Marconi Station - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Marconi Company

The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...

operated numerous pioneering radio stations in Canada, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

The Dominion of Newfoundland was a British Dominion from 1907 to 1949 . The Dominion of Newfoundland was situated in northeastern North America along the Atlantic coast and comprised the island of Newfoundland and Labrador on the continental mainland...

, the United States, the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and a number of other locations around the world.

Australia

In 1906, the Marconi Company constructed an experimental station at Queenscliff, Victoria

Queenscliff, Victoria

Queenscliff is a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula in southern Victoria, Australia, south of Swan Bay at the entrance to Port Phillip. It is the administrative centre for the Borough of Queenscliffe...

, successfully communicating between the Australian continent and Devonport, Tasmania

Devonport, Tasmania

-Sport:The Devonport Football Club is an Australian Rules team competing in the Tasmanian Statewide League. The Devonport Rugby Club is a Rugby Union team competing in the Tasmanian Rugby Union Statewide League...

. This station operated on a temporary basis; subsequent Australian wireless efforts would be undertaken by Amalgamated Wireless Australasia, established in 1913 under ownership of Marconi

Marconi Company

The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...

, its commercial arch-rival Telefunken

Telefunken

Telefunken is a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft...

and Australian local business interests.

Canada

The Marconi Company has owned or operated Canadian coastal radio stations

Coast radio station

A coast radio station is an on-shore maritime radio station which monitors radio distress frequencies and relays ship-to-ship and ship-to-land communications.-See also:* Marconi Station* Utility station...

since 1902, either as trans-Atlantic radiotelegraph links or as marine radio stations. While eastern Canada's ship-to-shore coastal stations were government-owned after 1915, the Marconi Company had been paid to continue to operate the facilities. Canada's west coast had been served by government-operated stations since 1907; many stations in the Canadian Arctic were military operations.

The Canadian Marconi Company operated manufacturing facilities at Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

and in 1919 had established on an experimental basis the first commercial broadcast radio station, XWA. This operation would become CFCF (AM/FM/TV) and CFCX (shortwave); Marconi would be forced to sell the stations due to foreign-ownership restrictions imposed on Canadian broadcast stations in 1970. The manufacturing operation is now CMC Electronics

CMC Electronics

CMC Electronics Inc. is a Canadian electronics company. The company's corporate head office is located in Montreal, Quebec, with additional facilities located in Ottawa, Ontario and Sugar Grove, Illinois.- History :...

.

Since 1954, the federal Department of Transport has operated former Marconi coastal stations in eastern Canada; most served the Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

and the Atlantic coast

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

VAY Cape Hopes Advance, Ungava Bay
Ungava Bay
Ungava Bay is a large bay in northeastern Canada separating Nunavik from Baffin Island. The bay is shaped like a rounded square with a side length of about and has an area of approximately...

(July 1, 1929 - )
VBC Midland, Ontario
Midland, Ontario
Midland is a town located on Georgian Bay in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada.Situated at the southern end of Georgian Bay's 30,000 Islands, Midland is the economic centre of the region, with a 125-bed hospital and a local airport. It is the main town of the southern Georgian Bay area...

(July 8, 1912 - )
VBH Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...

(January 9, 1914 - )
VBK Trois-Rivières, Québec
Trois-Rivières
Trois-Rivières means three rivers in French and may refer to:in Canada*Trois-Rivières, the largest city in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada*Circuit Trois-Rivières, a racetrack in Trois-Rivières, Quebec...
VCC Québec, Québec
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

(1910 - )
VCD Grosse Île
Grosse Ile
Grosse Ile may refer to:* Grosse Ile Township, Michigan*Grosse Ile , the largest island in the township* Grosse Ile, Quebec, an island where many Irish Immigrants to Canada were housed and the site of the Grosse Isle Disaster...

, Québec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

(until 1927)
VCI Heath Point, Anticosti Island
Anticosti Island
Anticosti Island is an island at the outlet of the Saint Lawrence River into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in Quebec, Canada, between 49° and 50° N., and between 61° 40' and 64° 30' W. At in size, it is the 90th largest island in the world and 20th largest island in Canada...

(July 21, 1904–1921)
VCO North Sydney, Nova Scotia
North Sydney, Nova Scotia
North Sydney is a community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.Located on the north side of Sydney Harbour, along the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island, North Sydney is an important port in Atlantic Canada as it is the western terminus of the Marine Atlantic ferry service...

