NAA (Arlington, Virginia)

Test transmissions that began in November 1912 were promising enough to convince the U.S. Congress to finance the construction of similar stations at San Diego, California, Darien in the Panama Canal Zone, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Cavite in the Philippines.

Accurate timekeeping was critical for ocean navigation, since an error in a ship's chronometer of even a few minutes could result in the vessel dangerously miscalculating its position.

[6] NAA's high-powered signal meant it could be heard over a much greater area, covering much of the eastern United States and Atlantic ocean.

[7] In addition to mariners, the time signals soon found two appreciative civilian audiences: amateur radio operators, interested in a practical benefit from their hobby, and jewelers, who previously had been reliant on time services transmitted over telegraph wires, which had a reputation for being both expensive and of questionable reliability, especially compared to the free and very accurate NAA transmissions.

The later development of vacuum tube transmitters made audio transmissions practical, and in 1915 the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) received permission from the Navy to conduct a series of tests at the NAA facility.

In addition to time signals and weather reports, it also broadcast news summaries received by troops on land[11] and aboard ships in the Atlantic.

Time, weather, and navigational warnings are sent on a. c. w.[14] Beginning in 1920, a Navy station located in Anacostia, D.C., NOF, began broadcasting occasional entertainment programs.

On May 30, 1922 NAA and NOF jointly broadcast the ceremonies held at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial,[15] which was the first time that two stations simultaneously transmitted the same program.

In late 1922 it was decided that NOF would focus on experimental work, and effective January 3, 1923 all of its former broadcasts were transferred to NAA.

[18] Effective May 15, 1923 the Department of Commerce, which regulated civilian radio in the United States from late 1912 until the mid-1920s, announced that there would be a major expansion in the number of frequencies made available for broadcasting.

By 1923, NAA had six transmitters in operation, providing, in addition to time signals and military communication, weather reports and navigational warnings.

In the mid-1930s NAA was paired with NSS in Annapolis, Maryland to make joint transmissions, with both stations automatically controlled by the Washington observatory.

[22] By the late 1930s many of the activities conducted at NAA had been transferred to other sites, and it was decided that the Arlington operations were no longer needed.

[26] The contract to raze the towers was awarded to the Long Island Machinery & Equipment Company, Inc., whose winning bid was only $1.