Cape Cod National Seashore to Celebrate International Marconi Day and National Junior Ranger Day on April 25

Date: March 25, 2009
Contact: Barbara Dougan, Education Specialist, 508-255-3421 ext. 16

On April 25, Cape Cod National Seashore will have a full day of special old and new “communication” activities and programs to celebrate both International Marconi Day and National Junior Ranger Day. The event is free. A free shuttle bus will run between the sites in Eastham from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM.

In celebration of International Marconi Day, the Marconi Cape Cod Radio Club, KM1CC, will operate from the Coast Guard Station, Eastham from 9 AM to 4 PM.  This is a global event in which radio operators from around the world will make contact with KM1CC to honor the birthday of the “Wizard of Wireless,” Guglielmo Marconi, on his birth date, April 25, 1874.  Morse code or continuous wave (CW), and voice operations will be used.

From 10 AM to 1 PM, to expand the celebration of communication history on Cape Cod beyond Marconi, additional park sites in Eastham and the Marconi Station Site, Wellfleet that relate to communication history will be open.  Eastham sites include: Nauset Lighthouse, Three Sisters Lighthouses, and the French Cable Hut at Nauset Light Beach.  Kids can participate in a variety of activities at each site as part of a Kids’ Signal Jam: “Talking and Texting with Wires and Without.” Activities will include:  keys to practice sending Morse Code messages, walkie-talkies, rescue with signals, lighthouse flashing activities, signal flags, and testing wired equipment related to the early French Cable that sent telegraph messages from the Eastham and Orleans area to France for 80 years, 1879-1959. The event is sponsored by Eastern National, the seashore’s education partner that operates the bookstores in seashore visitor centers.         

At 2 PM at the Salt Pond Visitor Center, NASA space educator Rick Varner will revisit the recent space communications advances and offer speculation on visions for the future. Recently, NASA announced successful tests of software and satellite hardware that could essentially create an interplanetary internet. Such a communication network will open the gateway to the development of more complex missions and reliable communications for astronauts living and working upon the surface of the moon.

For more information about the day’s events, call Salt Pond Visitor Center at 508-255-3421 ext. 0, or check the link off the front page of the parks’ website at www.nps.gov/caco

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