Villa Griffone – IY4FGM
“FGM is for Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi”
or Guglielmo Marconi Foundation”
THE OFFICIAL MARCONI MEMORIAL AMATEUR RADIO STATION
MANAGED BY ARI – BOLOGNA
located in PONTECCHIO MARCONI – BOLOGNA – ITALY, in a small building inthe back garden in the grounds of the ”VILLA GRIFFONE” which was in Marconis’s time used by the Marconi family as a country summer house. This was where the young Marconi started his experiments in wireless telegraphy.
After Marconi departure in 1937 (born April 25-1874) the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation, a State recognized cultural institution, was founded on April 11, 1938, under law R.D. n.354, and situated in the historical Villa Griffone, promoting and encouraging studies and researches related to Radio Communication and initiatives;designed to keep the memory of the great scientist and his fame alive.
To this purpose the Foundation carries on programmes, that can be divided in three groups as follows:
- history and museum related activities
- advanced research
- activities of cultural and social promotion
The Mausoleum and Museum within Villa Griffone are attractions for italian and foreign tourists alike.
(The Museum is accessible only by group reservations.)
Note from webmaster:
In 1995 I attended an IOTA conference in Bologna as a guest of the ARI to mark our association with Marconi via the International Marconi Day celebrations. I visited the Villa Griffone and got to some some of the operators personally. Sergio and I shared the same profession at the time, both of us working for a Bank.
The radio shack was very impressive with matching TS950 transceivers and the antenns mounted way up in the sly in the tubular tower were very striking indeed.
A brief period of operation was enjoyed with a few contacts being made by myself using the IY4FGM call sign. Ian, another attendee worked a string of contacts on CW, much to his delight.
All the guys were extremely friendly and made us very welcome indeed. If you find yourself in the Bologna region be sure to pay the Villa a visit and hope that someone is in the radio shack, you will not regret the effort I can assure you
Norman G4USB
IY4FGM
QSL Manager is IK4UPU (via buro or direct)
Maybe you worked me (IK4AUY) as I’m one of the official
radio operators at that UNIQUE AND FAMOUS STATION.
(Operators co-ordinator is now IZ4FTB)
about the IY4FGM station
| Written by David Dark |
| Saturday, March 13, 2010 10:23 |
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The idea of an amateur station to activate a Grifone was born in October 1964 on the occasion of the XVI National Congress of ARI during the visit of delegates to the Mausoleum of Marconi. At that time Italy was not in place for area codes and the geographical distribution was also quite rare to hear of new prefixes on the radio amateur. To identify this station memorial and then felt the need to use a special prefix for all OM in the world could immediately recognize that “one” station operated from the place where, 70 years before, had been irradiated the first radio signals. The idea was not immediately implemented, but thanks to the interest of I1TAB Eng. Trevisan, the PT Department granted provisionally the name really special, for those times of the IØFGM Foundation G. Marconi . The coordination for the installation of the station was given to Franco I1LCK Armenghi, then I4LCK. The station was installed inside the villa and exactly at the window outside of which a plaque commemorating the launch of the first radio signals. In the early 70′s began the renovation and rearrangement of Grifone and it was the determination to find a site more suitable for the amateur radio station, the purpose was entirely restored and placed the chapel located on the back of the villa, a small elegant building and suggestive, in which the radio transceivers found their place. With the cooperation of the fire was hoisted to a sturdy support pole antennas. In 1974 the restoration of the villa was completed, and also the radio station resumed its activities: it was the year of the centenary of the birth of Guglielmo Marconi and wanted to honor the memory of the great scientist with the establishment of the diploma Guglielmo Marconi , an acknowledgment to those hams who had connected the points of the globe in some way related to the presence and work of Guglielmo Marconi. When Italy changed the allocation of prefixes for call-areas, ie according to the prefixes of postal codes, the station’s memorial was given the name Grifone IY4FGM. In 1991 a storm of unprecedented power and damaged beyond repair antenna mast: the station IY4FGM remained practically inactive for four years, having to resort to makeshift aircraft. Efforts have been made not inconsiderable logistical and economic and today, the year of celebrations Marconi, a self-supporting tower and a complex of antennas enable efficient IY4FGM radio station to broadcast his voice again for the whole world.
 Antenna party pre the Centennial Celebrations in 1995
Top right: Walter I4ZXO Venturi IK4DCT David Hair,
The radio station IY4FGM is much more of an amateur radio station and will continue to make its voice heard in the future, when the echoes of the celebrations for the centenary will be turned off, to remind the world the commitment of a man who was able to show us the way towards the knowledge and the correct use of an invaluable means of communication to improve the human condition and brotherhood among peoples. We report the pages of his friend Elio IK4NYY FGM and his :
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Current antennas at IY4FGM
