Topband: 160m experiment

[Raoul Coetzee]

-

>Does anyone know exactly what time the signal was supposedly received?
>
Marconi reported reception at 12:30, 1:10, and 2:20 local time. Adding 3
and 1/2 hours gives 1600 UTC, 1640 UTC, and 1750 UTC.

>Given the saltwater path and low sunspot number, I would suspect
propagation
>would be indeed possible on 160m later in the afternoon.
>

I had listened to a very interesting and entertaining talk by a South
African Marconi history buff at the university of Stellenbosch that
explained that after a visit
to the Marconi museum and an afternoon spent with a curator, he believes
that the detector used  was indeed an electrolytic type that was much more
sensitive that the coherer type. Now I am nor so sure about that as indeed
at the time of the tests,
the electrolytic type would have been VERY new and surely it would have been
mentioned. Be it as it may, I still would like to build one and have
collected a platinum /iridium wire for the construction of such a detector.
Even if it is to pick up a local BC station! It has also been claimed that
Marconi might have picked up a higher frequency harmonic (HF) and did not
know about it but some say that the TX antenna would have prevented the
radiation of such harmonics.
Raoul ZS1REC