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Clark, N1BCG, AMer and Amfone member is helping to commemorate this historic radio event.


Transatlantic Reception Anniversary Special Event Set for December 11

An Amateur Radio special event on December 11 will commemorate the 95th anniversary of the first transatlantic shortwave reception between Greenwich, Connecticut, and Scotland. A school near the original site is hosting the event. ARRL, the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), and the Radio Club of America (RCA), are partnering in sponsoring the activity. The Greenwich Historical Society will also participate.

On December 11, 1921, reception in Ardrossan, Scotland, of a radio signal transmitted from the official test station of Minton Cronkhite, 1BCG, in a small shack on the corner of Clapboard Ridge Road and North Street in Greenwich, helped to usher in the age of global communication. The special event will use N1BCG, the call sign of Clark Burgard of Greenwich, who obtained that call sign to commemorate this bit of radio history. Burgard was instrumental in making arrangements for the event.

The N1BCG special event will begin on Sunday, December 11, at 1200 and conclude at 0300 UTC on December 12. It will include an attempt at a two-way contact between N1BCG and GB2ZE, operated by Jason O'Neill, GM7VSB, in Ardrossan.


The 1BCG 1 kW CW transmitter.

Reception in Scotland of the 1BCG signal was part of the second series of ARRL transatlantic tests. For the receiving end, the ARRL Board had selected a receiver designed by Paul Godley, 2ZE, and Godley traveled to the UK to oversee that end of the circuit. Joining Godley in a field in Ardrossan, southwest of Glasgow, was Marconi Company District Inspector D.E. Pearson. As the QST article, "The Transatlantic Tests" (QST Dec. 2014) by Michael Marinaro, WN1M, recounted, "The two attempted to keep out of the driving wind and rain by sheltering themselves -- and their equipment -- in a tent. This rough listening post was comprised of a (superheterodyne and regenerative) receiver, a 1,300-foot Beverage antenna suspended 12 feet above ground, batteries, and auxiliary equipment."


January 1922 QST trumpeted the success of the transatlantic tests.

On the morning of December 10, CW signals of 1BCG, which had been designed and constructed by Radio Club of America members -- were solidly copied on 230 to 235 meters (about 1.3 MHz). They were the only signals heard that morning in Ardrossan. By the end of the test, eight spark and 18 CW stations had been heard as well.

N1BCG operation will be on AM on 75 and 40 meters; CW and SSB on 40 meters, CW on 30 meters, and CW and SSB on 20 and 17 meters.

Approximate frequencies are 3.880 (AM), 7.290 (AM), 7.235 (SSB), 7040 (CW), 10.112 (CW), 14.280 (SSB), 14.040 (CW), 18.125 (SSB), and 18.088 MHz CW.


- from the ARRL Letter

Wonder of they will be using a reproduction of the original 1BCG transmitter this time.  I recall that on a previous major anniversary of this event, one was used, from at or near the original location in Greenwich, CT.  Remember hearing its distinctive rectified AC note.  A whole lot more interesting than doing it with riceboxes!

Some details of the very strapescent 1BCG transmitter of 95 years ago:

http://radioclubofamerica.org/rca-history/1921-club-station-1bcg-and-the-transatlantic-tests/

4 204As (1 MO and 3 PA) at 2500V, about 1 KW.  Would definitely qualify for Heavy Metal Night!

topbanddinner.com/attachments/1921_TransAtlantic_Tests.pps

The above slide show includes a LOT of info on 1BCG and Godley's receiving site in Scotland.  Not sure if the above will work as a link...if not just search for it, it came up on a 1BCG  transmitter google search.

Check out the photo of the original 1BCG transmitter..it looks like QIX traveled back in time to build it for them!

  Good Stuff, the link works but it won't allow me to save any of the pictures.

For any one picture or slide, I just did a screen save, and then cleaned it up with photoshop.

Link to a page of N1BCG who currently lives in Greenwich, CT

http://www.internetwork.com/radio/n1bcg/

Has a number of other interesting links to 1BCG related stuff, including the 1922 QST that reported on the successful results of the transatlantic tests.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.0708382,-73.622843,3a,75y,231.87h,71.08t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1slXOWRtDWunI3SgFoyGxPLA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Google Street View of the 1BCG Memorial Marker in Greenwich.  The station location lies in the background of this view.  It is now the location of the Greenwich Catholic School.   I believe the special op on the 11th of this month will be operated from there.

If the link doesn't take you directly to the street view image, the marker is located on the little triangle at the intersection of Clapboard Ridge Road and North Street.

