From what I've been told, back before WW2 the US government would pay KGMB to stay on all night whenever military planes were expected to arrive from the mainland. That way, the aircraft crews could use their direction finding equipment to home in on Oahu, and not fly past the island.
On the night of December 6-7, 1941, a fleet of B-17s was being ferried across the Pacific to the Philippines and was scheduled to make a refueling stop at Pearl Harbor, so KGMB was on all night. Judging from what happened, I'd say the B-17s weren't the only aircraft DFing on KGMB. Bruce Mike McKenna wrote: > December 7, 1941. --- Honolulu, Hawaii. ---- Very early Sunday morning. > ---- KGU 750 Khz -- operating with 2,500 watts and sharing time with > co-channel station WJR. KGU is then owned by the Advertiser Publishing > Company, Ltd. and a NBC carrier. The only other broadcast station in > Honolulu is KGMB on 1320 khz with 1,000 watts fulltime with a 330 foot > Bethleham tower located on Kapiolani Blvd using all RCA equipment. KGMB > carrys both CBS and MBS programming and is owned by the Hawaiian Broadcasting > System, Ltd. KGMB was granted a CP: to move to 590 Khz and increase power to > 5 KW -- but still remains on the 1320 channel. Just these two broadcast > stations in Honolulu. The owners of KGMB also operate KHBC on 1200 khz with > 250 watts fulltime from Hilo, using a 178 foot tower. -- Station KTOH is > still just a construction permit on 1500 Khz at Lihue, Hawaii with 250 watts > days and 100 watts nights and will use a 150 foot tall Lehigh tower. Just > an early > Sunday morning. MTM > > _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
