By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag
Before San Diego had satellites, cellphones, or the internet, the Navy was sending messages across the Pacific from a small wireless station high on Point Loma.
The station used a Massie-type spark transmitter — primitive by modern standards but part of a revolutionary technology that allowed ships and shore stations to communicate without wires. It was placed in service on May 12, 1906.
Getting the equipment to Point Loma was an undertaking. According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, the transmitter was unloaded at San Diego’s Santa Fe wharf and hauled up the peninsula by horse-drawn wagon. The journey took nine hours, and the equipment was installed in a small building overlooking the ocean.
The station initially used the call sign TM. It was later assigned NPL, a call sign that remains associated with the Navy’s San Diego radio operations.
The new station helped extend the Navy’s communications network along the West Coast. Wireless allowed operators to exchange messages with ships at sea, reaching far beyond the limits of ordinary wired communications.
In 1908, Point Loma communicated with the battleship USS Connecticut while the ship was traveling from Hawaii toward New Zealand. The reported distance was approximately 2,900 miles — a remarkable achievement for early wireless technology.
The Navy continued expanding its communications capabilities. Construction of a major transmitting facility at Chollas Heights, east of downtown San Diego, took place in 1915 and 1916. Commissioned in 1916, the facility had a powerful transmitter that could be operated remotely from Point Loma.
The two sites illustrate how quickly naval radio evolved from a small station with early equipment into a larger communications system. Point Loma served as a receiving and control location, while Chollas Heights managed powerful transmissions.
Early wireless operators worked with equipment that sent coded signals using electrical sparks. The technology had limitations, but it opened new possibilities for communicating with ships far from shore.
For where the Point Loma station was located, research showed the former U.S. Navy Radio Station, Point Loma, was listed on the military reservation at Point Loma. The station opened May 12, 1906; and the original site no longer exists.
For San Diego, the Point Loma station marked an early chapter in the region’s naval communications history. Its story began with a small building, a pioneering transmitter, and a horse-drawn wagon making a nine-hour journey from the waterfront.
That unlikely trip helped launch a new chapter in San Diego’s naval communications history.
Sources:
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, “Point Loma (San Diego) Naval Radio Station”
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, “Chollas Heights (San Diego) Naval Radio Station”
Edward D. Stevens, “They Used to Call It Wireless,” Journal of San Diego History, January 1963
I read Debbie L. Sklar’s, “The Forgotten Wireless Station on Point Loma” and found it a fascinating piece of history. But here is an historic tidbit that underscores the National significance of our little wireless station: When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, this was the fist radio station to notify the West Coast of that act of war. Yes, that message was first heard here and said message was conveyed to the 11th Naval District and then around the nation. That significance alone should quality the site of the wireless station for a place on the National Register of Historic Properties.