International Marconi Day - stations to listen for

This year sees the 22nd International Marconi Day (IMD), which marks the anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi’s birth, 25 April 1874.

It is a 24-hour amateur radio event that is not a contest but an opportunity for radio amateurs around the world to make point-to-point contact with historic Marconi sites and to gain an Award for achieving the requisite number of Marconi stations worked.

Some of the stations involved will be active from sites in the UK. Located just outside Chelmsford, Essex, the village of Writtle played an important role in the development of public broadcasting. The original station, callsign 2MT, was operated by the Marconi Scientific Instrument Company from 14 February 1922 until 17 January 1923. It is planned that GB2MT will be operational for at least part of the day from the Writtle Agricultural College sports field, which is the closest available space to the original location

A new station, GB8MD, will be on from the Marconi Receiving Station site in Tywyn, central Wales. Activity will be on all the HF bands, with up to 3 stations active simultaneously.

Other UK special event stations are GB4MBP from Marconi Bass Point at The Lizard in Cornwall, GB5FHC from the Fraserburgh Heritage Centre and GB5LT from Luttrells Tower in Southampton.

Celebrating 100 years of amateur radio in Austria, OE100M will be on the air throughout April. As it is also an official IMD station, contacts made on Saturday, 25 April are valid for the IMD Award. QSL via the OE-Bureau or direct to OE1WHC

EI0MAR will be active from the vintage radio museum in Howth in County Dublin. This station will concentrate activities from 9am until 5pm and visitors will be welcome during those hours.

A full list of the participating stations can be found on the GB4IMD website

Source: GB2RS News