Photo: US Coast Guard
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Brian D. Smith, who writes:
Longtime SWLs will recall the repeating CW messages of Coast Guard station NSS and its distinctive “DAH-dit di-di-dit di-di-dit” ID.
There’s even a nostalgia page created in its honor: http://hawkins.pair.com/nss.shtml – along with a Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSS_Annapolis – and an online history: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/greenbury-point.htm – among other online references.
Unfortunately, like most other such CW stations of its day, NSS is gone forever … right? Wrong! Get this: NSS will return from the dead during Armed Forces Day crossband tests on May 13!
Here’s what the ARRL is reporting:
“The Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC) and the US Naval Academy Radio Club will operate NSS on the site of the 1918 Naval Radio Transmitting Station on Greenbury Point in Annapolis, Maryland, across the Severn River from the US Naval Academy.”
How cool is that?
http://www.arrl.org/news/armed-forces-day-crossband-military-amateur-radio-communications-test-is-may-13So both hams and SWLs can obtain a QSL card from this ghost of a station. Personally, I’m thrilled with the news, because I was never able to get a QSL card from NSS or any similar station during my teenage years.
As far as I know, this is the first time NSS has been heard since … what, 1999? It certainly wasn’t on the air during last year’s Armed Forces Day radio event.
Wow–thank you for the tip, Brian! I, too, would love to snag an NSS QSL card!