NARC radio hams at Caister Lifeboat managed to contact 149 radio amateurs in 11 countries on Saturday 26th April 2025 when they took part in the International Marconi Day (IMD) event to mark the inventor’s birthday.
Using the call GB0CMS and a mixture of Morse code and telephony (speech) contacts were made with other radio amateurs across the world.
(Right: Myke M7TTT on 20m SSB.)
Notable contacts were with Marconi station GB0IMD at Weston Super Mare Radio Society. In 1897 Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated wireless communication between Lavernock Point in South Wales and Flatholm Island in the Bristol Channel and then to Brean Down near Weston super Mare. This was the longest distance ever covered until then – 13km (8 miles).
Others included a station in Brazil, as well as numerous stations on the east coast of the USA.
The Norfolk Amateur Radio Club (NARC) 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 and many others.
NARC public relation officer Steve Nichols, who organised the event, said: “We started with a contact with our good friend Ian VK3MO in Victoria, southern Australia – this is always the first contact we have and sets the tone for the event. This year Ian was particularly loud.
“We never used more than 200 Watts of power, and often just 100 Watts – about the same as an incandescent light bulb. An automated system confirmed that our signals were received as far afield as Costa Rica and Florida in the USA.
“It was a good social event for the club and raised awareness of Caister’s connection with the inventor. Our thanks go to Caister Lifeboat again for letting us set up the station,” Steve said.
Further history of the original Marconi Wireless Station
The Caister station was connected by land line to Gt Yarmouth Post Office and the Caister Coast Guard Station. The main aerial mast behind the house was 150 feet high, the aerial wire being suspended between this and a slightly shorter mast situated on land where Lacon Road was later built.
The large front room of the house contained the main apparatus and was also used as the operating room. The engine for charging the accumulators was situated in a shed adjoining the house and the accumulators themselves were housed in a specially constructed annex.
The remainder of the premises were used as a dwelling house for the officer-in-charge.
The range of communication was 150 to 200 miles on the long wave (600m) and 100 miles on the short wave (300m).
In 1909 all the Marconi coastal stations were taken over by the Post Office. In 1911 the Caister station was used to train lightship men in the use of telegraphy equipment.
In January 1915 the telegraph equipment on the Cross Sand lightship was transferred to the Parlour lightship and the Caister station was changed to ‘general working’ and not used for ship-to-shore work. Public use of the telegram facility provided at Caister was suspended for the duration of the WW1.
In 1921 plans were made for the reinstallation of wireless on Trinity House lightships, but this time the new wireless telephony was to replace telegraphy (Morse). New technology made the Caister station out of date and it finally closed in 1929. The masts were taken down and a few years later the house became the village Police Station.
(Historical details with thanks to local historian Colin Tooke.)