95 Years: A celebration of radio station 2MT

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jim Salmon, who shares the following press release:

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.

A small group of 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 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.

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 us at Radio Emma Toc with your radio memories during our live programming & we will say hello to you !

For details of Radio Emma Toc including how to listen & our 3 day schedule – www.emmatoc.com

Email us – [email protected]

For details of Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society – www.g0mwt.org.uk

Jim Salmon 2E0RMI / Chelmsford Calling Network

Thank you for sharing, Jim–I’ll certainly make time to listen!

Spread the radio love

3 thoughts on “95 Years: A celebration of radio station 2MT

  1. Richard Langley

    Automated test transmission continues with looping audio that gives a taste of what’s to come in the three-day broadcast.

    Reply
  2. Richard Langley

    Test “transmission” (streaming) going on right now as I enter this at 11:40 UTC on Saturday, 11 February. According to announcements the live program (of announcements and pop music) is to go on until 12:00 UTC.

    Reply

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