Celebrating the Dawn of Mass Global Communication
An important centenary to be celebrated and re-enacted in UK and New Zealand
In October 2024, Radio Amateurs in the UK and New Zealand will be celebrating and re-enacting the world’s very first trans-global two-way radio communication. Special callsigns will be active, and awards and QSL cards will be available for those who make contact with these special stations.
At the turn of the last century, radio communication was in its infancy. The properties of "Hertzian Waves" – what we now call radio waves - were only just beginning to be understood.
Starting with Marconi, the use of a crude form of radio communication began to evolve. The development of the thermionic valve then opened up opportunities both in radio transmitter and receiver design. However, the "conventional wisdom" remained that the longer wavelengths of radio signals (as used by Marconi) were those most suited to long-distance radio communication.
In that age of technical discovery, many every-day people experimented with radio. These people were the early "radio amateurs" and their work was at first largely unregulated. When it became clear that "radio amateurs" could cause interference to emerging commercial radio services, the decision was made to restrict their experiments to wavelengths shorter than 200m - corresponding to a frequency of 1.5 MHz and above, as it was felt that such frequencies were worthless for long-distance communication.
And so radio amateurs began to experiment with these "short waves"
It was not long before they began to realise that, far from being worthless frequencies, they in fact held the key to low power long distance communication.
In 1923, tests were conducted to span the Atlantic with radio. In 1924, as both transmitter power and receiver sensitivity improved, the dream was to span the globe by radio. Then, on 18 October 1924, that two-way antipodean communication dream was finally completed between two radio amateurs, Frank Bell, callsign 4AA, a sheep farmer in Shag Valley, South Island New Zealand, and Cecil Goyder, callsign 2SZ, a student operating from Mill Hill School, North London.
The world had been shrunk, and things would never be the same again.
To commemorate the centenary of this historic contact made between Goyder and Bell, radio amateurs in the UK and New Zealand will be operating four special event stations.
Two amateur radio stations will operate from the original locations in New Zealand and the UK, contacting other stations around the world and re-enacting that historic first radio communication:
- The callsign G2SZ, reflecting the callsign Goyder Used will be aired from 14 - 20 October, including operation from Mill Hill School London.
- The callsign ZL4AA, reflecting the callsign Bell used will be aired from 12 - 20 October, from Shag Valley Sheep Station, New Zealand.
At Mill Hill and Shag Valley station on 18 October, radio amateurs will recreate and re-enact the first contact, hopefully on a wavelength close to that used in 1924.
In addition, two other amateur radio stations with callsigns reflecting the centenary will be active:
- The callsign GB2NZ will be operated from 29 September 2024 to 26 October 2024 from a number of UK locations.
- The callsign ZM100DX will be operated from early September 2024 to 26 December 2024 from a number of New Zealand locations on CW SSB and a number of other modes.
QSL for all four calls via M0OXO. Special awards will be available to radio amateurs around the world making contact with these stations. For details see www.gb2nz.com
The Radio Society of Great Britain, which is the national society for amateur radio in the UK, will be installing the Mill Hill stations, and much of the supporting documentation. Mill Hill School will be using the facility provided by the RSGB as a learning workbench.
The Otago Branch of the New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters will be providing the re-enactment station ZL4AA and on-site facilities.