(1907 - )

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia

On December 15, 1902 Marconi established trans-Atlantic communication between Table Head

Table Head, Nova Scotia

Table Head is a Subdivision in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Glace Bay in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality on Cape Breton Island .-References:*...

in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia

Glace Bay is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton....

and Poldhu

Poldhu

Poldhu is a small area in south Cornwall, England, UK, situated on the Lizard Peninsula; it comprises Poldhu Point and Poldhu Cove. It lies on the coast west of Goonhilly Downs, with Mullion to the south and Porthleven to the north...

in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, England using a 60 kilowatt transmitter and four 210 feet (64 m) towers. The site was expanded and moved inland in 1904-05, increasing both antenna

Antenna (radio)

An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...

size and transmitter

Transmitter

In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...

power. Transatlantic Radio Service between the Marconi Towers and Clifden

Clifden

Clifden is a town on the coast of County Galway, Ireland and being Connemara's largest town, it is often referred to as "the Capital of Connemara". It is located on the Owenglen River where it flows into Clifden Bay...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

was inaugurated in October 1907, and continued until the Marconi Station (operating under callsign VAS, Voice of the Atlantic Seaboard) was shut down and the property sold in 1946. The site of the Marconi Towers Station is now used to house a museum.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

In 1905, Marconi constructed a wireless station at Camperdown, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

(original callsign HX, MHX from 1907–1912, VCS thereafter). From 1905 until 1926, this station was to collect traffic from Sable Island (VCT) and Cape Sable (VCU) for manual retransmission via dedicated landline telegraph circuit to Halifax (AX). VCS later would serve as a coast guard

Canadian Coast Guard

The Canadian Coast Guard is the coast guard of Canada. It is a federal agency responsible for providing maritime search and rescue , aids to navigation, marine pollution response, marine radio, and icebreaking...

marine radio station.

Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

As the original, powerful spark gap transmitters would create large quantities of electrical interference, stations could not transmit and receive at the same time - even if different wavelengths were used. By 1913, the increasing amount of trans-Atlantic radio telegraph traffic required that existing half-duplex operation be upgraded to a link which could carry messages in both directions at the same time. This was done by geographically separating the receiving stations from the existing transmitter sites; new receiving stations at Letterfrack

Letterfrack

Letterfrack or Letterfrac is a small village in the Connemara area of County Galway, Ireland. It was founded by the Quakers in the mid-19th century. The village is 15 km north-east of Clifden on Barnaderg Bay and lies at the head of Ballinakill harbour...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

and Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

Louisbourg is a community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.-History:The town's name was given by French military forces who founded the Fortress of Louisbourg and its fortified seaport on the southwest part of the harbour, in honour of Louis XV...

effectively doubled the capacity of the Marconi Company to carry trans-Atlantic telegraph traffic. Instead of the 500 kHz

Kilocycle

A thousand cycles, of any periodic phenomenon.kilocycle or kilocycles may refer to:* A measurement of usage of reciprocating machines, especially presses...

and 1 MHz frequencies common in shipboard radio at the time, Marconi was to use longwave

Longwave

In radio, longwave refers to parts of radio spectrum with relatively long wavelengths. The term is a historic one dating from the early 20th century, when the radio spectrum was considered to consist of long, medium and short wavelengths...

frequencies of 37.5 kHz

Kilocycle

A thousand cycles, of any periodic phenomenon.kilocycle or kilocycles may refer to:* A measurement of usage of reciprocating machines, especially presses...

for transmission from Glace Bay

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia

Glace Bay is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton....

, Cape Breton

Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia

Cape Breton Regional Municipality often shortened to simply CBRM, is a regional municipality in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton County.According to the 2006 Census of Canada, the population within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is 102,250...

, Nova Scotia to Letterfrack and 54.5 kHz

Kilocycle

A thousand cycles, of any periodic phenomenon.kilocycle or kilocycles may refer to:* A measurement of usage of reciprocating machines, especially presses...

for transmission from Clifden

Clifden

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

to Louisbourg in order to establish reliable transatlantic communication day and night.

Antennas for longwave radio reception were to occupy huge amounts of land at these sites; while Lee DeForest's work had produced a vacuum tube

Vacuum tube

In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...

(or "Audion") as early as 1906, many key advances in electronic amplifiers (which would allow smaller receiving antennas and more efficient transmitter designs) would only be made once improved communications became a military necessity during World War I. The design and construction of tuned circuits able to separate radio signals transmitted and received at different frequency and wavelength had also shown great improvement.

