A Long Weekend in Cornwall (4/8)

 

These pictures were taken during a long weekend break in Devon and Cornwall during March 2003. Little was planned and we stopped at a different B&B each night.

  

 

 

 

Mark and I stopped for a breather and admired the view from this bench. You can see how all this walking has made his legs shrink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we reached the place at Poldhu where Marconi had sent the first transatlantic radio signal on 12 December 1901 to Glace Bay, Nova Scotia in Canada. This monument was erected nearby to commemorate this important occasion which marked the start of global radio telecommunications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The monument has four plaques, one on each side, which explain the history of the site. Pictures of all four plaques can be seen at the Radio Marconi website

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the remains of the Poldhu wireless station which was demolished in 1933. I'm standing on some of the remaining floor tiles. There is a picture of the wireless station when it was standing around 1900 on the Piatt County, Illinois HAM Radio web site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That afternoon we had time to drive to Goonhilly, the location of the BT Earth Station for communication with satellites in orbit around the earth. This aerial is Arthur, the first one built here. It weighs 1118 tonnes and was used to communicate with the first television satelite Telstar launched in July 1962.

 

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