The original Radio Amateur

At the end of the month we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the WIA and organised amateur radio activity in Australia. However, we should take a moment to remember one of the original radio amateurs, Marconi.

Marconi established the world’s first equipped and functioning wireless telegraphy station in November 1897 on the Isle of Wight.

In the summer of 1900 a station was established at Plodhu Cornwell from where Marconi hoped to archieve communications across the Atlantic.

In the summer of 1901 the spark generated by the transmitter produced a thunder clap which echoed around the hill and coves. The sparks generated were a foot long and as thick as a man’s wrist.

The sending of Morse using their equipment was defiantly not a speed event, the keying contact was at the far end of a 6ft length of timber and the operators stuffed cotton wool in their ears to reduce the effects of the thunder claps generated by the spark.

Can you imagine using such equipment and the effects on the neighbours today?

But it was the beginning of radio a hobby which we enjoy today.

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia