Pilgrimages to the Marconi Site

Geoff was drawn to the site where Marconi sent and received the first transatlantic messages from and to the US on January 18, 1903. This site is now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. The National Park service says, “Though few reminders of the site remain, one can still stand on an Atlantic cliff on a winter day in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts and reflect on the event that sparked the birth of global wireless communication.” https://www.nps.gov/caco/learn/historyculture/marconi.htm

Note: Due to ongoing erosion of the cliff at the Marconi site neither the bust of Marconi nor the small shelter remain at the site. As park officials watched the cliff edge retreating inland, they moved the bust to an indoor location and removed the shelter.

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Standing on the retreating Atlantic cliff, looking out to sea and remembering that historic communication became a family tradition.

In 2006, Geoff fulfilled his dream of operating his ham radio from the Marconi site. At the time he was mostly using QRP which indicates a low power set up, less than 5 watts. Geoff made many contacts including some across the Atlantic. Considering that Marconi used 30,000 watts, accomplishing the same thing with less than 5 watts shows that the understanding of how to send information via the electromagnetic spectrum has come a long way since 1903. As mentioned elsewhere on this website, Geoff liked to do more with less.


from Eastern Massachusetts ARRL ( American Radio Relay League, the organization that supports ham radio operators) Geoff’s full report follows.

W1OH “QRP To The Field” Operation At Marconi CC QTH!

May 9, 2006 - by admin - Leave a Comment

Geoffrey Allsup, W1OH presents an excellent web article highlighting his recent QRP To The Field operation from the former Marconi “CC” station QTH on Cape Cod April 29, 2006. This year’s theme for QRPTTF was “Park It Here” which encouraged operation from parks.

W1OH reports a “very successful day” with 22 QSOs and several trans-Atlantic contacts. Perhaps more importantly, Allsup interacted with numerous visitors: “a dozen groups, ranging from one or two folks, up to about a half-dozen at a time” affording Allsup the opportunity to hand out Amateur Radio literature.

QRPTTF 2006 from Marconi Cape Cod Station site - W1OH

by Geoff Allsup

I had a great time in QRP To The Field this year operating W1OH from the site of Marconi's Cape Cod station CC. This year's theme, "Park It Here", led me to set up at the Marconi staion site at the Cape Cod National Seashore.   I've always thought it would be great to operate from here, in the presence of Marconi's spirit!   I arrived at the site about 9AM EDT (1300Z), giving me 2 hours to set up before the start of the contest.   Weather for the day was predicted to be sunny but in the low 50's F, with northeast winds of about 20 MPH.   At 9, it was still in the 40's and the wind was already blowing about 20 - I leaned into the wind, walked out to the interpretive shelter near the cliff edge, looked at all those whitecaps, and opted to setup at a nice picnic table by the parking area about 200 feet back from the cliff edge, and sheltered by a small dune and intervening scrub.   This turned out to be a wise choice, as the wind was much less, and later as the temp reached the low 50's, I only needed a light jacket to keep warm.

 



Marconi Station Site Display Shelter 
(photo taken while standing near remaining NW tower base, looking south. The cliff is about 10 feet to the left.)


The steel frame picnic table was the perfect base support for an MFJ fiberglass mast.   I attached my 40 M doublet with 300 ohm twinlead feed, pushed the mast up to 30 feet (top 3 feet is really unusable on these masts), and stretched the ends out to scrub pines to the north and south.  As nothing is taller than 15 feet or so nearby, this got the center of the antenna above trees at this site.   The cliff top is about 85 feet above sea level, so my antenna was 100 ft ASL (a bit lower than W0RW's site) 

 



Picnic Table Operating Position and Display Board


 



MFJ Fiberglass Mast with 40M Doublet attached to Picnic Table

 

Since I hoped to use my KX1 for 40M and 20M, but my FT-897 for 15M (and 10M maybe?),  I first hooked up the MFJ tuner and found match settings for all 4 bands right away.  That was too easy, so I just used the KX1 in straight-thru mode all day, and swapped to the FT897 occasionally to check 15M periodically (mostly on the hour).   Never did hear any activity on 15M during the contest, though there had been a couple of decent sounding signals in the morning while I was setting up.   Gee, gang, ya gotta make some noise!!   17M  seemed to have activity most of the day, so maybe 15M really was dead? 

