Promoting Scottish Amateur Radio to the World

and the hobby of Amateur Radio to Scotland

Paul Godley 2ZE

Paul Godley set up a receiving station at Ardrossan in 1921

During the first twenty years after Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless communications, all radio stations were using the long wavelengths above two hundred meters.  To increase the distance range of communications, the commercial wireless stations just increased the power and the size of their antennas.  However, radio amateurs are only using relatively low power of one kilowatt, which is about the same power used in an electric toaster.

     As the radio spectrum became more crowded, the radio amateurs were limited to the short wavelengths below two hundred meters since none of the commercial stations could see any benefit in these short waves.  After operating in the new short wave spectrum a few years, radio amateurs using relatively small antennas and low power were noticing that at times their communication distance range would greatly increase.  This aroused much interest in the amateur radio community.

The American Radio Relay League, which is the largest organization of radio amateurs, proposed an elaborate test to determine if these amateur radio short wave signals would reach across the Atlantic Ocean.  Paul Godley, 2ZE, of Upper Montclair, New Jersey was chosen to go to Scotland and set up his short wave receiving station in Ardrossan, Scotland and be prepared to listen for amateur radio signals from America starting on December 7, 1921. 

These tests attained much publicity in the press and many radio amateurs were ready to take part in this experiment.  The Radio Club of America, the oldest and still active radio club, made a special effort.  They set up a team of six radio amateurs to design and build a short wave station in Greenwich, Connecticut using the call 1BCG.  They previously considered operating from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey but an antenna supporting structure was available and more convenient at Greenwich, Connecticut.

     These radio amateurs were building this short wave station in a typical radio shack of the day in the middle of a field with about a foot of snow on the ground while putting up antennas.  They built the transmitter with new, unproven designs and made changes almost daily until the start of the tests.

     Paul Godley, 2ZE, was working under difficult wet, cold weather in Scotland getting his receiving radio and special Beverage antenna set up.

     Transmissions were started and there existed some difficulty and confusion with interference from some nearby commercial stations but finally, at 2:52 AM Greenwich mean time, on the 12th of December, 1921, the following message was received on short waves from amateur radio station 1BCG in Greenwich, Connecticut:

     To Paul Godley, Ardrossan, Scotland
     Hearty Congratulations
     Signed, Burghard, Inman, Grinan, Armstrong, Amy, Cronkite

    These were the radio amateurs who designed, built and operated the station.  This became the very first short wave message that was sent across the Atlantic ocean and this successful experiment shed much new knowledge about the capabilities of short wave radio communications.  This led the way to opening up the whole short wave spectrum to thousands of short wave stations for long-range radio communications around the world.

• Above derived from The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast of March 17, 1989

During a brief stay of a few hours in London Paul Godley was introduced to Senator Marconi, to Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Jackson, to Alan A.Campbell Swinton and many other distinguished members of the Wireless Society of London, as the R.S.G.B. was then called.

Paul Godley first set up his receiving equipment at Wembley Park, Middlesex but soon decided that the electrical noises in the area would not permit reception of the weak transatlantic signals. He therefore obtained permission to set up the European receiving station at Ardrossan a coast town near Glasgow, Scotland.

The actual site was a large field heavily covered with seaweed. He was assisted in the erection of his receiving antenna by a member of the Marconi International Marine Communications Company.

1,300 feet of phosphor-bronze wire was stretched 12 feet above the ground on ten poles spaced equally along the full length of the wire which was earthed at the far end through a non-inductive resistor. This was the first Beverage type receiving array ever erected in the United Kingdom. Before the actual tests took place the length of the wire was reduced to 850 feet.

At 00.50 GMT on December 9th 1921 Godley identified signals from 1BCG located at Greenwich, Connecticut. The station there was manned by six members of the Radio Club of America. One of the operators was E.Howard Armstrong inventor of the regenerative detector, super-regeneration and the supersonic heterodyne receiver, though the French claim that the superhet was first designed by Lucien Levy of Paris.

Two days later the historic first complete message transmitted by U.S. amateurs and received in Europe on the "short waves" (actually 230 metres) heralded a new era. The message read:

No.1 de 1BCG. Words 12. New York December 11 1921. To Paul Godley Ardrossan Scotland. Hearty Congratulations. Signed Burghard Inman Grinan Armstrong Amy Cronkhite.

Eight British amateurs had also copied the message correctly. One of them was W.E."Bill" Corsham 2UV of Willesden, London who was later credited by the R.S.G.B. and the A.R.R.L. as being the inventor of the QSL card. Bill had used a simple three valve receiver and an inverted-L wire 100 feet long compared to Godley's huge Beverage array.

• The above from The Dawn of Amateur Radio

Paul Godley's Super heterodyne receiver.

There had been tests held on February 2, 4 and 6 1921 which ended in disappointment, because no one heard the US amateurs.

The next test commenced on December 8 and finished December 17, 1921.

To make sure the best receiving equipment was used, the US amateurs sent Paul Godley, 2ZE to Europe bringing a Paragon regenerative receiver and a Armstrong superhet. He established a listening post in a field just outside Ardossan.

At 0050 UTC on December 9 he received correctly station 1BCG located in Greenwich, Connecticut. The wavelength was 230 meters.

Below is the schematic diagram of the Armstrong superhet used by Paul Godley.
(click the picture to enlarged)
(From the book "Amateur Radio" by Maurice J. Grainger, 1922).

Map showing stations in the United States received by Paul Godley, at Ardossan, Scotland, December 1921
(from the book "Amateur Radio" by Maurice J. Grainger, 1922).

source of above information acknowledged

SB SPCL @ ARL $ARLX019 ARLX019 Transatlantic anniversary ZCZC AX65

QST de W1AW Special Bulletin 19 ARLX019

From ARRL Headquarters Newington CT December 13, 1996

To all radio amateurs SB SPCL ARL ARLX019 ARLX019

Transatlantic anniversary

December 11 marked the 75th anniversary of the first shortwave transatlantic radio transmission, sent from Greenwich, Connecticut,
to an American amateur in Ardrossan, Scotland, in 1921 (see QST, Dec 1996, page 30, for details).The US station, 1BCG, was owned
by Minton Cronkhite. In Scotland, Paul Godley, 2ZE, copied a message sent by 1BCG.

A commemorative W1BCG operation, using a replica of the 1921 transmitter, continues through December 15 in the vicinity
of 1815 kHz in the 160-meter band (as close as practical to the original frequency, which was 1350 kHz--in the present-day
standard broadcast band).

The RSGB reports that, on the other side of the Atlantic, members of the Yeovil Amateur Radio Club used restored and
replica 1920s receivers this week to pick up the signal from W1BCG.

NNNN

/EX

Special event commemorating ARRL transatlantic tests is extended: Special event station GB2ZE has received permission to operate for an additional month, until February 2, 2002, to mark the 80th anniversary of the successful Amateur Radio transatlantic listening tests of 1921. The station is operating from Ardrossan in southwestern Scotland, where the listening tests receiving site was located. The tests culminated on December 12, 1921, when ARRL's special representative Paul F. Godley, 2ZE, confirmed reception of 1BCG in Greenwich, Connecticut, which had been erected especially for the tests. Listening between 200 and 400 meters, Godley also heard several other Amateur Radio transmissions from North America during his stay (Godley used a superheterodyne receiver and a Beverage antenna). GB2ZE will operate CW and SSB on a variety of bands, conditions depending. For more information, contact Andy Goldie, GM0DEX. (source ARRL news)

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