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History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy, Captain Linwood S. Howeth, USN (Retired), 1963, pages 554-556:

Appendix  E.  Special  Notice  to  Mariners  No.  47a

    Published by the HYDROGRAPHIC  OFFICE
R.  H.  McLEAN, Editor
         WASHINGTON, D.C., November 22, 1904

(1681) U.  S.  NAVAL  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH  SERVICE
The following regulations governing the use of the U.S. Naval Coastwise Wireless Telegraph Stations are hereby established:
    1. The facilities of the naval coastwise wireless telegraph stations (including the one on the Nantucket Shoal Lightship), for communicating with ships at sea, where not in competition with private wireless telegraph stations, are placed at the service of the public generally and of maritime interests in particular under the rules established herein, which are subject to modification from time to time, for the purpose of:
        (a) Reporting vessels and intelligence received by wireless telegraphy with regard to maritime casualties, derelicts at sea and overdue vessels.
        (b) Receiving wireless telegrams of a private or commercial nature from ships at sea, for further transmission by telegraph or telephone lines.
        (c) Transmitting wireless telegrams to ships at sea.
    2. For the present, this service will be rendered free. All messages will, however, be subject to the tariffs of the ship stations and landlines. Arrangements have been made with both the Western Union and Postal Telegraph Companies for forwarding messages received from ships at sea. When a message is not prepaid the company delivering it will collect the charges. Ship owners should arrange with companies operating the landlines as to tariffs and the settlement therefor. Messages will not be accepted for transmission to ships whose owners have not agreed to accept unpaid messages, unless a sufficient sum is deposited to cover all charges.
    3. The Nantucket Shoal Lightship Station will report vessels and transmit messages from them if the signals are made by the International Code, or any other known to the operators on the lightship.
    4. When notified by the Weather Bureau of the Department of Agriculture, Naval wireless telegraph stations will give storm warnings to vessels communicating with them by wireless telegraphy. Storm warnings will soon be sent to the Nantucket Shoal Lightship by wireless telegraphy and storm signals furnished by the Weather Bureau will be displayed therefrom to warn passing vessels.
    5. All vessels having the use of the naval wireless telegraph service are requested to take daily meteorological observations of the weather when within communicating range and to transmit such observations to the Weather Bureau by wireless telegraphy at least once daily, and transmit observations oftener when there is a marked change in the barometer.
    6. Arrangements for a time signal service by wireless telegraphy are now being made.
    7. All ship owners desiring to use any special code of signals for communicating with the Nantucket Shoal Lightship Station or any of the shore stations, or make any other special arrangements are requested to communicate with the Bureau of Equipment, Navy Department, Washington, D.C.
    8. All Chambers of Commerce, Maritime Exchanges, newspapers, news agencies, and others desiring to have vessel reports and general marine news forwarded to them regularly are requested to communicate with the Bureau of Equipment in order that necessary arrangements for the service may be made. In no case will an operator attached to a station be allowed to act as an agent for any individual or corporation, but all vessel reports and marine news not of a private nature will be supplied to all applicants, so long as this service does not too greatly tax the personnel of the stations, when it will be necessary for those desiring information involving much time for its distribution to appoint agents who will be allowed access to the station bulletins.
    9. Naval wireless telegraph stations are equipped with apparatus of several systems and can communicate with all the principal wireless telegraph systems now in use, if tuned to the same wave length. The department is desirous of cooperating with all ship owners wishing to avail themselves of its wireless telegraph service, and, judging from its experience with numerous systems, it is believed that there will be little or no difficulty in arranging for communication between its stations and ships equipped with apparatus of other systems, if the owners of the apparatus as well as the owners of the ships are desirous of establishing such communication.
    10. Vessels desiring to make use of this service regularly must agree to transmit and receive all Government messages free.
    The following stations are fully manned and will be prepared to receive messages at all hours, except in case of some accidental breakdown, which is not apt to occur because of the precautionary measures which have been taken.
    The call letter is given in the column opposite the name of each station:

Stations.	Call letter
Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N.H.	PC
Cape Ann, (Thatchers Island)	PE
Highland Light, Cape Cod, Mass.	PH
Nantucket Shoal Lightship	PI
Torpedo Station, Newport, R.I.	PK
Montauk Point, L.I.	PR
Navy Yard, New York	PT
Highlands of Navesink, N.J.	PV
Cape Henry, Va.	QN
Navy Yard, Norfolk, Va.	QL
Dry Tortugas, Fla.	RF
San Juan, P.R.	SA
Culebra, West Indies	SD
Yerba Buena Island, Calif.	TI
Navy Yard, Mare Island, Calif.	TG

It is expected that the following stations will be in operation in a few weeks fully manned to receive messages at all hours:

Stations.	Call letter
Cape Elizabeth, Maine	PA
Navy Yard, Boston, Mass.	PG
Naval Station, Key West, Fla.	RD
Navy Yard, Pensacola, Fla.	RK
Naval Station, Guantanamo, Cuba	SI
Panama Canal Zone	SL
Farallon Island, Calif.	TH
Naval Station, Cavite, Philippine Islands	UT
Cabra Island, Philippine Islands	UY

