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History
A brief history of
the station.
In 1900 the Marconi International Marine Communication
Company Ltd was registered and Guglielmo Marconi
came to stay at the Housel Bay Hotel in his quest
to locate a coastal radio station to receive signals
from ships equipped with his apparatus. He was to
lease a plot “in the wheat field adjoining
the hotel” and the Lizard Wireless Telegraph
Station still stands today. Recently restored by
the National Trust, it is fitted with spark transmitter
and coherer receiver and looks as it did in 1901,
when Marconi received the distance record signals
of 186 miles from the Isle of Wight. In 1910 the
station received an SOS call, which was two years
before the Titanic, and was the first recorded reception
of SOS by a coast station. The Lizard Wireless Station
is the oldest Marconi station to survive in its
original state in the world and is located to the
west of the Lloyds Signal Station in what appears
to be a wooden hut. It is owned by the National
Trust and leased the Trevithick Trust. In addition
to the 1901 display, has a fully operational amateur
radio station.
The first SOS signal. The
ship was the Minnehaha, this is
an extract from the log book of April 18th 1910
- two years BEFORE the
Titanic was supposed to have sent the first SOS
! (Click to Enlarge)
The operating
position in 1901
How it
looks today
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