"In the early days, the Jupiter
facilities consisted principally of the main building, a power
building, a storage house, a boathouse with dock, quarters for the
petty officer in charge at a 120-foot wooden antenna mast." The
entire facility occupied about three acres of the government
reservation property.
"The antenna mast was made in the
style of the early sailing ships, several long wooden poles lashed
together with steel wire ropes. This mast was kept upright by a
multitude of guy wires and stood magnificently on the north side of
the Jupiter River for a good many years." (The mast to the
right in the photo is one of the surviving wood masts. The
steel tower no longer exists, but the cement mounting pylons are
still visible.)
The primary mission of the wireless
station was to provide aid to mariners
Part of the mission of serving
maritime operations was to issue time checks for passing ships. Time
checks were important because it helped the ship establish its exact
location. The Jupiter wireless station would transmit its time check
at 12:05 each day (Five minutes after the signal was broadcast from
Arlington). Additionally, the Jupiter station gave a visual time
check to passing ships by dropping a time ball. A five-foot diameter
canvas ball was hoisted 100 feet up the antenna mast at 11:55 a.m.
each day. At noon when the time-click from Arlington was received,
the time ball was dropped down the mast. In this manner mariners
were able to accurately fix their location, time, and distance to
port.
Also, because Jupiter operated a
telegraph station at the same facility, mariners could have messages
telegraphed by land line to their destination ports.
A second operational mission was to
provide for testing and evaluation of wireless facilities for the
government. In this respect the wireless station served well acting
as a test site for government transmissions and assisting in the
development of wireless technology throughout the world.
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