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 run entirely by a team of volunteers. 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!
The operating position in 1901.