...and here's the 1BCG xmtr schematic, right out of the Heathkit docs...

Dose anyone know when the operating time's are, 12 pm sunday to 3 pm monday is pretty vague. It would be great if the average AMer could get in on the test somehow.

John W9BFO

Steve's post represented the published information from the ARRL, but the specific details of bands and modes will depend on the conditions du jour. For AM, it's likely to begin around ~3880, then migrate to around ~7290 midday, then back to 75M for the later hours.

Clark,  do you gave any information on the replica of the original 1BCG transmitter that was put on the air for the anniversary a few years ( maybe 5 or 10 tears ago?  I think N1GIG had some involvement with the effort.  I recall working them. It sure was loud and sure sounded unique!

Hi Chris,

I'm trying to locate a video that the W1BCG team made of their anniversary event in 1996, I believe. I saw it a few years ago but I'm not sure if it's online or on CD. I'll post a link here when I know more. Standby for updates!

The replica transmitter my OM and I built is currently residing in the AWA annex in upstate NY. I believe the last time it was on the air, I ran it from my QTH in Shortsville, NY for the 85th in 2001. After that, I don't think its been on since.

Hi Mike,

There is no more annex!  All of the gear has been moved to the new museum complex in Bloomfield.  Much nicer digs for sure and a lot more space to display stuff better.  When completed it will consist of 4 very large buildings. Not sure if I have a picture of that set from your Dad or not.  Lynn - W2BSN would know its exact location since all the gear now is photographed and bar-coded for inventory purposes. 

http://www.antiquewireless.org/awa-museum.html

Joe-GMS   

Was just looking at the 1921 1BCG transmitter schematic on the RC of A website slide show about the 1921 station operation.  It noted that it was frequency shift keyed using a keyed shunt coil on the MOPA main coil.  I suspect that the keyed contact across the coil would have actually been on a relay to avoid any weird effects of  stray inductance and hand capacity of a circuit involving an actual operator's key.  The schematic also shows a keying contact in the grid circuit of the amplifier stage.  Again, I assume that was a second contact on the keying relay.  Wonder how far the MO freq was shifted in this design?

Just took a listen for N1BCG on and around their advertised 7040 kc CW frequency, about 0815 EST, nothing heard yet. The pre event publicity says that the AM ops will be conducted using the Johnson Valiant that was donated to the ARRL by Joe Walsh.

Don't remember reading that.

It was! :-)  Joe "Life's Been Good" Walsh had a Johnson Valiant and NC-303 which The League brought down to be used as the 80M/40M rig. An Orban Optimod was connected to the phone patch (RCA) jack.

We stood out a bit, compared to the more traditionally operated CW and SSB stations down the row. Those ops had never been acoustically QRM'd before by an AM operation, but we had the "First-Timer Bell", interviews, wireless mic (for live updates from the CW and SSB positions) and traffic reports.

Tie and Coat. Nice!

Well...it was in Greenwich, CT after all...I heard them talking about his period correct Armstrong hat to go with the suit.

Hey, I attended that school for 11 years, and despite being set up in the gym, it seemed appropriate to put on a good visual show for our hosts. ;-)

Speaking of visual, here's the list of what we used for the AM (75/40M) station:

* National NC-303 Receiver - From Joe "Eagles" Walsh's station that now resides at the ARRL in Newington, CT. I believe visitors can sign up to use it too!

* DBX 166XL Compressor/Limiter - Used to limit microphone (program) audio (L) and receiver audio (R) as heard in headphones. The speakers were fed raw receiver audio.

* Symetrix 506E Headphone Amplifier - We used the main and cue inputs to the fullest so hosts could hear themselves and the received audio via the DBX.

* Sennheiser 421 Microphones (2) - The main mics

* Behringer B-1 Microphone - We actually needed a third at times!

* HME WM-300A Wireless Microphone - For getting live frequency updates on the CW and SSB event stations.

* Alesis Multimix 8 USB FX Audio Mixer - We didn't even need the built-in reverb effects for that "school gymnasium sound"

* Orban Optimod 9000A - A great companion to the Valiant. Having an active balanced output made setting polarity a snap

* Johnson Viking Valiant - The other half of Joe "Life's Been Good" Walsh's station! Just incredible. He has a concert tour coming up in '17, incidentally...

* REA Modulation Monitor - This is a *must* for AMers and provides a comprehensive display on large digital bargraph and old skool analog meters. Negative and positive peak flashers help keep things clean, and a polarity indicator shows if your mic is in proper phase. All on a computer screen. Invaluable.

* Johnson Kilowatt Matchbox - Got a thorough testing after refurbishment. Too much reactance to match on 20M though.

