Old 2 MHz Marine Band

[spongella]

Back in the 60's with my Zenith Transoceanic radio there was a red line on the tuning dial marking the Marine band, think it was from 2 - 3 MHz. Remember hearing ship stations contacting the NY Marine operators to place calls from the ship to home. The Marine ops were mostly women and very professional. You could even hear the phone ringing over the air.

 

[popnokick]

"This is the AT&T Marine Operator. Are you through? Are you through?" was heard at the end of calls here and on many other HF freqs.

 

[N9JCQ]

Spongella, I did the same thing on my mom's B600 TO. We had pleanty of freighter traffic to listen to on Lake Michigan as well as pleasure craft making calls on channels 26 and 27. When my dad bought a sailboat, it had an HF radio installed on it and we licensed to use it until that band was phased out in the mid 70s in favor of VHF radios. At night we could here ships contacting the marine operator in New Orleans. I still have that radio somewhere. I bet it would be good on 75M.

 

[MrColad]

Speaking of, many years ago I remember hearing boaters giving their credit card information over the air to the VHF radio marine operators when placing calls. Only thing I hear on the marine correspondence frequencies now are the SeaTow boater self initiated radio checks.

 

[trentbob]

I love these nostalgic threads.

I come from a boating family, although I grew up in Philly and I live back there now I did live up on Long Island New York and was a licensed Bayman better known as a Clam Digger all through college on the Great South Bay and was a mate on a fishing boat also.

I remember the 2 to 3 megahertz Marine use as a young kid. That was the only kind of radios in the boats at that time. Huge antennas and often noisy generators to Supply Power for the radios.

I wouldn't know for sure but I think those radios are still being used today as they get so much more distance than the VHF High systems that we're using now.

I certainly can remember making phone calls on channel 26 VHF in the seventies long before cell phones came about which pretty much changed the landscape. Of course Marine radiotelephone calls were out there for everybody to hear and you had to say over after each transmission.

Cell phones have certainly changed the landscape but if you are too far off shore, they don't work!

Thanks again guys for the Memories. LOL.

 

[MrColad]

I love these nostalgic threads.

I come from a boating family, although I grew up in Philly and I live back there now I did live up on Long Island New York and was a licensed Bayman better known as a Clam Digger all through college on the Great South Bay and was a mate on a fishing boat also.

I remember the 2 to 3 megahertz Marine use as a young kid. That was the only kind of radios in the boats at that time. Huge antennas and often noisy generators to Supply Power for the radios.

I wouldn't know for sure but I think those radios are still being used today as they get so much more distance than the VHF High systems that we're using now.

I certainly can remember making phone calls on channel 26 VHF in the seventies long before cell phones came about which pretty much changed the landscape. Of course Marine radiotelephone calls were out there for everybody to hear and you had to say over after each transmission.

Cell phones have certainly changed the landscape but if you are too far off shore, they don't work!

Thanks again guys for the Memories. LOL.

Small world TB. In my senior year in high school I got a winter gig performing radar watch at Bluepoints on mids watching for poachers in Great South Bay. I sat in the building and they had a security guy in a patrol boat skirting the deep water channels. If I saw anything I would give him a call and if it was anything untoward he would have me call SCPD on the phone. Never had to though. The gig would have been perfect except in subcontract security work unbeknownst to the bosses the client always ask us grunts to do them a favor or two like patrolling the floating piers or walkways or whatever those things are that have no real support to hold onto in case you slip on ice every hour and turn on bilge pumps on certain boats that leaked and not fall in the water since there were no lights. Fun times were had.

BTW: When I was a wee one I spent my summers with grandma and grandpa in Willow Grove. After dropping grandpa off at work she'd drive to Zoo Y and we'd watch PRR until lunchtime.

