Local radio groups, Memorial University to commemorate first wireless transatlantic signal on Friday
One of Newfoundland and Labrador’s greatest claims to fame will celebrate its 124th anniversary this week. The year 2025 also happens to be the 150th birthday of the man behind the accomplishment: Guglielmo Marconi.
On Dec. 12, 1901, on a stormy evening in St. John’s, Marconi received the first wireless signal sent across the Atlantic Ocean. Sent from Poldhu Cove in England, the letter “S” was tapped out in Morse code. Marconi used a wire antenna held aloft by a large kite to receive the signal from atop Signal Hill.
On Friday, from 10:45 a.m.-1:30 p.m., the Marconi Radio Club of Newfoundland and the Poldhu Amateur Radio Club in England will commemorate the anniversary in collaboration with the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering.
Memorial University will host the event at the Johnson Geo Centre on Signal Hill in St. John’s.
A two-way radio station will be installed at the Geo Centre, just a few hundred metres from the site where Marconi conducted his famous 1901 experiment.
“At 10:45 a.m. we will be presenting on Marconi, and radio art and science,” said Dr. Len Zedel, head of Memorial University’s Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography.
The big moment will be 12:25 p.m., when the group attempts to establish a direct two-way high frequency radio contact with their Poldhu colleagues, to once again receive the letter “S” from across the Atlantic, and send radio telegrams from Memorial and the Newfoundland and Labrador section of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering.
Participating organizations are below.
- Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering Newfoundland and Labrador
- Johnson Geo Centre, Memorial University
- Poldhu Amateur Radio Club, Cornwall, U.K.
- Marconi Radio Club of Newfoundland
- Sydney Amateur Radio Club
- Marconi Cape Cod Radio Club
- Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi