AT&T HF Coastal Station WOO, Manahawkin, NJ
Photos of the Manahawkin receiving and control station of former HF Coastal radio station WOO. This is also a cable landing station for several submarine cables including TAT-9 and TAT- 11 and
a cable to Bermuda. Receiving antennas here are mostly directional rhombics
(suspended from wooden poles) with some omnidirectional monocones (visible in
DSC04055) and an omnidirectional log-periodic (suspended inside the 4 lattice
towers visible in DSC04056). The HF station has been shut down since 1999. Transmitting antennas and transmitters were located up the coast in Ocean Gate and operated by remote
control. Microwave link to Barnegat and on to Stone Tavern, and L carrier cable connected the station to the AT&T network.
TAT-11 remains the only active cable at this station. See the page on Tuckerton
for more information on submarine cables.
Radio operators here communicated with ships at sea to provide radiotelephone
and other communications services over long-range HF radio, where the radio
signals bounce off the Earth's ionosphere to distant locations. Prior to
the widespread installation of submarine telephone cables, this station, and
others at Netcong and Lawrenceville NJ, also provided long distance telephone
service to foreign countries not reachable via cable. With satellite
communications and undersea fiber optic cables extending practically everywhere,
there is no longer a need for HF radiotelephone links to most ships or to
foreign countries.
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©2005 Michael W. Jacobs. Commercial use prohibited without permission.
