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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.


Wavescan N530, April 21, 2019

Anniversary of Titanic Sinking: The Wanamaker Radio Stations – 2 [WHI, WWZ]

In our program last week, we reminded our listeners that April 14 (2019) formed the 117th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic in the cold and forbidding waters of the north Atlantic. During the late hours of Sunday, April 14 (1912), the Titanic struck an iceberg south of Newfoundland, and two and a half hours later, in the early hours of Monday morning, the world’s largest passenger liner (as it was at the time) broke in two and slid down to the ocean floor, more than two miles down.

In our program last week, we also presented the story of the Wanamaker Departmental Store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and its two wireless/radio stations, WHE and WOO. Thus, in our program today, we present the story of the Wanamaker Departmental Store in New York, together with its two wireless/radio stations WHI and WWZ, one of which was involved with the communication events at the time of the sinking of the Titanic.

In 1896, John Wanamaker purchased the Iron Palace Department Store, between 9th and 10th Streets in New York City, that had been constructed by Irish-born Alexander Turney Stewart some 34 years earlier. The acquisition of this building became the third major department store for Wanamaker, after his two previous stores in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Six years later (1902), Wanamaker built an even larger store in New York City, across the other side of Broadway, a building that was as equally ostentatious as his huge and popular store in Philadelphia. The new Annex Building, as it was called, occupied almost a complete city block; it stood 14 stories tall, it had a large auditorium that could seat 1500 people, and it also held a large and powerful grand pipe organ with 4 key boards.

As a publicity stunt, in 1911, Wanamaker procured a hot air balloon from Paris for the purpose of having it fly from the top of his store in New York to his store in Philadelphia. The two pilots found the hydrogen-filled balloon to be very cumbersome to maneuver, and instead of landing in Philadelphia, it flew off in the opposite direction and landed near Nyack, some 20 miles to the north. It just goes to show that it is important for balloon pilots to observe which way the wind is blowing.

In the early part of the year 1912, the latest version of Marconi wireless equipment was installed on the roof of the Wanamaker Department Store in New York City. The two Wanamaker spark wireless stations, in New York and Philadelphia, were described in Wanamaker advertising brochures as two of the most powerful wireless communication stations in the world.

At the time of the Titanic event, the callsigns of the two Wanamaker stations were HI for New York and HE for Philadelphia, though the calls were soon afterwards changed to WHI and WHE as a result of new international radio regulations. Neither of these two wireless stations ever operated under a Marconi callsign beginning with the letter M.

The New York station was manned at times by three experienced Marconi operators, with 21 year old Russian born David Sarnoff hovering over the Wanamaker wireless system in charge of training new wireless operators. He had previously installed and operated Marconi wireless equipment on ships sailing in the northern waters of the Atlantic.

Associated with him was another well-known wireless operator, the 27 year old John Robinson Binns, or Jack Binns as he was known popularly. He was the heroic Marconi wireless operator on the American-owned luxury liner, the RMS Republic, at the time when it was rammed by the Italian immigrant ship Florida out from New York during an early morning fog three years earlier in 1909.

Even though his wireless cabin had been badly damaged in the collision, and partially flooded, he nevertheless remained at his post of duty for 36 hours, thus ensuring that all personnel from the stricken ships were safely rescued. Jack Binns was the newly appointed manager for the new Wanamaker wireless station in New York.

The third wireless operator at the Wanamaker station HI in New York was another experienced Marconi operator, Mr. J. H. Hughes. We could suggest that he may have been an older wireless operator.

The main purpose for the two Wanamaker wireless stations was as an advertising medium to attract customers into the building. These two wireless stations were in use also for the transmission of company business between Philadelphia and New York.

The operators transmitted their messages in the modified version of Morse Code which is identified as the Continental or International version. In addition, they used the Phillips version of standard Morse Code abbreviations, together with several company-devised shortcuts in terminology in order to increase the speed of sending their messages.

In March 1922, a mediumwave broadcasting station was installed in Wanamaker’s New York store, and it was inaugurated with 100 watts on the standard wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) under the callsign WWZ. However, this station was in use for only a short period of time, and it was closed in November of the following year, 1923. There were just too many other radio stations on the air in the New York City area.

However, during the next year (1924), a special radio program was presented in the huge auditorium in the New York Store, and this was transmitted via the General Electric shortwave stations at Schenectady, W2XAD and W2XAF, to the BBC in England. This special program relay was beamed specifically to the Wanamaker Store in London, though it was picked up by the BBC and distributed to all of their mediumwave stations throughout the British Isles.

Two weeks from now, we plan to pick up the next episode in this mini-series of topics regarding the wireless scene in association with the tragic sinking of the luxury passenger liner Titanic, and we will tell you the story of the Canadian Island of 500 Shipwrecks.