Amateur Radio First Contacts – Marconi Commemorative 2024
On December 12, 1901 Guglielmo Marconi received the first ever wireless trans-Atlantic signal from Poldhu, Cornwall in England. We are planning an event to commemorate Marconi’s success as well as some local Firsts of our own.
Participants:
The purpose of this event, besides, the Historic significance is to commemorate First Contacts. We will make this possible for those about to graduates from our
recent Ham class (Halifax) on December 7th ; as well as those who do not have the opportunity to participate on the air for various reasons such as; working, or living in restrictive areas such as apartments and condos.
Planning:
We are making progress with our planning and will keep you informed. The objective is to allow participants to operate from various locations with different radio and antenna configurations using several modes including CW (Morse Code), SSB (Phone) and Digital (FT8), etc. At the moment we are in the process of coordinating with both the Poldhu Amateur Radio Club (PARC) in Poldhu, Cornwall England from where the original signal ‘S’ was transmitted and the Society of Newfoundland Radio Amateurs (SONRA) in St. John’s, NL where the signal was received.
Please consider joining us for this event. Also, for local Hams, please advise at your earliest opportunity from where you would prefer to operate – see the list of locations and criteria under the heading Transmitting Sites.
Schedule & Frequencies :
Thursday Dec. 12 th during the hours of 10:00 to 16:00 local time (14:00 to 20:00 UTC)*
Saturday Dec. 14 th during the hours of 10:00 to 16:00 local time (14:00 to 20:00 UTC)
* VA1MMA hours may be extended to 16:00 Local (20:00 UTC) pending local availability of operators and interest of participants.
The list of Frequencies has not yet been confirmed.
(TBD)
Transmitting Sites:
We will have a number of local club’s and POTA (museum / ship) stations on the air for this event. These will include the Halifax Amateur Radio Club (HARC at Station 50 – VE1FQ); the Dartmouth Amateur Radio Club (DARC at the Spicer Bldg. – VE1YO); the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (VA1MMA); the Museum Ship Acadia (VE0MMA); the Museum Ship HMCS Sackville (VE0CNM).
Other Participants:
Besides the Poldhu Amateur Radio Society, the Society of Newfoundland Radio Amateurs – SONRA – in St. John’s, NL as well as the Cape Bear Lighthouse & Marconi Station on Prince Edward Island have expressed a huge interest in participating. Hopefully more will follow.
We look forward, as Hams from all over join with us in this Commemoration of First Contacts.
73 es Best Regards,
Bill Dyer
VE1WPS
Member at Large
Halifax Amateur Radio Club (HARC)
Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA
