Kahuku Marconi Wireless Station, O’ahu, Hawaii
By Jonathan Haeber
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The Marconi Wireless Station at Kahuku on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.
Long ago, before my grandfather was born, a young Italian named Guglielmo Marconi developed a process of communicating without the aid of land-line telegraph cables. The birth of wireless telegraphy was embraced by the British during their Second Boer War, but the promise of communication across vast oceans between families and friends, businesses and diplomatic bureaus was where wireless truly shined.
I recently traveled to Hawaii to visit a friend (ostensibly), but also to explore the island’s many historical locations (I have my ulterior motives). Earlier, I had spoken of the abandoned sugar refinery on the North Shore and its incredible ties with bird guano (believe me, there’s a connection). In the future, I will talk about Battery Harlow in Diamond Head, a World War I-era array of guns designed to defend the new U.S. territory.
Most important, though, is this station on the North Shore (The Kahuku Marconi Station). In the details of this station, one can parse out a history and trace the root & origins of the Military-Industrial Complex. Today, parts of the station are occupied by a krill farm. The old powerhouse, which supplied the 300 kW towers with their much-needed electricity, is now full of temporary above-ground pools of growing shrimp (and large bull frogs, as well). The old “Hotel” as it was known (which often housed unmarried Marconi workers or visiting dignitaries including Jack London himself) is a crumbling and empty bone.
Image courtesy Library of Congress
If there is any place in Hawaii that desperately needs National Register status, it is this place. When World War II broke out, the Marconi wireless towers were no longer needed (long-wave radio transmission was a thing of the past), but the original line of towers was replaced by an airstrip that sent out cargo planes to their destinations across the Pacific Rim.
I visited the Kahuku Station during the day. The krill farm, though active, was eerily vacant of people. A gentle breeze — like any Hawaiian breeze, warm and humid — came in from the North. The palms danced to the cadence of the wind, which wound its way through the broken window frames of the Hotel. Krill pumps hummed, and I imagined how similar they sounded to the original transformers for the wireless towers.
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
The humidity has a different sort of effect on the plaster and paint of abandoned buildings. Living in California, it was a rare sort of sight for me to see. Each layer of paint peeled away to reveal an older, more colorul version of the wall. And the arched doorways and stairwells gave me an idea of its once grand design — despite the hotel’s utilitarian purpose.
I think the Kahuku Station and its related history deserve so much attention that — in the coming days — I will post a three-part entry on Wireless Telelgraphy during World War I. I hope you enjoy the history as much as I did. This is meant only as an introduction to a fascinating story about government, communication, corporations, and war.
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February 3rd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Very interesting site. I was stationed and lived on the Kahuku Training Area (1976-1979) and visited the Marconi Wireless Station often.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
the place is all empty now, we ride mopeds into there and good place off the main road for party. get some druggys and sex kine stuff over there but cops no can get to u so all g.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:19 am
You have written: Second Boeur War: pse spell correctly: BOER This Dutch word means farmer.
Great info about the wireless station. I am finishing a book about Dutch radio pioneers. Cornelius De Groot designed and built the famous Malabar mountain gorge long wave antenna, in 1917, on Java, in order to make contact with Cavite – Honolulu – San Francisco.
He bought a 100 kilowatt Poulsen arc transmitter in the USA. Those good old days!
Thanks for a great site! Cheers, hans vles, Middelburg, Holland.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Thanks for the nudge, Hans. Looking forward to the book!
April 14th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I too have always been fascinated by old LF apparatus. I am a native of Hawai’i and spent some time at Helemano Army radio in the ’50s. There is a counterpart to the Kahuku site which I only knew as an RCA xmtr site. Until I saw an Alex alternator listed for Kahuku, I was ignorant of its LF history. The Marconi site I’m familiar with is the one at Koko Head on Lunalilo Home Road. I participated in scrapping out the last vestiges of the Koko Head Marconi installation in about 1954. Two guyed masts stood there until we cut them down. They were riveted pipe sections with a wooden plug in the top. At the time we did the salvage job, the site housed the RCA rcvr complex. Lunalilo home itself was the dormtory for the Marconi operators. Have you done a piece on the Navy Haiku VLF? “Builders for Battle” by David O. Woodbury has a detailed account of the contruction by RCA of the antenna and feed system at Haiku. The Navy site at Lualualei rounds out the Island low freq xmtrs of yesteryear.
