Historic Marconi Tour

In 1898, Gugliemo Marconi received the first commercial opportunity for his newly invented wireless telegraph apparatus and established a wireless link for shipping between Ballycastle and Rathlin Island.

In 1907, Marconi's dream of fixed point-to-point wireless telegraph stations linking Europe and North America became a reality. The stations were located at Derrygimla near Clifden, and at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

To commemorate these significant events, Hal, W8HC will operate as GI/W8HC/p from Ballycastle August 4-5th (he will be also taking part in the annual Marconi Festival at Ballycastle with the Marconi Radio Group's MN0MRG special event station).

On August 6th Hal will go and operate from East Lighthouse (ARLS NTI-011, TWLHD WLH GI-001, WW Loc. IO65WH) on Rathlin Island (EU-122). On August 9-10 he will be active as EI/W8HC/p from the Derrygimla site, and possibly from nearby Letterfrack, site of an ancillary receive station built in 1912.

Logs will be uploaded to LoTW and special QSLs from each of these historic Marconi locations will be printed and sent via GlobalQSL (www.globalqsl.com).

In addition, a specially designed certificate will be issued to those stations making contact with both GI and EI operations from either Ballycastle or Rathlin and Derrygimla or Letterfrack.

In keeping with the historic connection, all QSOs from these locations will be CW only.