8 June 2001: Special Radio Week, 12th - 18th August 2001

Press Release - 8 june 2001

Special Radio week 12th-18th August 2001
From Sunday 12th to saturday 18th August 2001, Porthcurno Museum of Submarine Telegraphy will be holding a special Radio Week to enable visitors to find out more about radio, its history and how it works. It is being organised to mark the centenary of Marconi's first radio signal across the Atlantic.

The week gets off to a flying start on Sunday 12th August with a fun and educational "radio day" on the former Cable & Wireless sports field, adjacent to the famous Minack Theatre at Porthcurno. A temporary radio station, call sign "GB2PK", will be in operation in the pavilion where there will also be a demonstration and exhibition of radio controlled models, a refreshment tent and a variety of games and other exhibits weather permitting.

During the week there will also be a kite flying day. Marconi used kites to raise his early radio aerials as high as possible and in 1910 he achieved the world record for a wireless transmission of 3,500 miles from the steamship Princessa Mafalda using a kite produced by Brookite Ltd. During Radio Week a modern replica of this kite will be used to hoist a wireless aerial for live transmissions.

Through the week the temporary radio station will be manned by the museum's radio enthusiast volunteers and members of local radio clubs. There will also be talks on radio and visitors will be able to view the radio-related displays in the museum itself, including our working reconstruction of the S.S. Titanic radio room.

Porthcurno's involvement with radio goes back to 1902 when the Eastern Telegraph Company which operated out of Porthcurno began spying on Marconi's activities on the Lizard using their own radio mast and hut at "Wireless Point". They were concerned about the potential threat to their international cable communications business of this new technology, "wireless". Eventually in 1929 Eastern Telegraph company and other cable companies merged with Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company to form Imperial & International Communications Ltd, renamed Cable & Wireless in 1934.

The full timetable for the week will be confirmed in July.

For a timetable and further details of the week's programme please contact the museum on 01736 810 966.

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