On Saturday, April 27, 2024, Radio Central Amateur Radio Club will be celebrating the birth of Guglielmo Marconi on April 25, 1874. If you have an interest in Amateur Radio or wireless history in general (and Long Island has a rich, proud history in wireless communication), you are more than welcome to stop by and pay us a visit. We'll be there from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM, perhaps later if there is interest and our energy levels hold out. Meet some of the local ham operators in the area, take a tour of the Marconi shack, and see an actual ham station in operation.

Along with about forty other ham radio clubs in the U.S. and Europe, we will be participating in an event called International Marconi Day. Ham clubs around the world will set up stations on April 27 at sites that are connected to Guglielmo Marconi in some historical way. Once owned by Marconi, the small white building located in front of the Frank Carasiti elementary school in Rocky Point, Long Island was built in 1902 and is one of the oldest structures in North America known to have been built expressly for radio communications.

Sanctioned by Great Britain's Cornish Radio Amateur Radio Club, International Marconi Day is usually held on the Saturday closest to Marconi's birthday, when amateur radio stations are established and operated from original historic sites, or nearby. These stations are known as the 'Award Stations' and are listed on the Cornish Amateur Radio Club Web Site. The list is regularly updated as the various stations worldwide confirm their availability to operate. Radio amateurs around the world will be tuning the bands in earnest to communicate with as many of Award Stations as possible. Those who successfully contact 15 or more of us over the air will be eligible for an award from the Cornish Radio Amateur Radio Club.

You can find out more about the history of the Marconi Shack at http://rcarc.org/imdhist.htm.

Directions to the Marconi Day site can be found at http://rcarc.org/im_day.htm.