GB2ALE Special Callsign England

[IK0ZCW]

As one of the longest established amateur radio clubs worldwide, Burton ARC is holding a special event at the National Brewery Museum with special callsign GB2ALE. The event on 2 and 3 August is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the receipt of an historic message received by one of the club's founders. Mr FVA Smith, call sign XSR, (X = experimental station). Mr Francis Victor Augustus Smith was licensed on 3rd July 1914 One month later he received a message from the Marconi spark transmitter at Poldhu, being sent to London, on the eve of the outbreak of World War One. The message, which has survived and is in the present club archives, was announcing the mobilisation of Russian French and Belgian troops.