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SERVING THE MARINER SINCE 1920 - A FRIENDLY VOICE ON MANY A DARK NIGHT
EN
Translate:
SERVING THE MARINER SINCE 1920 - A FRIENDLY VOICE ON MANY A DARK NIGHT
EN
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the long-range maritime radio service in the UK, special call sign GB100GKU was kindly allocated by OFCOM, resurrecting GKU from 1920.
Operation took place between July 1st and July 28th, 2020, from the QTH of ex-GKA R/O G4HLN in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset. All bands between 10m and 40m were activated, mainly on cw.
All incoming QSL cards will be replied to.
2,755 contacts were made, from 69 countries, including Japan, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Mali, Colombia, Trinidad, Curacao and many others. It was good to contact many ex-seagoing Radio Officers, as well as ex-Coast Station R/Os from GKA, DAN, PCH. EAD, OXZ, SPE, GND, DHS and no doubt quite a few more!
Radio conditions were not good on the whole, with daylight communication proving difficult at times on the HF bands. However, most European countries were contacted, and quite a few stations in the USA and Canada also reached.
The 'Top 10' countries worked (with number of contacts made) were:
GERMANY (650)
RUSSIA (250)
ITALY (170)
CZECH REPUBLIC (164)
POLAND (140)
UKRAINE (127)
FRANCE (122)
ENGLAND (96)
SPAIN (83)
SWEDEN (77)
Thank you to all who contacted the station, and my apologies to those who didn't quite make it.
A view of the GKA operating room from 1938.
The GB100GKU operating position. 2 x Kenwood TS570D transceivers through a Kenwood AT200 ATU.
Selection of Morse Keys - a Bencher BY-1, ex-GKA "Rugby" hand key, a G3KHZ electronic key once owned by ex-GKA R/O Eric Mathias, and a Samson ETC-5C. All interwired and used during operations.
GB100GKU QSL Card on display and a paper log book.
Images from BT Archives are Copyright BT Heritage, licensed under a Creative Commons License and reproduced under the following terms.
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