I am sorry to be the bearer of some very sad news relating to an amateur who has been involved in operating an International Marconi Day station for more than 20 of the 25 years of the event.

I had the pleasure to meet him in person at a conference in Bologna in 1995 and we became good friends and corresponded regularly ever since. He was a very knowledgeable Marconi historian and the knowledge he possessed will certainly be very missed.

He regularly met with members of the Marconi family and, of course, this led to a reinforcement of his vast knowledge of the subject.

I am of course referring to Patrizio Ciancarini I0KHP

Pat unfortunately passed away on 8th April following corrective surgery undertaken to sort out a broken leg.

Our sincere condolences are offered to his Son Paolo and all of Pat’s family and friends at home and around the world. Pat will be very much missed by the amateur radio community.

Text of message received from Paolo follows:

dear Norman,
my name is Paolo Ciancarini, son of Patrizio I0KHP

I am sad because I have to say that my father passed away on April 8,
in consequence of some surgery he had to sustain for breaking his leg.

I ask his ham friends to remember him while operating in the next Marconian days,
he would have been happy of that

best regards

Paolo Ciancarini

Further message from Alberto IK0CNA a good friend of Pat

Dear Norman G4USB,
you were already informed for the passing of PAT I0KHP, founded and operator of IY0TC, TORRE CHIARUCCIA MARCONI STATION.
Pat left a great empty space, we all shall miss energy and enthusiasm forever.
We think the best way to honour him is to continue his mission,

so the station be regularly on the air IMD April 21 st.
Later, special cards will be sent, each repording the writhing “DEDICATED PAT I0KHP”.
This is what wanted tell you Norman, let’s meet for IMD.
Best 73
IK0CNA (Alberto).

————————————-

I hope all Marconi Day Stations can honour his son’s request and take the time to make mention of Pat from time to time during the event.

Pat will surely be up there missing his chance to operate on the day. Only a short time back I received a message from Pat concerning his plans for yet another Marconi celebration, he was so enthusiastic and will leave as huge void to be filled.

Please try to work IY0TC and pass on your best wishes in memory of a staunch supporter of International Marconi Day.

Patrizio Ciancarini I0KHP now Silent key  8th April 2012 – rest in peace Pat

Hi everyone, not long now, just a couple of days and we will be operating the 25th International Marconi Day.

The Cornish Radio Amateur Club hope to work as many of you as possible with our Special, Special Event Call-sign which is GB25IMD. I’m so glad I persevered and eventually managed to have the call sanctioned by the chaps at Ofcom. They did seem to make quite a meal of it though. I would have thought it was quite obvious that our event has an International significance but it seems Ofcom were in need of convincing hi hi.

Carlos Eavis at the Radio Society of Great Britain was extremely helpful and, following a couple of letters to Ofcom from the Society we eventually managed to get the message over.

I hope as many of the Foundation Licence holders in the UK as possible make the effort to work for the award this year as propagation now seems to be improving and their 10w power restriction should not prove too much of a barrier for them especially on 10m & 40m and the low noise 15m band of course could provide excellent results for them.

As even the CRAC station will commence operation at 0000UTC on the 21st and continue, we hope, without break for the whole 24 hours, unless, of course there is no action in the wee small hours when a break may be taken. Some of the official groups will not be working for the whole 24 hour period especially the ones with very limited personnel. If you hear any of the groups work them straight away or you could miss out.

At this point I would like to thank everyone tasking an official role on in 2012 for their efforts that make the event as successful as it has become. We never dreamed it would capture the imagination of so many like minded operators around the world but it has and we are most grateful to everyone who continue to support us each year.

I hope each group will take the time to send me a short report on their operation in 2012 to let everyone know hoe successful they have been and to pass on some of the excitement working such a station has provided them.

Finally a message to the CRAC members. Don’t forget it’s antenna party time on Friday afternoon from around 3.00 pm at the hall followed by a Quiz evening with your quiz-master Charlie, G0HGD and, the hot pasties will be delivered to us at around 8.00pm to round off the evening.

Then it is wait for the off at 0000 on the 21st. I will be there together with Mike G1NRF and James M6ZXZ and perhaps others to usher in number 25.

Best wiahes to everyone and good luck with the event.

