A Special event station to honour the memory of Jack Phillips, Chief wireless Telegraphist on the Titanic.

 The small town of Godalming, Surrey, ruled the world's air waves on the weekend of the 13th April to 15th April when 2,678 radio amateurs in over 100 countries used Morse code to contact the special event station GB90MGY which was set up to honour the memory of local hero Jack Phillips, Chief wireless Telegraphist on the Titanic which sank 90 years ago on her maiden voyage with the lost of over 1500 lives.

  The liner stayed afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes after striking an iceberg. Jack stayed at his post sending out distress messages in Morse code until losing his life when the ship went down. Answering his calls the Carpathia saved over 700 lives. Born and breed in Godalming Jack stayed at his post sending out SOS distress signals in Morse code to alert other ships before he went down with his ship two hours and 40 minutes.

The special event radio station used a special call sign GB90MGY and was operated by 20 local enthusiasts – the Titanic Wireless Commemorative Group – who were on air from 10.30 a.m. on the SATURDAY until 5.47 Greenwich Mean Time (6.47 British Summer -Time) on MONDAY (15 th April) precisely 90 years after the last signal was received. They were active on all HF bands from 10 meters to 80 meters including the WARC bands.  MGY was Titanics call letters.

The radio link-up was launched on Friday evening (12 th April) by Broadcasting Consultant, Ralph Barrett, who spoke on the early use of radio to summon help and played taped interviews with Titanic survivors.

As well as the radio station there was a display of morse keys, Qsl cards and information on Amateur radio, Jack Phillips and the Guildford and District Radio Society.

Over 500 members of the public came to visit and signed the guest book as well as two Mayors and members of the media including a TV station who film a piece for a local news program.

To see photos of the event click below

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