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Several posts on the TopBand email reflector recently have mentioned station 1BCG in Greenwich, CT, the first radio station to transmit a message across the Atlantic on short waves i.e. on frequencies with a wavelength less than 200 meters.

QST magazine 1922 has articles about the first trans-Atlantic QSOs made by hams in 1921 and the antenna they used was essentially identical to the antenna being built at TF4M, except that rather than using two elevated radials at the bottom, they used a fan of around 30 elevated radials.

Any ARRL member can download the  articles at:

http://p1k.arrl.org/cgi-bin/topdf.cgi?id=4359&pub=qst

http://p1k.arrl.org/cgi-bin/topdf.cgi?id=4360&pub=qst

http://p1k.arrl.org/cgi-bin/topdf.cgi?id=4361&pub=qst

More information about the 1BCG station can be found at




I have no doubt that my antenna will perform superbly, especially given it´s superior location near the sea.

The site for the 160M transmit antenna was chosen to have the propagation path run across open waters for more than 180° of the horizon.

The photos are taken at high tide.

The King has risen.

With the help of a 25 ton crawler excavator equipped with a hydraulic rock breaker, a 2.5 m deep hole was broken into the solid rock. The 27 metre long pole weighing 3 tonnes was then inserted into the hole and secured with rocks around the base and temporary guy wires.

New guy anchors will be inserted into the rock and the King will support a 160M transmit vertical antenna before winter.

The photos were taken by Finnbjörn Bjarnason using my camera.

Today I raised the vertical antenna. It is now secured with temporary guy ropes and the Phillystran top guys.
I must have had to climb the tower at least 20 times to unravel the mess of wires coming from the top section.

Work is progressing with the new omni-directional vertical antenna.
The antenna is assembled, concrete blocks are in position and all that is left is to raise the antenna…

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