By 1919, improved transmitting and receiving tubes had made transatlantic voice transmission possible. By 1926 Marconi would be able to use shortwave radio to link the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

, making the former long-wave transatlantic service and its Louisbourg receiving station obsolete. The Marconi Towers transmitter site on Cape Breton

Cape Breton Island

Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....

was upgraded to broadcast voice and operated until 1945; the Louisbourg station closed in 1926.

Pointe-au-Père, Québec

As the nominal point of entry to the St. Lawrence River from the sea, Pointe-au-Père

Pointe-au-Père, Quebec

Pointe-au-Père is a settlement on the center part of the Bas-Saint-Laurent region in eastern Quebec at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Its population was 4,240 in 2002, in which year the City of Pointe-au-Père was merged with Rimouski....

has hosted four lighthouse stations since 1859. A Marconi radiotelegraph station was constructed in 1909. Arriving trans-Atlantic liners would unload mail

Royal Mail

Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...

and take on harbour pilots; Pointe-au-Père also provided a hydrographic

Hydrographic office

A hydrographic office is an organization which is devoted to acquiring and publishing hydrographic information.Historically, the main tasks of hydrographic offices were the conduction of hydrographic surveys and the publication of nautical charts...

station and a quarantine

Quarantine

Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....

post.

On May 29, 1914 the Pointe-au-Père Marconi station received an SOS

SOS

SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...

call from the RMS Empress of Ireland

RMS Empress of Ireland

RMS Empress of Ireland was an ocean liner built in 1905 by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships...

, a Canadian passenger liner which, surrounded by fog

Fog

Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...

, had been hit by Norwegian coal freighter

Collier (ship type)

Collier is a historical term used to describe a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late 18th century a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the South Pacific, for...

SS Storstad

Storstad

The Storstad was a 6,000 ton Norwegian collier , built in 1910 in Newcastle upon Tyne, owned by A. F. Klaveness & Co. She was torpedoed and sunk during World War I on March 8, 1917 by U-62 at .-Disaster:...

. "May have struck ship... listing terribly" reported Marconi operators Edward Bamford and Ronald Ferguson, notifying rescuers on shore of their position twenty miles seaward of Rimouski as the vessel rapidly took on water. In 14 minutes, this collision was to claim 1,012 lives.

France

On 27 March 1899, Marconi transmitted from Wimereux

Wimereux

Wimereux is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:Wimereux is a coastal town situated some north of Boulogne, at the junction of the D233 and the D940 roads, on the banks of the river Wimereux. The river Slack forms the northern boundary of...

, Bologne, France the first international wireless message which was received at the South Foreland Lighthouse

South Foreland Lighthouse

South Foreland Lighthouse is a Victorian lighthouse on the South Foreland in St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England, used to warn ships approaching the nearby Goodwin Sands. It went out of service in 1988 and is currently owned by the National Trust...

near Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

, United Kingdom.

Ireland

In 1902, a Marconi telegraphic station was established in the village of Crookhaven

Crookhaven

Crookhaven is a village in County Cork, Ireland, on the most southwestern tip of Ireland. A winter population of about forty swells in the summer to about four hundred with the occupants of the many holiday homes arriving.-History:...

, County Cork

County Cork

County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

to provide marine radio communications to ships arriving from the Americas. A ship's master could contact shipping line agents ashore to enquire which port was to receive their cargo without the need to come ashore at what was the first port of landfall.

Ireland was also, due to its western location, to play a key role in early efforts to send trans-Atlantic messages.

Clifden, Galway

As existing submarine cable

Submarine cable

Submarine cable may refer to:*Submarine communications cable*Submarine power cable...

operators in the early 1900s had held a monopoly on international telegraph service to Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

, Marconi's first regular trans-Atlantic wireless service was established on October 17, 1907 between Derrygimla Bog, Clifden

Clifden

, Galway, Ireland and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia

Glace Bay is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton....

. An additional Marconi receiving station in Letterfrack

Letterfrack

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

operated briefly from 1913 until 1916.

