W1AW to Commemorate 98th Anniversary of First Amateur Radio Signals to Span the Atlantic

Wednesday, December 11 marks the 98th anniversary of the success of ARRL’s Transatlantic Tests in 1921, organized to see if low-power amateur radio stations could be heard across the Atlantic using shortwave frequencies (i.e., above 200 meters). On that day, a message transmitted by a group of Radio Club of America members at 1BCG in Greenwich, Connecticut, was copied by Paul Godley, 2ZE, in Scotland.

While the first two-way contact would not take place until 1923, the 1921 transatlantic success marked the beginning of what would become routine communication between US radio amateurs and those in other parts of the world — literally the birth of DX.

To commemorate this amateur radio milestone, Maxim Memorial Station W1AW will be on the air through the day on December 11 with volunteer operators. The goal is to encourage contacts between radio amateurs in the US and Europe while showcasing the significance of the transmissions that pioneered global communication and laid the groundwork for technology widely used today. The event will run from 1300 until 0000 UTC (8:00am to 7:00pm EST). Operation will focus on 40 and 20 meters (SSB) with operating frequencies posted on the message board and Web-based SDR at http://www.k3fef.com:8901/

Contact Clark Burgard, N1BCG, for more information.

 

The Antique Wireless Association has a video about the Transatlantic of 1921, made in the 1980s by AWA founding member Bruce Kelley, W2ICE (SK), which provides some interesting details of this historic event.