|
Broadcast Technology DXpedition Honors The First DXer
by Bruce Conti <baconti@aol.com>
|
||
Diagram from iBiquity
specifications showing the center |
||
|
|
On December 12, 1901, at a site in Newfoundland, Canada, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal in history. The letter “S” in Morse code was sent by a spark gap transmitter from Poldhu, England, and received by Marconi at the top of Signal Hill overlooking St. John’s harbor and the open Atlantic Ocean. Thus Marconi became the first DXer. A group of intrepid DXers returned to Newfoundland for the 100th anniversary of this milestone and, in many ways, repeated Marconi’s initial success. The Newfoundland DXpeditions It all began 10 years before this latest event, when three DXers decided to meet in Newfoundland for a DXpedition to honor the 90th anniversary of Marconi’s transatlantic reception. “During the summer of 1991, I started making plans for a DXpedition about which I had long fantasized. The trip would be to a location near the Signal Hill site in Newfoundland,” wrote Mark Connelly in The DXpedition Handbook by Shawn Axelrod. Mark sparked the interest of St. John’s, Newfoundland resident Jean Burnell and Neil Kazaross of California; however, no one anticipated the legendary scope of their groundwork 10 years ago. The first DXpedition in 1991 not only proved and duplicated Marconi’s experiment with transatlantic signals received midday on mediumwave, but subsequent DXpeditions logged as many as 130 countries from five continents on mediumwave, believed to be a world record. Five DXers participated in the Marconi 100th anniversary DXpedition: Jean Burnell, Mark Connelly, John Fisher, Jim Renfrew, and myself. Jean Burnell has been the host of all 10 of the Newfoundland DXpeditions by default since receiving a fateful phone call in 1991 from Mark Connelly inquiring about potential sites. Jean discovered the Lawlor’s Hospitality House in Cappahayden, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, which has since continued to serve as the “DX Inn.” Curious residents have become used to the unusual radio activity over the years, although some locals still refer to it as the annual visit by “American spies.”
For Mark Connelly of Massachusetts, designer
of antenna phasing units and noise reduction techniques implemented at
this DXpedition, reception of local British stations was a highlight:
“These stations, often 1 kW or less, are seldom heard in Massachusetts. On
channels like 1485 and 1584, they’re almost always buried by Spain at
sites close to home. The British locals actually had programming that was
entertaining—a decided plus, considerably more exciting than Brazilian
preacher stations, for instance.” Perhaps it was only fitting that England
was well represented at this Marconi DXpedition. Return to January 2003 Highlights Page
|
|