In May 1888, the United States established a coaling station to service the vessels of the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

On March 3, 1915, the United States Congress passed an Appropriations Act that authorized $400,000 for the construction of a high-powered, long distance radio station at Pearl Harbor.

Seven self-supporting steel towers were erected to a height of 610 feet (190 m) at this new site for an antenna system for long wave radio transmitting.

Therefore, a secluded spot at Wahiawa, some 20 miles (32 km) north of Pearl Harbor, was chosen and purchased by the Navy for approximately one million dollars.

Lualualei was located only 4,000 yards (3,700 m) from the shoreline and received its power over exposed land lines from the Hawaiian Electric Company, 22 miles (35 km) away.

Men worked day and night to transfer operations to Wahiawa and on December 17 the relocation was completed without the slightest interruption in communications service.

It became apparent after the war that the naval communication facilities in Hawaii could never revert to their small pre-war status, but would have to continue in the role of "big business."

However, in 1956, it was decided that insufficient space existed in the Pearl Harbor area to permit the continued expansion of communications facilities on Oahu.

In addition, the various components were scattered throughout the Pearl Harbor complex which made the operation highly uneconomic and difficult to supervise.

Because the requirements for rapid communications from the Department of the Navy to the fleet operational commanders had changed, the CNO authorized the activation of an additional teletypewriter system.

The Makalapa Local Digital Message Exchange (LDMX) was activated in March 1973 by Vice Admiral G. C. Talle, Deputy CINCPACFLT.

The Commanding Officer of NAVCOMMSTA Honolulu transmitted the first message, via the LDMX system, in a ceremony marking the transformation of the CINCPAC Telecommunications Center at Camp H.M. Smith from Joint operation to Navy management in September 1973.