Topband: WWII Transatlantic Communication

[Herb Schoenbohm]

This is a bit off topic unless of course frequencies near 160 meters were used.  But since I do not know I am asking.

I recently heard on CSPAN  an account of the beginning of the era of broadcast journalism with recordings of the live reports that Edward R. Morrow did from London during the Blitz. I presume these signals were carried out of London on a phone line to powerful transmitters in the country and the transmissions picked up somewhere on the East Coast and relayed to CBS MCR on Manhattan.  One thing left out of the accounts was the available technology at the time to make this all happen. KV4FC, Dave Voorhees who moved to his retirement home in the VI in the 60's was an engineer at CBS at the time.  Unfortunately I never asked him about the details on how this was all possible and with such good and remarkable audio clarity. Since static crashes were frequently heard I am quessing the frequecies were somewhere between 1.7 and 5 Mhz.  

If any topbander knows where I can get more on the technical end of  how CBS brought these broadcasts into the living rooms across America back then please let me know.  I would be particularly interested in locations, equipment, frequencies, and the methodology used back in 1943,  I was only 4 years old at the time but remember hearing the familiar opening to each report "This is London."

Thanks for the bandwidth.

73,

Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