Seguin Island Expedition
2014 RSGB IOTA Contest

Loading all the gear (and passengers)

Leaving shore from Fort Poham

Dave KB1FGF, Bert KB1ZLV, and Frank KR1ZAN

Bert and Frank check out Pond Island Light on the way by

The WS1SM team landing on the beach at Seguin

A member of the boat crew paddles Bert, Annette, and Dakota ashore

Sam N1WIG and Steve N1EOE, load up the tram car

Stefania, YO9GJY, poses with the lighthouse

The BuddiPole with Seguin Island Light in the background

Bert KB1ZLV, Dakota KB1YYC, and Sean W1GFD operate 40m

Ryan, KB1YTR, operates VHF

Up in the light tower

Gathering equipment for the trip back

WS1SM Team Activates West Quoddy Head Light for ILLW

Ryan, KB1YTR, operates 20m at West Quoddy Head Light

Thom W1WMG spends some time on the air

Cindy W1CJS and Charlie W1CPS work 17m

Charlie and Thom operate 40m Sunday morning

Cindy works a pileup on 15m while Charlie looks on

Tim VE9/KB1HNZ, Thom VE9/W1WMG, and Ryan VE9/KB1YTR

Thom and Ryan are on the air, eh!

LONDON, U.K. - 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 the emerging commercial radio circuits, 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 at these ‘short waves’.

It wasn’t 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. Then, in 1924, as both transmitter power and receiver sensitivity improved, the dream was to span the globe by radio. After some false starts, on 18 October 1924, two-way communication was finally established between Frank Bell, call sign 4AA, a sheep farmer in South Island New Zealand, and Cecil Goyder, callsign 2SZ, a former pupil of Mill Hill School, operating from the School in North London.

The world had been shrunk, and things would never be the same again.

To commemorate the 90th anniversary of this historic contact made by Goyder and Bell, radio amateurs in the UK and New Zealand will be operating a number of special event stations.

GB2NZ will be operated from 20 September to 18 October 2014 from a number of UK locations and all bands from 10m to 160m.

The unique callsign 2SZ will be aired from 11-18 October from Mill Hill School. The UK spectrum regulator Ofom has agreed to issue this special callsign for the anniversary week, and the radio waves can be expected to be buzzing with stations seeking to contact this rare call.

A special station, using the call ZL4AA, will also be operating from Shag Valley in South Island, New Zealand, from 11-18 October 2014. At Mill Hill School and Shag Valley, amateurs will recreate the first Goyder/Bell contact, hopefully on a wavelength close to that used in 1924.

Radio amateurs in New Zealand will continue to operate ZM90DX on all bands.

Pupils at Mill Hill will be able to visit the radio station, speak to the operators, and even speak over the air. Displays will be situated around the School giving more information about the history and technologies involved, so that the whole event will be a real learning experience for the School’s pupils. Whilst the station won’t be open to the public, on 18 October 2014 there will be a live webcam at the School covering the communications and celebrations.

Members of the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), which is the national society for amateur radio in the UK, will be providing the station at Mill Hill School and much of the supporting documentation. The School will be using the facility provided by the RSGB as an interactive learning tool for the pupils.

Don Beattie, Vice President, RSGB commented: “This was a significant milestone in the development of global communications. I am delighted that the RSGB is able to help Mill Hill School celebrate this anniversary, and share with its pupils and the amateur radio world the historic nature of this event.”

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QSL Corner

On page 1, we featured a card celebrating Riga's designation as the 2014 European Capital of Culture. Below you'll find images of a card from the FT5ZM DXpedition to Amsterdam Island:

If you received an interesting QSL yourself that you'd like to show off, please send a digital image to [email protected] and we'll be sure to publish it in an upcoming issue.

	FT5ZM - Here's some images of a QSL card sent to us by Stefania, YO9GJY for QSOs on multiple bands with the FT5ZM DXpedition to Amsterdam Island, which took place in late January through early February.
	QSO Details: 2/8/2014 - 0923 UTC  12m SSB 2/9/2014 - 1134 UTC  15m SSB 2/9/2014 - 1153 UTC  17m SSB Congratulations on a job well done, Stefania, and thanks for taking the time to share it with us!