Marconi Day - 26 April 2014

EI5IMD on Brow Head for Marconi Day on 26 April

Marconi’s wireless station on Brow Head near Crookhaven in West Cork operated from 1901 to 1914, handling message traffic between shipowners and ships arriving from North America. The station was so busy that it operated around the clock with six operators working in shifts.

2014 is the 100th anniversary of the station's closure, and Cork Radio Club members are QRV from the site on Saturday, 26th April for International Marconi Day. This is an annual worldwide special event that celebrates the great man on a Saturday near his birthday, which is 25th April 1874.

EI5IMD will operate two stations on CW and SSB, and possibly a third on digi modes. We hope to get more EIs and GIs in the log this year than before, so please call. The track up to the site is steep and narrow, and parking is tight on top but anyone is welcome to visit operations on the day.

Telford Radio Society operating GB8MD for Marconi Day

Telford and District Radio Society will be running a memorial radio station on the Welsh coast at Tywyn, Gwynedd, for International Marconi Day event. The club will use GB8MD ('Marconi Day') callsign for the day.

The site being used was part of Marconi's receive site for spark transmissions from across the Atlantic. Many buildings remain but are privately owned and there is no public access to them. The field in front of them is where the club will be operating from.

Visitors are welcome on-site during the day, but please take instructions on parking and access. Licenced visitors will be able to operate the station - please bring along your licence and some ID.

ontact the event organiser Simon Taylor 2E0CHV for more information on 07851 340162 or m3set@yahoo.co.uk

International Marconi Day at Sandford Mill

Sandford Mill, Chelmsford's former waterworks, is primarily a museum collections store and science education resource, however it is open to the public for special events during the year

The Ships Radio Room at Sandford Mill Sandford Mill has featured in TV programmes such Great British Railway Journeys and The Wave Messengers. The building houses an extensive radio collection, with some equipment dating back to the 1890’s.

There is a series of five ship’s radio room displays representing different decades including some very rare Marconi equipment from ships contemporary with the Titanic.

The first public open day of 2014 will be held on Saturday, 26 April from 10am to 5pm to celebrate the birthday of Guglielmo Marconi who was born 25 April, 1874.

The Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society (CARS) will be operating demonstration stations using the call sign GX0MWT. The HF SSB demonstration station will be located in the historic Marconi 2MT Writtle hut which is now housed inside the museum while the CW team will operate another station from the first floor office.

Colin Page, G0TRM and his team will be demonstrating the impressive Mechanical Morse and Morse Key display with the opportunity for the youngsters to try their hand at sending Morse. The Morse punched paper tape sending and decoding process always proves to be a big hit with potential junior CW operators.

Sandford Mill is run with the help of the Friends of Chelmsford Museums and other ex-industry volunteers. It relies on the support of several voluntary bodies including Chelmsford amateur radio society, the Radio officers association, the Marconi veterans association and the Susan trust. Susan is the last wooden Chelmer Barge and is undergoing restoration (financed by funds devotedly raised by the Susan trust), before returning to her moorings at Sandford Mill.

The Museum is located in Sandford Mill Road, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 6NY, admittance and parking are free, reports of previous events - http://www.g0mwt.org.uk/sandfordmill/

International Marconi Day is not a contest; it is an opportunity for amateurs around the world to make point-to-point contact with historic Marconi sites using HF communications techniques similar to those used by Marconi, and to earn an award certificate for working or hearing a requisite number of Marconi stations.

Further information - http://www.gb4imd.com/

U.S. Coast Guard, Liberian tanker, and Panamanian ham operator rescue 3 from sinking sailboat

Three people were plucked from a sinking sailboat in the waters 50 miles south of Balboa, Panama on Monday, thanks to the combined efforts of the United States Coast Guard, a Liberian tanker, and a Panamanian amateur radio operator.

Following a fire onboard, the 42 ft sailing vessel Even Star, under way from California in route to Panama, began taking on water Saturday.  The boats pumps were unable to curtail the incoming sea waters.  

At 4:15 AM Sunday morning the U.S. Coast Guard 11th District Rescue Coordination Center in Alameda, California detected a distress signal from a 406 Mhz Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) which was registered to the Even Star.

A check by Coast Guard personnel revealed that the tanker MT / Glenda Meryl was approximately 30 miles away from the sinking vessel. With the help of an amateur radio operator in Panama, the Coast Guard was able to guide the 600 ft Liberian flagged tanker to the area of the sailboat.

The Glenda Meryl is a 47,250 DWT oil and chemical tanker is co-owned by the Italian firms of D'Amico International Shipping  and Glencore.  She is a participating ship in the Coast Guard's Automatic Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue (AMVER) program.

The tanker arrived at 5:23 PM. The ships Master, Captain Singh deployed a lifeboat and rescue party, who safely recovered the Even Star sailors, who were now adrift in a raft. All three were U.S. citizens. They were transported to Balboa, Panama where they were met by Panamanian officials.

The ham radio operator credited with assisting with communications and coordination of rescue efforts has not been identified, but is reported to be a member of the Panamanian Air Force.

915-921 MHz Licence Exempt allocation

Ofcom has published a statement on the release of spectrum in the 870 to 876 MHz and 915 to 921 MHz bands for Short Range Devices, which can be used for machine to machine (M2M) communications

Machine to machine communications can be used to link devices together wirelessly, and will form part of what is becoming known as the Internet of Things.

The release of these frequencies means that the UK will be among the first countries in Europe to make this spectrum available for machine to machine communications.

As these devices increasingly connect to each other, they could lead to significant innovation, efficiencies and consumer benefit.

Examples include better management of city infrastructures, greater building security, more regular flows of transport traffic, improving energy efficiency, and health monitoring.

Research commissioned by Ofcom estimates that there could be over 300 million M2M devices in the UK by 2020.

Responses to the December 2013 consultation gave broad support to Ofcom’s key proposals and highlighted their value for M2M uses and the Internet of Things.

Having considered the responses, Ofcom will authorise the use of Short Range Devices by licence exemption in line with the technical conditions specified in the consultation.

Ofcom will be publishing a regulatory notice containing the draft licence exemption regulations later this month.

Read the Ofcom statement - http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/short-range-devices/statement/