Thanks to Jim 2E0RMI for sending over a summary of the planned activities taking place between Sunday the 12th and Tuesday the 14th of February 2017. This is in celebration of the pioneering radio station 2MT, the small station established in Essex in 1922, that kick-started broadcast radio 95 years ago.
A special event station, callsign GB952MT (95 years of 2MT) will be active from the Marconi hut at Sandford Mill, and there will also be a 3-day online radio station celebrating radio’s heritage with a mix of live programming, documentaries and interviews.
Celebrating radio station 2MT
95 years ago on Tuesday 14th February 1922, a small group of young, gifted, charismatic – perhaps slightly irreverent – Marconi employees turned on a medium wave transmitter in a ‘long low hut’ in a waterlogged field in Writtle, Chelmsford, began a year long experiment which is now regarded as the birth of broadcasting in the UK. Led by the irrepressible Captain Peter Pendleton Eckersley, the 2MT team broadcast regularly every Tuesday evening, & what started as a request for a station for ‘calibration purposes’ for the fast growing number of radio hams, transformed into an entertainment programme like none before.
For more interviews and features, check out Essex Ham’s online radio station – Essex Ham on TuneIn |
A small group of radio hams us are celebrating the upcoming 95th anniversary of 2MT – ‘Two Emma Toc‘ – with a combination of amateur radio transmissions & an internet radio service. On the 12th & 14th February, members of the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society will be operating a special event amateur station using the callsign GB95 2MT, & these transmissions will emanate from the very same ‘long low hut’ now preserved at Sandford Mill Museum in Chelmsford, UK.
On the 12th, 13th & 14th February, radio enthusiast, anorak, & long time Essex Ham member Jim Salmon will be running an internet radio service ‘Radio Emma Toc‘ with radio related documentaries, vintage comedies, & 5 hours of live programming each day including a visit to the long low hut. We are not attempting to re-create 2MT, more a case of having fun, paying tribute & looking ahead to greater celebrations for the centenary in 2022.
Essex Ham has been invited to attend, so expect updates on Twitter and Facebook. We’re also planning to provide some live video from the long low hut at some time during our live programming on Sunday. Keep a watch on the Essex Ham Twitter page for details.
We invite radio hams to join us on the bands & listeners to join us on ‘wired wireless’ (Peter Eckersley’s futuristic 1930’s phrase for what we now call the internet) to remember 2MT & pay tribute by having fun on the radio. Email Radio Emma Toc at emmatoc1922@gmail.com with your radio memories during our live programming & we will say hello to you !
For details of Radio Emma Toc including how to listen, plus the 3-day schedule at www.emmatoc.com
Related Links
- Radio Emma Toc: www.emmatoc.com
- Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society:- www.g0mwt.org.uk
How interesting , enjoyed jims interview explaining it all too, hope all goes well, will try and listen out for it ,and hopefully have a contact on radio too , I will listen out for their event callsign xx