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Former United States Coast Guard Radio Station, Boston (NMF)

USA / Massachusetts / Marshfield / South River Street
 United States Coast Guard, radio station

The first district Primary Radio Station (or "Main Radio Traffic Station," as this class of station was at first known) to be established in Coast Guard District 1 (at that time "Eastern Division") was placed in commission at the Nahant Coast Guard Station, Nahant Massachusetts at 8:00 P.M. on 6 October, 1926, using the call sign "NCP." (Also in CGD1, a radio station had been established at Base 4, State Pier, New London, CT in November of 1924. Its purpose was the handling of communications for the large number of destroyers, cutters, patrol boats and section bases operating in the New London area. This station first operated with the call sign NLO.)

"NCP" was equipped with a T-1A transmitter and a CGR-1A receiver. It had a crew compliment of four radiomen with a Chief Petty Officer in charge. After negotiations with the War Department in 1930, the Coast Guard was granted permission to erect a radio station to replace Nahant at Fort Heath, Winthrop, Massachusetts. This station was placed in commission at 10:00 a.m. on 12 November 1931. It's opening marked the first use of the now famous call sign "NMF". The location was remarkably well suited for transmission and reception. On the initial test, stations along the east coast were worked with ease, and traffic was relayed from Point Bonita, California.

The station at Winthrop was closed experimentally from 1 September 1934 until 17 September 1936 and an attempt was made to pass all Coast Guard messages through Navy facilities. The experiment clearly indicated a need for the Coast Guard to provide it's own radio facilities. The Winthrop station was reestablished and remained on the air until 1939 when the site was taken over by the Army. All Coast Guard equipment was relocated to a former intelligence monitoring station at North Truro, Massachusetts.

During World War II, the U.S. Government took sixty-five acres of property and a mansion (built in 1911 by Dr. Howard Hunt for his daughter) in Marshfield, Massachusetts by "eminent domain" for a submarine sighting station. In 1942, the Coast Guard occupied this property located on South River Street. The "Mansion" was converted to office, barracks, and messing facilities. Behind the mansion, an operations building was constructed along with a vehicle maintenance garage and several small buildings to house transmitters along with complex antenna array system. In April of 1943 Coast Guard started operating using the now famous call sign "NMF" as "Boston Radio" and "Radio Boston". Starting in 1972, now "Communication Station Boston" took over the duties of the old Radio Station New York "NMY", which was then discontinued.

In time, "NMF" outgrew its original Marshfield quarters. In 1975, a new Operations building to house the Receiver Site was built on the Marshfield grounds and all of the transmitters were moved to a 542 acre former Air Force site on Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod. This major upgrading program was completed and the new Communication Station Boston/"NMF" was dedicated on 2 June 1975. The sites were manned around-the-clock by a total of 4 Officers and 58 enlisted personnel.

At the peak of its operations, Communication Station Boston/NMF would process over 30,000 radio messages each month. When serving as the International Ice Patrol radio station, Communication Station Boston also used the international call sign "NIK". Communication Station Boston provides long range ship-shore and air-ground communications for Coast Guard cutters and aircraft in the Arctic, North Atlantic and Caribbean areas, using radio teletype, voice and Morse Code transmissions. In addition to maintaining a continuous watch for radio distress calls, "NMF" broadcasted marine weather forecasts, notice to mariners, storm warnings, iceberg locations, and received position reports from merchant ships participating in the Coast Guard's Automated Merchant Vessel Emergency Reporting (AMVER) system. Mariners of all kinds depend upon Coast Guard communications and rely with confidence on the services provided by "NMF" with its longstanding motto, "No Call Unanswered".

On 02 Dec 1997, Marshfield receiver site assets were transferred to a newly constructed site on Otis Air Force Base, MA. This unmanned site is five miles from the transmitter site and consists of two antenna systems and a small building, equipped with an emergency generator to house the receiver and remoting equipment.

On 2 Feb 1999, an end of an era occurred when the last CW/Morse code transmission was broadcast from COMMSTA Boston. On 15 Nov 1999, the old Marshfield COMMSTA site was officially turned over to the Town of Marshfield. The "Coast Guard mansion" was restored and again offered for sale in late 2008 for $2.8 million dollars along with 10 acres of land.



www.uscg.mil/lantarea/commstaBoston/unit_history.asp
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Coordinates:   42°7'29"N   70°41'42"W
This article was last modified 15 years ago