On June 15, 1919, the first non-stop trans-Atlantic airplane crossing by Capt. John Alcock

John Alcock

John Alcock may refer to:*John Alcock , British Royal Air Force officer*John Alcock , English churchman*John Alcock , English organist and composer...

and Lt. Arthur Brown

Arthur Brown

-Association footballers:*Arthur Brown , English international football inside right who played for Aston Villa in the 1870s and 1880s....

left Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

and arrived at the Marconi site in Clifden

Clifden

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

Ballybunion

Additional facilities were constructed at Ballybunion

Ballybunion

Ballybunion or Ballybunnion is a coastal town and seaside resort in County Kerry, Ireland, from the town of Listowel. There are castle ruins near the town, although all that remains is a single wall, and two golf courses in the area including the famous Ballybunion Golf Club, a top class Links...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

in 1914 and employed during World War I. In March 1919, the first Marconi broadcast of voice by longwave radio, made from Marconi's station YXQ at Ballybunion using vacuum tube

Vacuum tube

s instead of the spark gap transmitters formerly used in radiotelegraph operation, was heard as far as Chelmsford

Chelmsford

Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...

and Louisburg, Nova Scotia.

Due to destruction caused by the Irish Civil War

Irish Civil War

The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....

in 1922, traffic formerly carried at Clifden was permanently redirected via Caernarvon, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, a link which remained in service until replaced by more modem technology in the 1930s. The Marconi Station at Ballybunion was also to cease operation.

India

A Marconi radiotelegraph station had been operational at Delhi, India at the time the Indian capital had moved there from Calcutta in 1911. Marconi had constructed experimental broadcast transmitters in Calcutta, which were to become 2BZ (Calcutta Radio Club, 1923) and 5AF (West Bengal government); these radio stations operated until the national government established a station in 1927.

Italy

On November 13, 1910 the first radio message to Africa was sent from a radiotelegraph station at Coltano, Italy and received in Massaua (then part of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

). Italy's King Vittorio Emanuele officially opened the station in 1911, at which time messages were sent from Coltano to Glace Bay

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia

Glace Bay is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton....

and Massaua.

Newfoundland

The first Marconi transatlantic message was received in 1901 at Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland. Subsequent efforts at trans-Atlantic communications would use Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia

as a Canadian terminus due to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company's entrenched monopoly in the Dominion of Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

. Messages for ships at sea would continue to be handled in Newfoundland, due to its strategic location as point of first contact in the east. As of 1915, the following coastal stations were operational in Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

to connect the island to otherwise-isolated outports in Labrador

Labrador

Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...

and to handle vital ship-to-shore communication:

VCE Cape Race (1904–1966, originally CE or MCE)
VCM Belle Island
Belle Isle (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Belle Isle is an uninhabited island just off the coast of Labrador and north of Newfoundland at the Atlantic entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle which takes its name...
VCR Cape Ray
VOA Battle Harbour, Labrador
Battle Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador
Battle Harbour is a 19th century summer fishing station, formerly a permanent settlement, located on the Labrador coast in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Battle Harbour was for two centuries the economic and social centre of the southeastern Labrador coast...
VOB Venison Island
VOC American Tickle
VOD Domino
VOE Grady
VOF Smokey Tickle
VOG Holton
VOH Cape Harrison
VOI Makkovik
VOJ Fogo
Fogo, Newfoundland and Labrador
Fogo is an outport town on Fogo Island, Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.-History:The largest community on the island, the town may also be the location of the island's first permanent settlement, which took place in the early 18th century, though it is unknown...

(1912–1933)
VOJH Corner Brook
Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador
Corner Brook is a city located on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada....

(1940–1974)
VON Cabot Tower
Cabot Tower (Newfoundland)
Cabot Tower is a tower in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, situated on Signal Hill. Construction of tower begun in 1898 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's discovery of Newfoundland, and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee....

/Signal Hill
Signal Hill, Newfoundland and Labrador
Signal Hill is a hill which overlooks the city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.Due to its strategic placement overlooking the harbour, fortifications have been placed on the hill since the mid 17th century.-History:...

, St. John's
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...

(until 1960)

Newfoundland coastal stations

All radio stations licensed by the Dominion of Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

after 1912 and before the April 1st, 1949 confederation

Canadian Confederation

Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...

bear callsigns beginning with VO.

Stations built by the Marconi Company

Marconi Company

The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...

of Canada in outlying areas such as Fogo (VOJ) were funded by the Dominion of Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

and served to report ice and weather conditions, provide communications with sealing vessels and transmit messages from Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

to Labrador

Labrador

coastal fisheries. By the 1930s, original spark gap transmitter equipment at these sites would have been removed due to severe interference caused to broadcast radio operations.

