Former site of RCA's WCC marine radio station transmitters

 historical layer / disappeared object  Add category

 Upload a photo

WCC was one of the primary ship-to-shore radio stations in the world until it went off the air in 1997. The receiver site -- now the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center -- is three miles northeast of here on Orleans Rd. in Chatham (placed there by Marconi in 1914 to avoid interference from his high power transmitter site in Marion, MA).

RCA constructed this facility in 1947 to replace their WCC marine radio transmitters in Marion, 40 miles west of here. The U.S. Air Force operated the Alexanderson alternator in Marion until 1957 to communicate with their facilities in the arctic.

You can see four concrete foundation pylons of the former 300 foot transmitting tower toward the lower left of the polygon. The transmitter building was in the clearing at the end of the driveway coming into the upper left of the polygon. The marshes on the right were crowded with a forest of more then 90 poles supporting antennas and open wire transmission lines for marine HF communications.

A trail now runs along the southern edge of the property from Forest Beach Road