained in our weather broadcasts, and in order that the interested listener may understand, we are submitting the following explanation: Broadcasts are made as follows: At 12:12 a. m. on 2.51 and 2.55 Megacycles (MCs) At 6:12 a. m. on 2.51, 2.55, and 4.28 Megacycles At 12.12 p. m. on 2.55 and 6.47 Megacycles At 6:12 p. m. on 2.55 and 4.28 Megacycles Each forecast is for the ensuing 24 hours, and is split into the "first" and "second" periods. For example: "Lake Huron: First 78250 becoming 99150. Second 99150." The first two figures indicate wind direction; the second two figures of each group indicate wind velocity in miles per hour, and the last figure indicates the weather expected. In the example shown by referring to the accompanying chart, we can decode it to read "Lake Huron first period Northwest to North winds, 25 miles per hour, and clear weather, becoming variable winds fifteen miles per hour with clear weather. Second period, variable winds, fifteen miles per hour with clear weather." If the example had read: Second 99153," the decoded version would be the same as above, except that instead of clear weather (0) there would be showers (3) indicated. With a little study of the example shown and the "Decoding Chart," anyone can quickly learn to decode the forecasts as broadcast, and, who knows but that it may save you from getting caught in a sudden rain squall without your umbrella. "Weather Decoding Chart" Wind Direction Weather (First two figures (Last figure in the group) in the group) 0 Calm Clear, Fine 1 Northeast Cloudy 2 East Thunder Squalls 3 Southeast Showers 4 South Rain 5 Southwest Foggy 6 West Lake Steam 7 Northwest Light to Mod. Snow 8 North Freezing Rain 9 Variably Heavy Snow Radar, one of the most closely guarded secrets of World War II is now available for installation on ships. The Bradley Transportation Company has completed installation of Radar on the Steamers Carl D. Bradley, T. W. Robinson and the B. H. Taylor. The Masters and other Navigating Officers of these three ships are highly enthusiastic about the possibilities of this equipment as a navigation aid and have expressed themselves as having a feeling of security during thick weather that they never experienced before.