Pictured: John 2E0TWQ and Nev. M0NFY on 20m SSB.
NARC members at the Caister Lifeboat Visitor Centre managed to contact 215 other radio amateurs in 36 different countries when they took part in the annual International Marconi Day to mark the inventor's birthday on Saturday 23rd April.
Using the call GB0CMS and a mixture of Morse code, telephony (speech) and data (PSK31 - thanks Nev.), contacts were made with other radio amateurs across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Canada and the USA.
Notable contacts were with other special Marconi stations in the UK, Italy, USA and Austria.
The club ran the all-day special event station at Caister Lifeboat to commemorate the village's original Marconi Wireless Station, which was established at Caister in 1900. The station was in a house in the High Street known as Pretoria Villa and its original purpose was to communicate with ships in the North Sea and the Cross Sands lightship.
On Saturday, the closest to Guglielmo Marconi's birthday, stations around the world are set up at sites with historical links to the inventor's work. These include Poldhu in England; Cape Cod Massachusetts; Glace Bay, Nova Scotia; Villa Griffone, Bologna, Italy and many others.
Visitors to the station including many other local radio amateurs and members of the public.
Steve Nichols G0KYA, who organised the event, said: “This was one of the best events we have had. We started off by talking to an amateur in Melbourne, Australia, while we were live on air with Wally Webb from BBC Radio Norfolk.
“We then went on to make contacts with other radio enthusiasts as far afield as Alaska, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Canada. Conditions were up and down during the day, but we were thrilled to get as far as Japan and Alaska using Morse code.
“Our thanks go to Caister Lifeboat for letting us set up the station.”
The equipment used was 100W from an Icom IC-756 Pro3 (40m) and Icom IC-7400. Antennas were a W5GI dipole on 40m and G0KYA-designed 20m monoband end-fed half-wave vertical for HF.
Download the audio from the BBC Radio Norfolk broadcast with Wally Webb
NB - Photos of the event now in the clubs Gallery on the NARC website under 'Online'