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