Cape Race and Cape Ray

Canadian Marconi Company stations with Canadian VC calls did exist on Newfoundland in the wireless telegraph era, even though Newfoundland was not part of the Dominion of Canada. These stations were permitted by Newfoundland authorities to operate solely in communication with ships at sea; trans-Atlantic radiotelegraph service to land-based stations in the United Kingdom and Europe operated from Cape Breton

Cape Breton Island

Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....

in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

Exploiting a strategic location at the south-easternmost part of Newfoundland, the Cape Race (VCE) station could serve as a vital first point of contact for arriving ships in the New World

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

, as well as providing telegram service to trans-Atlantic

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

passenger liners. Messages received from travellers crossing the Atlantic could be relayed in a timely fashion to much of North America, including major cities such as New York, long before a ship's arrival. A lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

and direction-finding radio were also once active at this site

The Cape Race site, active as a coast radio station

Coast radio station

until 1966, is now home to the Myrick Communications Museum and a radioamateur

Amateur radio

Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...

commemorative station, VO1MCE. A copy of April 1912 station logs (documenting communication between Cape Race and RMS Titanic) appear in the Marine Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Cape Ray (VCR) and Belle Isle

Belle Isle

- Places :In Canada* Belle Isle , an island and strait In England, UK* Belle Isle, an area of Leeds, West Yorkshire* Belle Isle , an island in Lake District, Cumbria...

(VCM) stations, which played a similar role, served ocean-going liners in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Spain

On February 1, 1912 a new Marconi station erected at Aranjuez near Madrid, Spain transmitted a message from King Alfonso which would be received at Poldhu

Poldhu

, Cornwall

Cornwall

, England for delivery to the London correspondent of the New York Times.

South Africa

In the Boer War

Boer War

The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....

era of 1899, Marconi wireless equipment would face one of its first tests in military deployment with mixed results. Initial attempts to deploy land-based military radio were problematic, but the five Marconi installations in March 1900 on naval cruisers HMS Dwarf, Forte, Magicienne, Racoon and Thetis proved successful.

By 1912, Marconi stations covered Aden, Algeria, Australia, Azores, Belgium, Brazil, Burma, China, Curaçao, France, French Guyana, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sweden, Tobago, Trinidad, Uruguay, Zanzibar, and the Pacific Ocean. Efforts in 1926 to build an Imperial Wireless Chain

Imperial Wireless Chain

The Imperial Wireless Chain, also known as the Empire Wireless Chain, was a strategic international wireless telegraphy communications network, created to link the countries of the British Empire. Although the idea was conceived prior to World War I, Britain was the last of the world's Great Powers...

spanning the globe would bring new construction of Marconi wireless facilities to much of the British Empire

British Empire

, including South Africa and India. Shortwave

Shortwave

Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...

radio would deployed as a means to communicate internationally with smaller transmitters and more directional antennas than had been possible on the former longwave

Longwave

system. These directional-antenna (or "beam antenna") installations were known as the Imperial Beam system; Marconi Beam

Electoral wards of the City of Cape Town

This is a list of 105 electoral wards of the City of Cape Town, with the councillor and corresponding geographies listed.-Wards:...

as a geographic place name still refers to a section of modern Cape Town, South Africa, as one location where such facilities historically had operated.

United Kingdom

In December 1898, the Marconi Company opened the first wireless factory at Chelmsford

Chelmsford

in Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

. Marconi stations in the United Kingdom would be the first to be received internationally in France and later Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

. A message received in 1910 in the UK from Marconi-equipped ship S.S. Montrose, then en route to Canada

Canada

, would prove key to the arrest of fugitive Hawley Harvey Crippen.

Poldhu, Cornwall

Marconi's station at Poldhu

Poldhu

, Cornwall

Cornwall

, England, initially constructed in October 1900 on a cliff in a remote location to avoid publicity during initial experimentation, had by 1901 transmitted messages to ships at sea over distances of more than 200 miles. On December 12, 1901, the first trans-Atlantic message from the Poldhu Wireless Station was received at St. John's in the Dominion of Newfoundland

Dominion of Newfoundland

, some 1800 miles distant. The station was dismantled in 1933. A Marconi memorial remains at this site today.

Dover, Kent

In 1898, Marconi began tests of ship-to-shore communication between Trinity House

Trinity House

The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters...

Lighthouse

, Dover

Dover

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England and the East Goodwin lightship

Lightvessel

A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship which acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction...

. In 1899, South Foreland Lighthouse

South Foreland Lighthouse

at St. Margaret's Bay, Dover

Dover

was used by Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...

to receive the first international transmission (from Wimereux, France). Dover received the first ship-to-shore message (from the East Goodwin lightship) and the first ship-to-shore distress message (when a steamship ran into the same lightship, and the lighthouse relayed the message up the coast to the Walmer lifeboat).