 

[trentbob]

Small world TB. In my senior year in high school I got a winter gig performing radar watch at Bluepoints on mids watching for poachers in Great South Bay. I sat in the building and they had a security guy in a patrol boat skirting the deep water channels. If I saw anything I would give him a call and if it was anything untoward he would have me call SCPD on the phone. Never had to though. The gig would have been perfect except in subcontract security work unbeknownst to the bosses the client always ask us grunts to do them a favor or two like patrolling the floating piers or walkways or whatever those things are that have no real support to hold onto in case you slip on ice every hour and turn on bilge pumps on certain boats that leaked and not fall in the water since there were no lights. Fun times were had.

BTW: When I was a wee one I spent my summers with grandma and grandpa in Willow Grove. After dropping grandpa off at work she'd drive to Zoo Y and we'd watch PRR until lunchtime.

Oh geez. Yeah I remember the J boat and I boat of the Suffolk County PD. I was a very profitable clam-digger at that time, can you imagine making $100 a day in cash in 1971 and then going in bartending at night at the local hotspot. The age for bartending and drinking was 18 in New York at that time. I made a fortune. I had my New York State Bayman license and my clamming license in the town of Islip and the Town of Babylon.

The cops knew who we were as we were the hardcore clam diggers, legit and an Alli. Gosh I can remember several gun fights on the bay between poachers and the police. You cannot Harvest claims between Sundown and sunup. I can remember listening and watching out my bedroom window the blue light chasing the poachers exchanging gunfire with the Fire Island Lighthouse as the background. I lived in West Islip on the Great South Bay at the base of the Robert Moses bridge on a canal at that time.

I grew up in Abington Township PA right near Willow Grove and might I add hamburgers, Bob Burger had a radio supply store in Willow Grove but first in Jenkintown.

Such enjoyable memories for a 66 year old guy. Stuff I have never thought about in a long time, thank you.

 

[trentbob]

Yep not to go too off topic here which we have already done, I do remember in the late sixties an electronic store in Berwick, up the Susquehanna. LOL

Thanks again spongella for the memories and bringing up a topic I remember clearly but would have no reason to think about other than sharing on this thread haha.

MrColad, pretty cool background.

 

[spongella]

Great to hear everyone's experiences. Still listen in to the 2 - 3 MHz band in winter, some activity like encrypted RTTY and wx b'casts from Canada around 2.4 - 2.5 MHz. WWV still heard in evenings too.

For those former Long Islanders, I remember a country music station way back when, it was WGLI or WHLI, can't remember. Used to fish with my family at Captree State park when blowfish were plenty. That's when LI still had rural areas and was known for Long Island ducklings and Huntington still had potato fields. Long Island potatoes, yes they were good.

 

[trentbob]

Great to hear everyone's experiences. Still listen in to the 2 - 3 MHz band in winter, some activity like encrypted RTTY and wx b'casts from Canada around 2.4 - 2.5 MHz. WWV still heard in evenings too.

For those former Long Islanders, I remember a country music station way back when, it was WGLI or WHLI, can't remember. Used to fish with my family at Captree State park when blowfish were plenty. That's when LI still had rural areas and was known for Long Island ducklings and Huntington still had potato fields. Long Island potatoes, yes they were good.

Yep yep yep, Long Island potatoes we're all over the East End also, Riverhead but yes Huntington that's more populated but less so then.

The fishing boat I was a mate on every summer was based in Captree Boat Basin.

Not only did they have delicious Long Island duckling but wonderful restaurants to serve it in before there was chain restaurants but of course all those places closed like Al dowd's Steak House, links Log Cabin, the Oak Neck Inn where I worked.

I grew up in Philly and only lived in Long Island for about 17 years then moved back here

WWV and CHU Canada. Great stations to test atmospheric conditions LOL especially down in that range.

I'm pretty sure that was wgli for great Long Island. Wonderful place to live at that time but I've heard it ain't so nice anymore. It was changing there drastically in 1985 when I left.

 

[MrColad]

Great to hear everyone's experiences. Still listen in to the 2 - 3 MHz band in winter, some activity like encrypted RTTY and wx b'casts from Canada around 2.4 - 2.5 MHz. WWV still heard in evenings too.