* 75M Dipole @ 65' / 450Z Twinlead - Strung from the school flagpole. I've wanted to do that since being a 6th grader there. I think I've been patient, and unlike then, I *didn't* get in a world of trouble.

* Desklamps - As it turned out, the gym was RF quiet during the site check weeks earlier, but what we didn't realize is that the hundreds of -florescent lights- were OFF at the time!  They created RFI havoc on Sunday morning until the custodian brought us lamps from all over the campus (including from the headmaster's desk). See pic...pretty cozy for a boys gym, eh?

The CW and SSB stations had impressive numbers of buttons and knobs, but since none were labeled "Grid Drive" and since this is AMfone, you can check those out in the videos on the ARRL site...

My school gym never looked like that.  :D The only only thing missing from this picture is the "Rolling Rock Pail" to throw in additional AM nostalgia.

Back in the "good of days" of high school, a friend and I could only set up a amateur radio demo in the physics lab. We used my Apache and his HQ-170A and a dipole for 40 and 15 meters. The girls were impressed we could talk to people in other countries and all over the U. S. and didn't just drag our knuckles on the ground like some of the other guys.

From this week's ARRL Letter:

Commemorative Special Event Reenacts 1921 Amateur Radio Transatlantic Reception

12/14/2016
Radio amateurs in the US and in Scotland have reenacted the first successful transatlantic reception of a shortwave Amateur Radio signal nearly a century earlier. Special event station N1BCG in Greenwich, Connecticut, and GB2ZE in Ardrossan, Scotland, completed contacts on SSB and on CW during the December 11 event. ARRL, the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), and the Radio Club of America (RCA) partnered to support the activity, organized by ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, and Clark Burgard, N1BCG, who loaned his history-rich call sign for the occasion. On December 11, 1921, in Ardrossan, Scotland, reception of a radio signal transmitted from an RCA test station — located in a small shack on the Greenwich, Connecticut, property of Minton Cronkhite, 1BCG — helped to usher in the age of global communication. In Scotland, American Paul Godley, 2ZE, clearly heard the signal using a receiver of his own design.

“These events are fun, because they’re timely, cause us to focus on the history and on the people who made history,” Gallagher said. “We were very pleased with the tenor of it and with the media coverage, and we were happy to make the connection with GB2ZE, although we would have preferred to have made it on 160 meters, where it would have been closer to the frequency used in 1921.” The 1921 transatlantic test, on CW, was conducted on a wavelength of 230 to 235 meters (about 1.3 MHz). The transatlantic tests proved the value of the shorter wavelengths — long considered worthless to long-distance communication.

Burgard spoke on 20-meter SSB with GB2ZE, operated by Jason O’Neill, GM7VSB, in Ardrossan. A bit later, ARRL Field Services Manager Dave Patton, NN1N, chatted with GB2ZE on CW. “After working GB2ZE on 20 meters, I was reminded of how much of a challenge the RCA ops had using 200 meters,” Patton said. “Hearing signals in Europe from across the Atlantic had to be a tremendous thrill for Godley and the others listening.”

The first message sent by Burgard from Greenwich to Androssan on Sunday morning repeated the original 1921 text: “252 AM No. 1 de 1BCG w-12, New York Date 11/12-21 [GMT] To Paul Godley, Androssan Scotland, Hearty congratulations Burghard Inman Grinan Armstrong Amy Cronkhite.” Patton repeated the message 30 minutes later on CW.

Describing the special event as “a rewarding experience,” Patton said the entire team worked together to build a Field Day-style station in wintry weather. He said the complement of equipment included a few “fully-armed vintage AM stations,” as well as such modern radios as a FlexRadio 6500 and an Icom 7700. Among the older pieces was a 1950s-era transmitter owned by rocker Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, of The Eagles. The antennas were simple dipoles.

“In about 9 hours of operating, we logged nearly 525 QSOs, with 106 on AM on 40 and 75 meters through conditions that were only fair,” Patton recounted.

About a dozen operators sat down to operate the Special Event station, set up near the site of the 1921 1BCG transmitting station. The special event drew the attention of news media, especially on the Scottish end of things, with BBC-Scotland producing reports on the Amateur Radio event.

To highlight the historical nature of the occasion, Godley’s grandchildren Bruce Godley Littlefield and his sister, Janice Taylor, visited the special event, and Littlefield brought his grandfather’s complete log books of the experiment, as well as numerous photos and letters from ARRL.

“We enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect the Godley history with that of ARRL and the Radio Club of America,” Littlefield said afterward.