Newhaven, East Sussex

The Newhaven Marconi Radio Station was established at Newhaven, East Sussex

Newhaven, East Sussex

Newhaven is a town in the Lewes District of East Sussex in England. It lies at the mouth of the River Ouse, on the English Channel coast, and is a ferry port for services to France.-Origins:...

in 1904, and started running in 1905. The station achieved ship to shore radio communications around 1912.

Tetney, Lincolnshire

A station at Tetney

Tetney

Tetney is a small village in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, just west of the Prime Meridian.-Geography and amenities:The village is on the A1031 road, the Cleethorpes-Mablethorpe road, just south of Cleethorpes and Humberston...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, England, constructed as part of the Imperial Wireless Chain

Imperial Wireless Chain

linking the nations of the British Empire

British Empire

, established shortwave communications with Australia in April 1927 and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

in September 1927.

Caernarvon, Wales

In 1914, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company constructed a 400 KW wireless transmitting station (callsign MUU) in Caernarvon to send trans-Atlantic messages to the US from ten 400-foot masts atop Cefndu mountain in Snowdonia. The station served throughout World War I and remained in operation until 1939.

On September 22, 1918 the first wireless telegraph message to Australia was sent from Snowdonia

Snowdonia

Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.-Name and extent:...

.
On September 22, 1918, advances in vacuum tube receivers allowed the MUU signal to be received by the Amalgamated Wireless Australasia station at "Logan Brae", Pymble in Sydney, Australia.

In 1922, the Marconi transmitting station at Caernarvon, Wales

Wales

replaced the former station at Clifden

Clifden

, Galway, Ireland for trans-Atlantic message traffic following destruction of Marconi's Clifden station during the Irish Civil War

Irish Civil War

The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....

. The obsolete Clifden Station was never rebuilt.

A companion receiving station was situated 40 miles further south at Towyn

Towyn

Towyn , is a seaside resort in the County Borough of Conwy, Wales.It is located between Rhyl, in Denbighshire, and Abergele in Conwy. According to the 2001 Census, together with neighbouring Kinmel Bay , it had a population 7,864, of which 10.7% could speak Welsh...

United States

The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (American Marconi), incorporated in New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

in 1899, had by 1908 deployed five land stations and 40 marine stations. It would operate wireless stations until, with the entry of the United States into World War I, the US Navy assumed wartime control of wireless. It would continue manufacturing activities until the American Marconi factory in Aldene, NJ was acquired by General Electric

General Electric

General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...

in 1919 and its wireless operations and facilities were acquired by the Radio Corporation of America in 1920 .

New Jersey

Marconi's trans-Atlantic radiotelegraph stations were deployed in pairs; a station near New Brunswick, New Jersey

New Brunswick, New Jersey

New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...

would transmit while another at Belmar

Belmar, New Jersey

Belmar is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 5,794. The Borough of Belmar is governed under the Faulkner Act system of municipal government....

would receive the weak signals from across the Atlantic. American Marconi had also established a factory in 1907 in Aldene, New Jersey

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...

.

New Brunswick Marconi Station

New Brunswick Marconi Station

New Brunswick Marconi Station was located at JFK Boulevard and Easton Avenue just a few minutes from the New Brunswick border in Somerset, New Jersey.-History:...

(40.51529°N 74.48895°W) was located at JFK Boulevard

County Route 501 (New Jersey)

County Route 501 is a county highway in New Jersey in two sections spanning Middlesex, Hudson and Bergen Counties. The southern section runs from South Plainfield to Perth Amboy, the northern section runs from Bayonne to Rockleigh, and the two sections are connected by New York State Route 440...

and Easton Avenue just a few minutes from the New Brunswick border in Somerset, New Jersey

Somerset, New Jersey

Somerset is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located at the easternmost section within Franklin Township, in Somerset County, New Jersey. At the 2000 United States Census, the CDP population was 23,040...

. Today it is the site of Marconi Park. It was an early radio transmitter facility built in 1913 and operated by the American Marconi Wireless Corporation. After the partial failure of transatlantic telegraph cables, the facility was confiscated by the US Navy in January, 1918 to provide vital transatlantic communications during World War I. The New Brunswick Naval Radio Station was the principal wartime communication link between the United States and Europe, using the callsign NFF. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech was transmitted by NFF in 1918. Ownership of the station, along with Marconi's other US stations, were transferred from the Navy to RCA in 1920. The antenna masts were demolished in 1952 to make room for what is now a small mall containing a Kmart, but the buildings on the other side of JFK Boulevard were spared. All but one of the brick buildings were demolished around 2004 to make way for a storage locker facility. The bricks and tiles were saved for use in any future restoration of the spared building, and the second facility in Belmar, New Jersey

Belmar, New Jersey

.