Anyway, once the station was set up, I had about 45 minutes to spare before 1500Z, so I put up a small display board with my call, and a copy of the new ARRL "Hello" brochure, a NPS Marconi brochure, and some QSL cards.  Remember the rules Jan posted: 


What better way to showcase amateur radio than to set up in a 
public place and draw onlookers. This is a good opportunity to 
do a little recruiting for the hobby. 


Well, little did I know!   Just before start time, I had my first visitor, who chatted for about 20 minutes or so, and was immediately followed by another group.  I should have had a signup sheet!!  I handed folks copies of the "Hello" and Marconi brochures, as well as my Falmouth Amateur Radio Association contact info card, and hoped they might read the stuff later!   Finally made my first contact with N4DD in VA about 1520Z on 20M, and had VA, IL, FL, CO, and MN in the log (all 20M) in the first 30 minutes of actual operating with the KX1.   I spent the next hour plus talking to visitors, handing out info, letting folks listen to CW on the little battery powered speaker (an old computer speaker with a compartment for 4 AA cells).   A nice day seemed to be bringing out a lot of visitors to the Marconi station site. 

 



Another View of the Operating Position  (Note small speaker at right)

 

By about 1700Z, I got a quick break, and gulped a sandwich and milk, while trying 40M for 1 contact, also VA, before returning to 20M.   More folks came by, time passed, I made a few more contacts with the KX1 on 20M.  Hey, W0RW/pm - made that one at 1820Z, that's 100ft ASL to 10,570ft ASL - is that line-of-sight from Cape Cod, MA to CO?!   Went back to 40M for the rest of the hour, but used the FT897 now, as I figured I had enough internal battery capacity to last til my intended stop time around 6PM EDT, and QRM from ALQP was fierce on 40.   Only made 4 contacts on 40M before another big break for visitors during the 1900Z hour 

At 2000Z, I heard IK2RMZ send CQ right near 14060, so called him, then realized he was not in TTF, and had a quick chat with him, though he was fighting thunderstorm QRN on his end.   But since this was "across the pond" from the Marconi site, I was pretty happy!   At this point, a little after 4PM EDT, I started to lose the sun on my operating position, and the temp was starting to fall back below 50F.    I made several more contacts on 20M, including one with PA0CMU, who answered my CQ at 2105Z, and was thrilled to work a station from Marconi's Cape Cod station site.  Looks like I need to make up a special QSL.    Last contact was at 2112Z with AK0M, who had actually started a contact with me just before PA0CMU called, but had a "keyer explosion" mid-contact. He recovered and waited while I chatted for 7 minutes with 'CMU, then called me and finished up - thanks, Steve! 

Well, at this point, talking to still another visitor, I realized that even with a fleece shirt, light jacket, and winter parka shell, my teeth were starting to chatter (figured out today that the wind chill was probably in the low-40's or upper 30's by the cliff edge, and only a little better where I was setup!) .   So I decided to pack it in and tear everything down a bit earlier than I'd planned.

 
Still a very successful day!   Including trans-Atlantic contacts running a few watts with a rig and antenna system I can carry in two hands! 
QRP To The Field is a great little contest.   See you next year!    73 de W1OH 

- Total contacts: 22 
- Contacts "across the pond" : 2  (with a little less tonnage in equipment than that other fellow in 1903!) 
- Total number of visitors: lost count, but at least a dozen groups, ranging from 1 or 2 folks, up to about a 1/2 dozen at a time) - handed out a bunch of brochures.   Seemed like at least half of them had a ham in the family or knew a ham somewhere.

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In 2009, Geoff returned to the Marconi site again with a friend, WHOI colleague, and fellow ham, Cal Eck, and, again, operated from the site, this time from inside the soon to be demolished shelter.


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