Norman G4USB

President of the Cornish Radio Amateur Club

Co-Founder of the IMD

A big thank you to all the coordinators who have sent me conformations and Station Histories/Photographs relating to their operations representing Marconi’s sites around the Globe. Their input has helped me to update the site accordingly and help make it a better resource for visitors looking for information about the Cornish Radio Amateur Radio Club’s International Marconi Day.

As most of you may know this year is the 25th event to take place and, it has grown from the initial 5 IMD stations to the event you see represented on this site today.

We put the event in place each year but it is the groups taking part around the world who serve to make it a fun day for everyone.

Whilst there is an award on offer for both transmitting and listening enthusiasts we do ask you to remember that IMD is NOT A CONTEST. We actively encourage groups to take the chance to have a brief chat with callers if they wish to and, to promote the comradeship of our superb hobby. I tend to hold my head in mt hands if I hear a group calling Contest or just having a machine gun you are 59 QRZ contact…..not in the spirit of the event. Please take the time to make IMD as friendly as possible.

Also, with the growing number of 10w stations on air we should also take the time to listen for the weaker stations calling our respective groups to encourage them and help them achieve their award. Perhaps occasionally asking for callers uning 10w and below to call whilst trying to have the higher power callers stand by for a while. Just a thought.

With the higher bands coming back to life almost on a daily basis let us hope the 21st April will be one of the days when activity on 10,12,15 will generate even more activity and keep us busy. The last few years have seen call rates decline noticeably, in our case to a few hundred from the 2,000 level we used to achieve some years back. Fingers crossed.

As the organising group we do try to operate the whole 24 hours of the event although, the middle of the night has often been very dead indeed and we fully understand that some groups are just not able to run the full time especially those with just one or two operators. All we can ask is that each group carries on working for as many hours as possible to help the award chasers as much as possible.

On the subject of the award and, the low power stations at 10w. Don’t forget there are two types the two way contact and the listener log. My suggestion is that you keep two logs; the first as the transmitting amateur and record those contacts there; the second as a listeners log for the stations you cannot get to but can hear. for them, record a full contact, logging their call and that of the station they were working the time etc. Then, should you fail to work the required number to claim the transmitting award you can use the listener log to make up thre number and claim the listeners award. This is a super certificate in ots own right and will reward you for your patience and efforts during the event.

Have a great event.

Norman G4USB

President CRAC

Co Founder of the IMD event

Many thanks to the groups who have taken the trouble to confirm participation in the 2012 event.

There are still several blanks and, if you have not received an e.mail from us you could well be one of the 15 or so permanent failures when we send a mailing. For whatever reason there are that many failed addresses held by us now. You may have changed provider and not kept your old address live perhaps?

It would be great to hear from the groups who’s call sign has not changed to blue on the stations page yet, there is still time to confirm.

Norman & the IMD Team

GB25IMD    our Silver Jubilee

Golf Bravo twenty five India Mike Delta (For 2012 only)

After quite a struggle with Ofcom requiring us to justify the importance of our event I have received permission and the Notice of Variation today to use the call, GB25IMD to celebrate our 25th International Marconi Day on April 21st 2012.

Much thanks must go to Carlos Eavis at the Radio Society of Great Britain for his support and for confirming the Society’s backing for the Special Call. We hope the RSGB will

It has been quite a task but for some reason convincing the powers that be that International Marconi Day, which has participating Groups in North and S.America, Australia, Mainland Europe, Iceland, England, Wales & Ireland is an event of International Importance; even when it seeks to commemorate the activities and achievements of a man such as G.Marconi.

Anyway, tenacity has paid off and the Special, Special Event Call has been issued.

We hope all the groups taking part with us on the day will have a truly wonderful day.

As you can imagine we are very excited to have reached this milestone and felt marking it in this way was of great importance as most of us will probably be long gone by the time number 50 arrives!  Out thoughts naturally gravitate therefore to the memory of past operators both within our own group and all others who have passed away since we started. Without their support in the past we may never have achieved this milestone. For us these include three good friends who have passed away in the last 12 months or so G0KSF Les, G3VWK Bert, M0GRC Geoff & G3VJB Geoff ; there are others since the start of course and as sure as anything the only thing we can be sure of in life is the payment of taxes followed by our death. Our friends will be sadly missed.

Have a great Day on April 21st and thank you to all groups taking part.

Fingers crossed for some good global propagation this year as it has been many years since we have enjoyed truly buoyant conditions for the International Marconi Day event.