The Belmar Marconi receiving station was located at what are now Camp Evans

Camp Evans

Camp Evans, New Jersey is a former military base associated with Fort Monmouth. It is located in Wall Township, although it is often said to be located in Belmar . The property overlooks the Shark River.Camp Evans is named after Lt. Col...

buildings in Belmar, New Jersey

Belmar, New Jersey

. The original buildings were built by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America

Marconi Company

The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...

under a contract to the J.G. White Engineering Corp. between 1912 and 1914 as part of Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi

's "wireless girdle" around the Earth. It was then known as the Belmar Station (40.1859°N 74.0594°W). The Belmar Station served as Marconi

Marconi Company

The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...

's receiving station, "duplexed" with his New Brunswick

Somerset, New Jersey

(40.5153°N 74.4889°W) high power transmitting station. An operator in Belmar keyed the New Brunswick transmitter, 32 miles (51.5 km) to the northwest, through a landline connection. Edwin Armstrong

Edwin Armstrong

Edwin Howard Armstrong was an American electrical engineer and inventor. Armstrong was the inventor of modern frequency modulation radio....

and David Sarnoff

David Sarnoff

David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his...

tested and perfected the regenerative circuit

Regenerative circuit

The regenerative circuit or "autodyne" allows an electronic signal to be amplified many times by the same vacuum tube or other active component such as a field effect transistor. It consists of an amplifying vacuum tube or transistor with its output connected to its input through a feedback...

at the Belmar site, on the night of January 31/February 1, 1914. Albert Hoyt Taylor, who later made important contributions toward the development of radar, was Communication Superintendent at the station during World War I. The station was closed in 1924, after receiver functions were transferred to RCA's new Radio Central receiver site on Long Island, NY.

As an aside, the Belmar Station later served as a base to the Ku Klux Klan.

New York

As early as March 1, 1904, messages for steamship passengers at sea were accepted at Western Union

Western Union

The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...

landline telegraph offices, where they would be transmitted overland to Sagaponack

Sagaponack, New York

Sagaponack is a village in the town of Southampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The village incorporated on September 2, 2005, in the wake of the failed attempt by Dunehampton, New York to incorporate. Dunehampton's incorporation would have blocked Sagaponack from Atlantic Ocean...

or Babylon, New York

Babylon (village), New York

Babylon is a village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 12,615 at the 2000 census.Its official name is The Incorporated Village of Babylon...

and delivered to Marconi Wireless Telegraph for transmission to steamships of the Cunard Line

Cunard Line

Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...

, American Line

American Line

The American Line was a shipping company based in Philadelphia that was founded in 1871. It began as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, although the railroad got out of the shipping business soon after founding the company...

, French Line, North German Lloyd Line, Atlantic Transport Line

Atlantic Transport Line

The Atlantic Transport Line was a Baltimore, Maryland-based passenger shipping line that was folded into the International Mercantile Marine shipping trust in 1901. The line developed with railroad support as an offshoot of Bernard N. Baker's Baltimore Storage and Lighterage Company in 1881...

, Hamburg-American Line or Red Star Line

Red Star Line

The Red Star Line was an ocean passenger line founded in 1871 as a joint venture between the International Navigation Company of Philadelphia, which also ran the American Line, and the Société Anonyme de Navigation Belgo-Américaine of Antwerp, Belgium...

.

In 1912, a Marconi station atop the Wanamaker's Department Store building in New York City was to receive a list of RMS Titanic passengers aboard the RMS Carpathia

RMS Carpathia

RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of after the latter ship hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912...

, delivering the news to Hearst

Hearst

Hearst may refer to:People* Amanda Hearst* Garrison Hearst, NFL running back* George Hearst* George Randolph Hearst, Jr.* Hunter Hearst Helmsley, WWE professional wrestler* John Randolph Hearst* Lydia Hearst-Shaw* Michael Hearst* Millicent Hearst...

newspapers before the ship's arrival. An operator at this station, David Sarnoff

David Sarnoff

, would go on to lead the Radio Corporation of America.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

A Marconi station built in 1902 at South Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Massachusetts (initial callsign CC, MCC 1908 to 1911, finally WCC from 1911,) transmitted its first telegraphic message via spark gap transmitter in 1903 from what is now known as the National Park Service "Marconi Area," about a mile north of the entrance to "Marconi Beach". Marine radio traffic carried before the station closed in 1917 included news and telegrams for passengers of the Lusitania

Lusitania

Lusitania or Hispania Lusitania was an ancient Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain . It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people...