The following stations are equipped with apparatus, but are not yet fully manned; they will receive and transmit messages when operators are on duty:

Stations.	Call letter
Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.	QG
Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.	QI

The Bureau of Equipment expects to erect wireless telegraph stations at the principal points along the coast of the United States and at points in its insular possessions. As fas as they are completed they will be open for public use under the regulations established herein.
    Notice will be given in the "Notice to Mariners" when stations are put in operation or withdrawn from the service for any reason.
    Messages for the Cape Ann station should be forwarded via the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N.H.
    The Nantucket Shoal Lightship will transmit its messages to the Torpedo Station, Newport, R.I. All messages intended to be sent via this lightship to ships at sea should be sent to the Torpedo Station.
    Messages for the Montauk Point wireless telegraph station will also be sent via the Torpedo Station, Newport, R.I.
    Arrangements have been made with the Weather Bureau for the transmission of messages between Cape Henry wireless telegraph station and Norfolk. All messages intended for the Cape Henry station should be sent via the Weather Bureau, Norfolk, Va.
    All messages intended for Dry Tortugas should be sent via the Naval Station, Key West, Fla.
    The station at Yerba Buena, Calif., can be reached by either the Postal Telegraph or the Western Union system and the one at Mare Island by the Western Union.
    The Farallon station will communicate with Yerba Buena Island, Calif.

INSTRUCTIONS  TO  GOVERN  COMMUNICATION  BY  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPHY  BETWEEN  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPH  STATIONS  AND  SHIPS

    I. A vessel wishing to communicate with a station and having ascertained by "listening in" that she is not interfering with messages being exchanged within her range should make the call letter of the station at a distance not greater than 75 miles from it.
    II. The call should not be continuous, but should be at intervals of about three minutes in order to give the station a chance to answer.
    III. After the station answers the vessel should send her name, distance from station, weather and number of words she wishes to send; then stop until the station makes O.K., signals the number of words she wishes to send to vessel and signals go ahead.
    IV. Then the vessel begins to send new messages, stopping at the end of each 50 words and waiting until the station signals O.K. and go ahead; when all messages have been sent she will so indicate. If the sender desires to designate the Western Union or Postal Telegraph system for further transmission of his message he should do so immediately after the address, as for example: "A. B. C., Washington, D.C., via W.U. (or P.T.)."
    V. When a vessel has indicated that she has finished the station will send to the vessel such messages as she may have for her in the following order:
        (a) Government business, viz, telegrams from any Government departments to their agents on board.
        (b) Business concerning the vessel with which communication has been established, viz, telegrams from owner to master.
        (c) Urgent private dispatches, limited.
        (d) Press dispatches.
        (e) Other dispatches.
    VI. In the case of the Nantucket Shoal Lightship, it will, immediately on receiving the vessel's call, acknowledge, and (after receiving vessel's name, distance, weather report, and number of words she wishes to send) transmit the first three to Newport, and then tell the vessel to go ahead with her messages.
    VII. After receiving these and sending the vessel any messages on file for her, the lightship will transmit to Newport messages received from the communicating vessel in the following order:
        (a) Government business.
        (b) Urgent private dispatches, limited.
        (c) Press dispatches.
        (d) Other dispatches.
    VIII. A naval wireless telegraph station has the right to break in on any message being sent by a vessel at any time, and the right of way may be given at any time to a government vessel or one in distress.
    IX. When two or more vessels desire to communicate with a naval wireless telegraph station at the same time, the one whose call is first received will have right of way, and the others will be told to wait and will be taken up in turn. Vessels having been told to wait must cease calling.
    X. In case communication is not established with any ship for which messages are on file, the naval wireless telegraph station will notify the telegraph company from which the messages were received, giving sufficient information for them to identify the telegrams and notify the sender.
    XI. In order to obtain the best results, both sending and receiving apparatus should be tuned to wave length of 320 meters.
    XII. Until further notice the speed of sending should not exceed 12 words per minute.
    XIII. In order that all messages received at naval wireless telegraph stations may be forwarded to ships for which they are intended, and in order that all ships equipped with wireless telegraph apparatus may receive storm warnings, they should always report when in signaling distance of a naval wireless telegraph station.
    XIV. The service being without charge at present, the government accepts no responsibility for the reception or transmission of messages from or for passing vessels. Every effort will be made to transmit all messages without error and as expeditiously as possible. It must be remembered that errors are not uncommon in ordinary telegraph and cable messages, so that due allowance should be made.
    XV. In order that the service may be made as good and as useful as possible, it is requested that complaints should be promptly reported to the Bureau of Equipment as soon as possible after the cause therefor, giving date, hour and other details, to enable the Bureau to investigate the case.
    XVI. Information regarding the Naval Wireless Telegraph Service will be published in "Notice to Mariners."
(Special N.M. 47a, 1904.)

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