Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

The United Fruit Company's Radio Telegraph System 391 GENERATOR ROOM ON THE S. S. " ULUA" The motor-generator may be seen in the foreground to the left. Directly behind it are the two banks of Edison storage batteries used for radio as well as lighting in emergency. To the right is the 2 K.W. transmitting outfit which is automatically controlled by switches located in the operating room a combined operating house and residence, and a power house. The only site available for this station, or in fact for any station near the mouth of the Mississippi River, is in the swamps extending for miles back. The towers rest on piles, as do the buildings and sidewalks. This station has thus far withstood the high winds encountered during the hurricane season in the Gulf. It offers the most direct means of communication between the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River and New Orleans. In 191 3 the Tropical Radio Telegraph Company was organized as a subsidiary of the United Fruit Company to handle the radio business of its steamships and of its stations in the United States. The activities of this subsidiary company have since been extended to cover Honduras and Nicaragua. In 1914 the Tela Railroad Company (a subsidiary of the United Fruit Company) opened up the banana district around Tela, Honduras, and a radio station for communication with Swan Island was constructed for that company. A year or two later a similar station was built for the Truxillo Railroad Company (also a subsidiary of the United Fruit Company) at Puerto Castella, Honduras. Both of these stations, communicating as they do exclusively with