MARCONI 75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST TRANSATLANTIC TWO-WAY RADIO COMMUNICATIONS -

It Is timely that we In Australia from this station by wireless telegraphy should note the passing of this and printed on the US liner "St. Paul" historical occasion. The RSGB when 36 miles distant. On 3rd June, 1898, Journal, Radio Comumnlcation, of Lord Kelvin sent from the Needles wireless s- March 1978 reports fully the telegraph station the first radio telegram celebrations held at Poldhu in for which payment was made. Cornwall and Cape Cod in The Needles wireless telegraph station Massachusetts. These were the sites exchanged radio messages first with a tug at which the original two-way com- in Alum Bay then with Bournmouth, 14 munications took place on January miles distant, next with Poole, 18 miles 18th, 1903. away, later with ships 40 miles seawards. These wonders attracted world-wide atten- Amateur stations were set up at Poldhu tion and famous scientists from many (GB3MSA) and at Cape Cod (KM1CC) for countries came (1898-1900) to see the new the week of 14-21 January 1978. Messages wireless telegraphy in experimental opera- were exchanged from members of tion." Marconi's family, President Carter of USA The accompanying photo shows the and President Giovanni Leone of Italy. memorial column at the later Poldhu site. Marchesa Marconi, the widow of Gugliel- The Hotel Poldhu is about 200 metres mo, officially opened the station at Poldhu away from this spot. which had been set up in the Poldhu Hotel. Both she and her daughter, Princess Inscriptions on the four bronze plaques Elettra, as guests of honour, took part in at the base of the granite column on the the various activities. cliff top at Poldhu Cove, near Mullion Village, not far from the Goonhllly Downs It should be noted that prior to the satellite tracking station, on the southern event being celebrated (1933), that Mar- tip of Cornwall, an historic site of epoch- coni had an earlier installation at Alum making experiments read thus:— Marconi Monument at Poldhu, Bay on the Isle of Wight. Four bronze Cornwall, U.K. plaques on a stone marking the site may "One hundred yards north of this be seen by visitors today. This site is column stood from 1900 to 1933 the graphy which was opened with a second about 15 air miles to the West of the famous Poldhu Wireless Station, designed Marconi Station at Glace Bay in Canada powerful Shanklin radar station which by John Ambrose Fleming and erected by in 1902. When the Poldhu Station was tracks and identifies all aircraft movements the Marconi Company of London, from erected in 1900, wireless was in its in- for London's airport controllers. This which were transmitted the first signals fancy. When it was demolished in 1933 station itself is on the war-time site of one ever conveyed across the Atlantic by wire- wireless was established for communica- of Britain's early warning ray direction less telegraphy. The signals consisted of a tion on land, at sea and in the air, for finding stations (later called radar). repetition of the morse letter "S" and were received at St. John's, Newfoundland, by direction finding, broadcasting and tele- The plaques at Alum Bay read thus:— Guglielmo Marconi and his British assist- vision." "This stone marks the site of the ants on 12th December, 1901. TRIBUTE TO MARCONI Needles wireless telegraph station where From the Marconi Poldhu Station in An interesting tribute to Marconi appeared Guglielmo Marconi and his British col- 1923 and 1924, Charles Samuel Franklin, 40 years ago following his death in 1938. laborators carried out from 6th December, inventor of the Franklin Beam Aerial, This appeared in the BBC Handbook for 1897, to 26th May, 1900, a series of ex- directed his short wave wireless beam that year. For those of us interested in our periments which constituted some of the transmission to Guglielmo Marconi on his hobby and for those that have made elec- more important phases of their earlier yatch 'Elettra' cruising in the South Atlan- tronics their career the following extract is pioneer work in the development of wire- tic. The epoch-making results of these well worth considering. less communication of all kinds. experiments laid the foundation of modern "On July 21, following the death of Marconi described the Needles station high speed radio telegraphy communica- Marconi on July 20, a two minutes' silence as the world's first permanent wireless tion to and from all quarters of the globe. was observed on all British wavelengths. In the course of a broadcast tribute, Pro- station. It was erected under his personal To commemorate the pioneer work done fessor E. V. Appleton said: 'For over forty supervision by his assistant George Kemp by Guglielmo Marconi and his research years Marconi has worked as a radio ex- for Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd., experts and radio engineers at the Poldhu perimenter, with unflagging energy and and was completed on 9th December, Wireless Station between 1900 and 1933, enthusiasm. He has never been content to 1897. Other radio technicists of this com- the Marconi Company presented this his- rest. For him we were always at the be- pany who pioneered here were P. W. toric land to the National Trust. Some six ginning of things ... If difficulties seemed Paget, A. Gray, C. E. Rickard, W. Densham, acres of cliff land were given in 1937 and to be ahead he tackled them with the zeal F. S. Stacey, P. I. Woodward, C. H. Taylor. 44 acres behind the cliffs on which stood of a young experimenter beginning his first The station was dismantled in June 1900. the station were given in 1960. research. He was like this to the end . . . The Poldhu Wireless Station was used On 15th November, 1899, information for Great as his scientific and technical the first newspaper ever produced at sea, by the Marconi Company for the first achievements have been, the man has been the "Transatlantic Times", was transmitted trans-oceanic service of wireless tele- as great as his work.' " •

Page 18 Amateur Radio November 1978