For those former Long Islanders, I remember a country music station way back when, it was WGLI or WHLI, can't remember. Used to fish with my family at Captree State park when blowfish were plenty. That's when LI still had rural areas and was known for Long Island ducklings and Huntington still had potato fields. Long Island potatoes, yes they were good.

Yep yep yep, Long Island potatoes we're all over the East End also, Riverhead but yes Huntington that's more populated but less so then.

The fishing boat I was a mate on every summer was based in Captree Boat Basin.

Not only did they have delicious Long Island duckling but wonderful restaurants to serve it in before there was chain restaurants but of course all those places closed like Al dowd's Steak House, links Log Cabin, the Oak Neck Inn where I worked.

I grew up in Philly and only lived in Long Island for about 17 years then moved back here

WWV and CHU Canada. Great stations to test atmospheric conditions LOL especially down in that range.

I'm pretty sure that was wgli for great Long Island. Wonderful place to live at that time but I've heard it ain't so nice anymore. It was changing there drastically in 1985 when I left.

WOW!!!!! This stuff we're reliving is golden. Memory lane at it's finest. It was WGLI.

WGLI (New York) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[MrColad]

I cut my teeth on radio when I visited Mackay Radio in Brentwood off Motor Parkway. What a place. Those log periodic antennas were massive. Although I was just still in junior high school I told them I would work there for free but I was too young but they allowed me to come visit anytime after school and watch their operations to learn some skills.

www.mackayhistory.com

 

[PACNWDude]

Here in the Pacific Northwest, I used two old school Coastal Navigator direction finding receivers to monitor 1.8-2.0 MHz at times. It is also a great AM receiver for broadcast bands. I found one at a thrift store that was fully functional and looked like it was kept indoors, and another that had corroded batter contacts sold as parts online. Great receivers and it is interesting seeing what is in the HF bands, and not digital in 2019. Reception is pretty good even with the internal bar antenna and the telescopic one in the case. External will help a lot though, and it helps living near the coastline wit many ports and piers, and historic lighthouses and beacon sites.

 

[trentbob]

Yep it was a relatively low wattage station as most of them are up in that range of the am band. I was in West Islip which is the next town over from Babylon.

The news was interesting in the video you posted. We had fake news then just like we do now it just wasn't called that but don't get me started, please.

Oldies then weren't the same as oldies are now LOL

OMG, MacKay's. The South Shore Mall was one of the first even though it was mostly outdoor.

I remember Lafayette and of course rat Shack. Back then it really was a Communications radio store before it became Cell Phone Shack.

I just saw your post Dude, nothing like an internal bar antenna LOL. Nothing like Maritime nostalgia. Oh those historic lighthouses.

 

[trentbob]

I've heard of the farmer's market but I didn't move to Long Island till 68.

In addition to being a retired newspaper man I am also a RN and went to Kings Park Hospital School of Nursing. All the state hospitals Central Islip, Pilgrim State and Kings Park were all open then.

I went to Saint Joseph's College in Brooklyn and got my degree in public health nursing and was a state community mental health nurse during the deinstitutionalization and closing of the hospitals. Part of the demise of Long Island but again... Don't get me started, please. It was when Rockefeller left and Governor Carey just closed all the hospitals willy-nilly dumping tens of of thousands of mental patients in the street with inadequate follow up even though we tried as best we could. It was well over a hundred thousand patients and they were chronic and very sick.

I lived in Hauppauge for about 5 years and used to go to the Smith Haven mall all the time. LOL

Beautiful looking radio in the video. I actually had about five different shortwave radios since I started with an old zenith Stand Up Radio where I only had the guts with the tubes showing in the chassis and the speaker sitting on my desk and I ended up with the R 75... I was a big swl in the 60s and 70s and 80s. Of course it changed and I use my R 75 for AM broadcast mostly now.

