Marconi Net
The Marconi Net
A cooperation between GOTAhams and the Isle of Wight Radio Society, UK
We celebrate the fellowship between UK and US hams with the Marconi Net that will join two repeaters in the US with one in the UK.
Guglielmo Marconi experienced some of his early radio successes from the Isle of Wight including the first recorded contact with a ship at sea. Later, of course, he was successful in connecting the U.K. and U.S. by radio.
The MARCONI NET will link the WG6OTA repeater on Sunset Ridge north of Claremont, California with the KS7MC repeater (Spirit Mountain Amateur Radio Club) in Fort Mohave, Arizona and the GB3IW repeater near Cowes, on the Isle of Wight in the UK.
The net will always start at 19:00 UTC. The net start time is specified in UTC time to avoid any confusion as U.S. Daylight Savings Time and British Summer Time change on different weekends. In California 1900 UTC is 12noon from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November and 11am the rest of the year. In Arizona 1900 UTC is always 12 noon. On the Isle of Wight 1900 UTC is 8pm from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October and 7pm the rest of the time.
No special radio programming is required, just access the WG6OTA repeater as usual and it will be linked to GB3IW. We do ask that participants pay special attention to avoiding time outs. Keep transmissions to less than 2 minutes and allow time for a FULL carrier drop (by the repeater) between transmissions. Allow a full one second pause after you start your transmission and you begin talking; to allow your radio to transmit the tone to your local repeater, to start transmitting which will then key the remote repeaters, to to begin transmitting, to the remote radios to open their squelch.
These are open repeaters, and we welcome guests. Any licensed operator is encouraged to join us on any of our repeater or simplex nets. As usual, we encourage all participants to completely ignore (do not acknowledge in any way) any intentional interference during this or any other net. Members are also able to meet on the Zoom Lounge before, during, and after the nets. Information to join on Zoom is in the weekly email.
For information about the clubs, please check out their respective web sites at:
https://gotahams.com
https://iowrs.org
For information about the net, contact: Bill Appleton, KF4MCG at kf4mcg@hotmail.com
See the maps below for information on the locations of WG6OTA and GB3IW.
Approximately 5,425 miles between repeaters.