U.S.S. TEXAS - BB35

Main Radio Station

Be sure to click on the stars and arrows on the deck plan shown below to see photos taken from that spot on the ship and in the direction the arrow points.  Click on individual images to enlarge them.

This compartment was the primary communications hub between the ship and the outside world.  While much ship-to-ship radio was done from a number of places, this location handled most of the heavy fleet and higher traffic.  As can be seen in the photos, the compartment was lined with operator's positions that sent and received Morse code.  The majority of this traffic was encoded, so the completed messages were passed through a small port hole into the secure Coding Room where they were encoded and decoded.  Views of this smaller compartment show that the safe containing code keys is still in place.

It is truly fortunate that much of the receiving equipment is still on hand.  The first photo entering the room, and the two Coding Room photos were taken prior to most of the equipment being moved back from an off-ship storage facility.  The remaining photos show much of the equipment that was later put in place.  Work has begun to restore some of it and the ultimate task will be to restore the compartment and place the radios in their original locations.