 

[IC-R20]

I still hear entertaining stuff on the Maritime Portion 2 MHz band, many a night I spent on the beach with ye olde portable Grundig. It was mostly men and they very unprofessional, but hilarious . Mostly shooting the breeze while fishing or waiting to fish. I also hear pirate shortwave beacons High Frequency Beacon - HFUnderground

 

[trentbob]

Long Islands burgeoning economy started tanking with the staggered closures of it's Grumman and Republic aerospace plants. Next as you said the NYSOMH closed the doors of the psychiatric hospitals and among investors and property management groups carving up the land not to reinvest in the local economy but to exploit the land for it's real estate potential. So along with the Sanctuary City welcome home signs on the Eastbound lanes of the LIE, Southern State and Northern State Parkways that was pretty much all she wrote. I still love and miss the place.

I still hear entertaining stuff on the Maritime Portion 2 MHz band, many a night I spent on the beach with ye olde portable Grundig. It was mostly men and they very unprofessional, but hilarious . Mostly shooting the breeze while fishing or waiting to fish. I also hear pirate shortwave beacons High Frequency Beacon - HFUnderground

That's very interesting R20 I also had a very nice Grundig portable shortwave radio, can't remember the model number of course but it was sweet and I used to sit by the dock by the Bay at night and listen to 2 to 3 Megs, the South Shore only had a thin strip of Fire Island in between you and the vast ocean. Lots of fishing off of the piers and yes the girlfriends and wives did not come. Lots of camaraderie between the guys and the New York State Department of Conservation left us alone as they were too busy out catching poachers. That radio was terrific between 2 and 3 megahertz.

Much to my chagrin, I pulled it out after not using it for a while, and I could smell it right away. If I remember it used a combo of C batteries and Double A's or was it either or. I knew right away when I felt the battery door and it was spongy and I could smell the leaking batteries. How stupid of me. They were those cheap rat shack batteries too that were always on sale.

MrColad, when I started nursing school at Kings Park in 1971 it was the Department of Mental hygiene when I graduated it was the office of Mental Health, it was running pretty hot there with a census of about 35,000 patients and the farm was still running. Patients had jobs in the laundry and the kitchens and the powerhouse and the farm and housekeeping and felt like they served a purpose. When Hugh Carey (D) became governor the writing was on the wall

All the patients were forced to return to the wards and could no longer work and people were hired. Very costly but it was the beginning of PC and the beginning of the end. I lived on the grounds in a staff house and we had a great 60 year old guy who was our house boy and he took great care of us and of course we took great care of him. When he was forced to go back to the ward and could no longer be around us anymore he passed within 2 months.

Anyway you're correct that was when the decline started, I want to be PC here myself on a public forum but the atmosphere of the island changed completely as new people came in from somewhere else the people who were already there... left.

I used to drive through Kings Park after it completely closed and you can find a lot of videos on YouTube of people who go into the buildings especially Building 33 which is a very tall building. I guess I don't have to mention the place is just full of ghosts LOL.

My nursing school was established in 1895 but of course was closed as the hospital was closed.

Now that you guys mention it I do remember pirates on the 2 to 3 megahertz range. There would be articles in pop comm and monitoring times about it.

I'm thinking about so much crap I haven't thought about in so long I'm starting to smell the wood burning in my head LOL

 

[trentbob]

You know I'm sitting here thinking and I can actually remember all of these frequencies from that time... The New York State Department of Conservation was 159.225, the New York State Parkway police was 45.66 simplex until it's split up to merge with the state police and then they just had the Park Police.

Fire was on 46 megahertz. Of course the police were on a terrific VHF High repeater system that worked great. If you ask me that's what they should be using now, the system they had in the 60s and 70s, instead of the mish mosh type II smartzone combination P2 system they have now.

Nothing beat that old VHF High repeater system for the six precincts and the combination Highway Patrol Marine and air frequency.

They had a repeater F2 frequency but often used 156 .03 simplex car-to-car.

Of course the Coast Guard was very active on the VHF High Marine band and of course to 2 to 3 Meg range was still active then in the 60s and 70s.

I didn't know I had so much useless information in my head.