A Visit to the Camp Shohola Communications and Technology Center.

By Jon Mitchell, KD3FG.

I stopped by Camp Shohola while on a trip to the Delaware Water Gap and the Pocono Mountains and visited with Tom Gibson , WA3HWY a forty year veteran of camp to see what is new (and old) at the Camp Shohola Communications and Technology Center.

Tom Gibson, WA3HWY operates and maintains the 1936 Collins model H12 Broadcast Console at Camp Shohola. The clock lights up when the microphone is turned on.
After more than 30 years, good old WCSR is still running! Tom has put together an incredible program of communications and technology related activities. Since 1972, more than 3400 boys have learned how to operate a broadcast console at Camp Shohola. Although they now use computers for production and audio editing, they still teach tape spliceing, dubbing and multitracking techniques. Camp Shohola was the first summer camp to teach radio broadcasting and continues with the finest and most up to date instruction including play by play sports broadcasting and news gathering using remote broadcasting equipment, weather forecasting and modern digital production techniques. However, they have not forgotten the roots of radio broadcasting and maintain a fully operational broadcast facility as it would appear more than fifty years ago. The Collins model H12 broadcast console was manufactured in 1936 and is a certified operating antique. It is the oldest continuously operating broadcast console in the world and had been modified very little from its construction. Some of the tubes and capacitors have never been replaced, and all audio transformers, potentiometers, and switches are original. Jared C. Smith reads news from the Model 15 Teletype printer over Camp Shohola Radio. Click on the picture for a full view. Madison J. Smith checks the wire service copy as he prepares for a newscast. Click on the picture for a full view. Click on the link to view a video of the operation of the printer. The total weight of the console exceeds 150 pounds including the external power supply.

There is also a fully operational 1930's Model 15 Teletype news printer. The wire is set up to demonstrate how news would be prepared in a typical radio station news room fifty years ago. The copy is actually sent from a computer using a program that emulates the obsolete, five level, 67 WPM baudot code. The station also contains five broadcast cart machines, four open reel recorders and 17 microphones, some more than 50 years old. The building is truely an operating broadcast history museum.


Tom Gibson constructed this manually operated telephone switching system in 1974 at Camp Shohola, in Greeley, PA. Click here for more pictures.


Tom started the camp-wide manually operated phone system in the 1974, added a Strowger Switching System in 1979, the electronic key system in 1983 and the computer interface in 1992. He is demonstrating how to use the first console where phone connections were made by switching lines together manually by an operator (usually a camper operating the radio station). All of the cabin phones are still routed through the old manual switching system which remains fully operational. The system has been struck many times during the summer by sever Pocono Mountain electrical storms. During one storm, "Ball Lightning", a rare natural phenomenon formed over the manual switching system. The bluish violet ball was about ten inches in diameter and remained in the room for more than 15 seconds. It extinguished with a "POP" and left a carbon residue on the ceiling which remains today. In most cases the only repair need is to replace a fuse or two. The system is well grounded and protected by gas discharge and wire fuses. It is rare when it is necessary to change out a relay or other electronic component.



Jane makes a call to check the time ,(#66). Notice the rack of batteries along the wall. Click here for information on the operation of a typical system.


The telephone system is a fully operational Automatic Electric/Strowger telephone switching system invented by Almon B. Strowger, using technology developed in the late 1890's and early 1900's. It is similar to the one on permanent display at the American History Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. The switch on the shelf was constructed by Tom Gibson from salvaged parts of an old 1940's, 740C, AT&T switch dismantled in 1974. The switch on the floor was constructed in 1978 by Rick Walsh using similar components and won a first place prize at the Antique Telephone Collectors Convention in Hartford, Connecticut in 1980. The single connector switch on the shelf is an original Strowger switch manufactured in 1909 shortly after Joseph Harris licensed the technology and merged the companies. The last documented repair was in 1918, and it is believed to be the oldest operating Strowger Switch in the world. It lacks the "G" relay to recognize a call in progress and return the familiar busy signal. The two systems are fully interconnected with redundancy on key components.




 A close up view of the Strowger Switching System at Camp Shohola in Greeley, PA


Here's a closer view of the Strowger Switching System originally constructed by Rick Walsh in 1978 from salvaged AT&T and Automataic Electric parts. The system is completely self contained with ring generators, dial, trunk busy and busy tone generators, power supplies and fuse panels. There is also a rack of eight six volt batteries which can operate the entire system for days in the event of a power failure, (which is not uncommon in the mountains.) There are 108 telephone throught the camp connected to the switch by more than 35 miles of copper wire with more than three miles of wire buried in the rocky Pocono mountain ground. There is a counter on the system that has recorded more than 1.6 million calls on the system since 1979.



Tom Gibson sits in front of the 386 PC that is used to record all long distance telephone calls at Camp Shohola in Greeley, PA. If you look closely, you might be able to read a few LD access codes.


The camp system is connected to the outside world through an old PC which records the dialed number, duration and actual time of all outgoing calls. The computer also routes calls to one of three different carriers for the lowest rates and even provides call accounting with account codes for LD access. All four Camp Shohola phone lines enter through the CommTech building where they are processed and connected to our switching system. Incoming and outgoing calls can be accessed from any camp phone. Some of the features offered include, call forwarding, conference calls and full operator services such as 911 emergency, 611 repair and 411 directory assistance.


Tom prints a 10 page directory twice a year for the 280+ users of the system. The directory even includes a Yellow Page and a map of the camp. For more information about Tom, his family and his many interests, please visit Tom's Website.



WB3DGR, the Amateur Radio Club at Camp Shohola, in Greeley, PA


I donated a Kenwood TS-120s to the club ham station WB3DGR to supplement their TS-520 and Yeasu FTDX-400. The station is capable of operating almost all band and modes with power up to two thousand watts PEP. There are now eight radios in the shack connected to seven antennaes on the roof. Hopefully, many campers will have their first contacts using that radio! WB3DGR is the first summer camp Amateur Radio station in the country and the only one fully licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. The program was started in 1966 and fully licensed in 1974.



If you are on a high speed internet connection, please take a look at the CommTech section of the Camp Shohola Promotional Video Program.

Cabin 10 at Camp Shohola in Greeley, PA. Click here to view the video.

The picture above is one of the camper cabins at Camp Shohola and is the last one in which I was a counselor in 1985. This cabin also housed the radio station in 1972.

Return to the Camp Shohola Homepage.