IY0IMD operating from the Gazebo

Marconi conducted experiments using his steam yacht at the harbour of Civitavecchia. In 1931 Marconi turned his attention to wavelengths of less than one metre, or microwaves, hitherto regarded as ‘quasi-optical’ – capable of reaching no farther than the eye could see.

With two company engineers, Gaston Mathieu and G.A. Isted, his first trials were in transmitting from the Michelangelo Castle in Civitavecchia to a medieval tower in Santa Marinella, the Torre Chiaruccia, and Castelgandolfo, south-east of Rome. Marconi installed a portable 50cm aerial on the back of his car together with a microwave generator and radio transmitter and bounced radio waves off his car, driven back and forth by his chauffeur along the Aurelia motorway, after that in 1932 he installed a shortwave radio mobile telephone system between Vatican City and the Pope’s summer residence at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome. The ‘optical’ range was 56 miles (90km); the practical range achieved was three times that figure. Frail though he was, Marconi could yet prove the sceptics wrong.

IY0IMD station in 2007IY0IMD operators 2007