, distress calls from the RMS Titanic in 1912 and a message between the American president and the British king in 1903.

The South Wellfleet antennas and equipment were dismantled by the U.S. Navy in 1919, replaced by Marconi's new receiver station built in 1914 in Chatham, Massachusetts

Chatham, Massachusetts

Chatham is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 6,625 at the 2000 census...

and its paired transmitter station also built in 1914 in Marion, Massachusetts

Marion, Massachusetts

Marion is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,123 at the 2000 census.For geographic and demographic information on the village of Marion Center, please see the article Marion Center, Massachusetts.-History:...

. The South Wellfleet site is now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore

Cape Cod National Seashore

The Cape Cod National Seashore , created on August 7, 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, encompasses on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It includes ponds, woods and beachfront of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion...

, the Chatham receiver site is now operated as a museum by the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center , and most of the 143 acres of the Marion Station were donated to the Sippican Lands Trust where hundreds of artifacts remain publicly accessible. The Marion Station transmitter building is operated a private business and the hotel and three bungalows are privately owned.

Point Reyes, California

WCC is just one of two former Marconi stations on US national parkland; a California coastal radio station (callsign KPH), formerly operated by Marconi and later RCA, is located at Point Reyes National Seashore

Point Reyes National Seashore

Point Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California, USA. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US National Park Service as a nationally important nature preserve within which existing agricultural uses are allowed to continue...

.

In 1913, an American Marconi Company transmitting station was established at Bolinas

Bolinas, California

Bolinas formerly Juggville is a coastal unincorporated community in Marin County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bolinas is located west-southwest of San Rafael, at an elevation of 36 feet...

. The receiving station KPH was about twenty miles further north, at Point Reyes. In 1914, the stations at Bolinas and Marshall would allow messages received from New Brunswick, New Jersey

New Brunswick, New Jersey

to be retransmitted to Hawaii.

KPH has been preserved by volunteer members of the Maritime Radio Historical Society and is operated at weekends and on special occasions such as International Marconi Day and the anniversary of the "end of commercial Morse code in America." The station volunteers also use the alternative callsign KSM and amateur radio

Amateur radio

club callsign K6KPH.

Hawaii

Marconi's radiotelegraph was to serve both as a means of establishing communications between the various Hawaiian Islands

Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

and as a means to receive messages from the Americas (notably California and Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

) for retransmission to Japan and Asia. In the early days of wireless communications, Marconi used the Hawaiian Islands as a test run. His future plans included creating an international wireless network. Hawaii was the small scale, with the largest distance of approximately 78 miles. Marconi was able to improve his system when in Hawaii, and received very good reviews from the governor of Hawaii.
In 1912, the Marconi Company proposed what it billed as "A Wireless Girdle around the Earth"; proposing that as a station in Great Britain could communicate with one in Belmar, New Jersey

Belmar, New Jersey

(serving New York City), that station in turn could reach Panama

Panama

and from there a signal could be sent to Hawaii. A powerful station constructed in Hawaii could by 1914 reach San Francisco, California, receiving messages which could be transmitted to the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

once a later station was constructed there. From Manila, Philippines, messages eventually could be resent to a British station in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

which would then reach Bangalore, India. From there, a signal sent to a station in Africa could eventually be retransmitted to Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

or Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, and the Egyptian station would reach London.

In 1915, the New York Times announced "The opening of the Japanese Marconi wireless plant at Funabashi near Yokohama with messages on Tuesday to the Marconi station at Koko Head

Koko Head

Koko Head is the headland that defines the eastern side of Maunalua Bay along the southeastern side of the Island of Oahu in Hawaii. On its western slope is the community of Portlock, a part of Hawaii Kai...

, Hawaii, extended the Marconi service nearly two-thirds the way around the globe

Globe

A globe is a three-dimensional scale model of Earth or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet, star, or moon...

. If the war

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

had not interfered with the creation of the British

British Empire

Imperial chain, it might have been possible by this time to relay a message by wireless all the way around the world." A Marconi station at Kahuku on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii was later operated by RCA; the site was re-purposed as an air base during World War II and is now abandoned.