73′ es 88′ to all

Norman G4USB

Here we are with just one month to go before the IMD event and to date I only have 13 groups confirming their participation this year even though an e.mail was sent out asking for the confirmation and updated contact details.

No doubt some contact information is outdated but we had hoped anyone receiving the e.mail would have at least passed it on to the new group contact to deal with, maybe not.

If you are a member of an official IMD operating station please check with your group coordinator that they have confirmed participation. If your group is not shown in BLUE on the Stations page no confirmation has been received by us. Please ask your nominated person to do so and, if you have not yet provided a brief write up about your ststion and why you take part please include one of thise too for inclusion on this site.

Thanks

Norman G4USB

In the past week I have sent an E.Mail message to the addresses I hold on file for each station taking part in previous years. Unfortunately, not only do I not have a contact address for some Groups but also, I have had 12 of the messages returned to me as undeliverable and this means contact also lost with those Groups too.

I had requested: Taking part in 2012 – yes or No, Group Name, Event Callsign to be used, Main Coordinator Name, address,callsign,e.mail address & telephone number (may be useful) and the same for a Second Contact. Also requested is a short write-up about their site and the Marconi history relating to it and a few ‘fresh pictures’ with a reasonable quality of say 1024×768 pixels which gives me something to work with.

If you have received and responded to the E.Mail, many thanks

If you have yet to respond, please do so.

If you have not received the e.mail chances are we have lost contact so please send the information as soon as possible please to   crac.imd@gmail.com

Thanks, time is marching, soon be April !

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Norman – G4USB

It seems amazing but, 2012 will be the Silver Jubilee year of International Marconi Day.Who would have thought we would still be going from strength to strength after such a long time; we must have something right I guess. Perhaps it is because we have never wanted any of the Official Marconi Day Stations to treat the days operation as if it were a contest. We have always asked them to take the time to be friendly and welcoming, to take the time to pass a name and provide information as requested and not just pass a you are 59 QRZ.

OK, there may be times when you are the cause of a pile up and at such times you have to operate accordingly, but, as a minimum, we still expect to have names and locations exchanged for the log along with the reports. From time to time you may need to operate by the ‘numbers’ or by asking for the last 3 letters to identify the next tranche of stations to work but that is all part of the fun of operating a special event station.

Unfortunately for the past several years HF band conditions have been awful during the IMD operational periods so the need for pile up skills has not been too important, but, we sincerely hope that our 25th event might just generate sufficient interest worldwide to get the award hunting juices flowing with many more operators seeking the award.

We have kept the award requirements to a standard that should be obtainable by even the most modest station. Certainly in the UK and Europe a station running the Foundation power level of 10w should have no problem working the required number of contacts with a multitude of stations located in Europe operating of 80m, 40m, 20m & 17m should provide the means of achieving the award.

It is worth reminding everyone to also record the IMD stations you have heard but not worked, logging one of their other contacts with the time, frequency, both call signs and their reports. Then, if you come up a couple short for the transmitting award you can always combine the heard  stations and claim the listeners certificate instead. 

If you are a member of one of the participating official station groups please ensure your co-ordinator visits the IMD-2012 page and complete the contact us boxes to update us with your groups contact details and to inform us you will be taking part in the 2012 event. Select the option ‘confirm operation in 2012′      We will be sending an E.Mail to our existing contact seeking an update as soon as this site has gone live asking them to visit the IMD-2012 page at their earliest convenience.

If you wish to mount a station for the first time and wish to be considered for inclusion in the official award stations list please select ‘we wish to run an official station’ option and give us full details.

If you have any questions concerning the award please select ‘award question’ opption although, the award pages should give all the information you need.

We have put in an early request for good weather over the IMD weekend but unfortunately sometimes our request goes unheard. It would be nice to set up the stations and take them down whilst bathed in glorious sunshine but, we all know it is more likely to be in heavy rain with a gale for good measure hi hi.

We take the opportunity here to say a very big thank you to every group taking part as, without all of you we would be very lonely here in Cornwall so a heart felt thank you from all of us here at the Cornish Radio Amateur Club. Not too sure if I will make the 50th as I would be in my mid 80′s, far from certain but possible. Wow it would be great to still be here and see my original idea reach age 50 but thats far away isn’t it? let’s get 2012 out of the way first hi hi.

73′ es 88′ as appropriate

Norman Pascoe

G4USB

President of CRAC and Co-Founder of the IMD