I would like to exchange additional info about these matters when you have time. W.F. Dick, L.A. CA
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
I owe my existence on this Earth to the Kahuku wireless station!!!
Why? Well, here’s the story: My grandfather, who grew up in NE Pennsylvania, and after graduating with a BSEE from Penn State U in 1915, went to work for GE & later, after serving in the US Army in France during WWI, after returning to civilian life transferred into the newly formed RCA corporation as a radio engineer. Meanwhile, my grandmother, Stella Brown, who was then a 25 year old school teacher from San Luis Obispo, CA, had taken a job at the Kahuku Elementary school.
The year was 1920, and RCA was in charge of the Kahuku wireless station. That year they decided to install a new Alexanderson Alternator at the station, and sent my then-unmarried, 28 year old grandfather to oversee the installation of the new alternator. That was a six month assignment, and after completion, by which time he had courted and proposed to my grandmother, he returned to the mainland with his new bride to become the manager in charge of the Tuckerton wireless station in Tuckerton, NJ, where he raised a family of four children, including my late father. My grandfather stayed with RCA for a 40 year career, and I have in my possession several mementoes, including his 1915 Penn State yearbook, and his 40 year service award from RCA, which is a silver plated engraved Gorham reproduction Paul Revere bowl.
December 22nd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Steve: What an incredible history and I’m thrilled you shared it here. IF you have time, I’d love to hear more about stories your grandfather may have told you.l
December 23rd, 2008 at 9:09 am
Jon,
Unfortunately, I did not get many of these stories told directly from my grandfather, but 2nd hand from my dad and his sisters, and some from things granddad had written down. He retired from RCA in 1957, and I was only 6 years old then. I and my sister lived with my parents in Barnegat, NJ, and for the last couple years of my grandfather’s carreer he had been transferred to Marion, MA, after they decommissioned the old Tuckerton wireless station (now Mystic Islands residential developement) in 1955. Once he retired, he moved back into my great grandparents’ home (which had been vacant in the years after their death in 1945 & 1946) in Pennsylvania. So the end result was I didn’t get to see them very often, as they also traveled a lot during the summers, mostly cross country trips out to San Luis Obispo to visit my grandmother’s family. Also, he as a very stern and somewhat remote man. He was also big on involvement with the Masons, which is something I’ve never shown interest in. My grandfather passed away 30 years ago this year, in 1978 at age 86. I did not get much chance to see him in those later years, because first of all, my parents divorced in 1960, and a few years later my mother remarried and we moved with her to my stepdad’s home area upstate NY, near Saratoga, so by the time I reached high school age, I was not in close contact my father’s extended family for several years. Then in 1977, I moved West to Phoenix, where I’ve been ever since. In those first few years in AZ, I didn’t have the means to travel much, so I wasn’t able to even attend his funeral.
January 24th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
On our flight to Oahu after Christmas, I read an artcle by Stu Dawrs in Hana Hou, the Hawaiian Airline magazine about the early history of the Kahuku Marconi wireless station. In the article he mentioned that some of the remains were still visable and how to get there. I drove about a mile out Marconi Rd. and at the end was a locked gate and visible in the distance I could see what was left of some of the buildings. A local person confirmed that it was the remains of the Marconi station. It made my day and brought me to this site. (Hana Hou December 2008/January 2009 pg 119)
January 25th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Excellent! Thank you Tom, for relaying the info! I love to hear that others are writing about this station. I definitely think it should be preserved. it’s such a vital piece of American history.
Cheers,
J
April 11th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Aloha Jon, interesting to read bout the RCA Marconi Station. AS a kid in the 50’s, I have been in that station alot with my dad, Allan Martin. He worked for the C.A.A. during that decade and was the station manager of the other radio station that was just off the shore located east of Marconi. There were 4-5 large radio towers for that transmitter station. About 5-6 generators were housed in the operations building and our dad taught us kids how to read and record the data from the gauges. We were the only kids that went to Kahuku School with silver pennies mixed with the mercury that was used in the radio tubes during that time. Reading these stories stirred up some old and some forgotten memories. Mahalo !!