Join the Cambridge Wireless Heritage SIG for a specially curated 3-day Cornwall tour of the Cable and Wireless Museum, now rebranded as PK Porthcurno, the Marconi Wireless Centre in Poldhu and Goonhilly with an optional pre tour visit to the Geevor Tin mine.
From the 1860’s onwards, Porthcurno was the epicenter of the global subsea cable industry, connecting Britain to the rest of the world. From 1900 onwards, Marconi radio stations, initially at the Lizard and then on the headland at Poldhu Bay, developed radio systems that connected the world by radio via the Cornish coast.
From the early 1960’s, Goonhilly added satellite for TV and telephone transmission. Sixty years on, Goonhilly hosts a state of the art data centre and provides earth station support for Starlink and the latest iteration of NASA’s Near Earth and Deep Space network.
As part of this tour participatns will have very special access to the telecoms related venues on this tour including the archive room at Porthcurno and the Goonhilly historical archive (both of which are not normally open to the public).
Please note: Priority will be given to members of Cambridge Wireless for this visit so early registration is essential.
Should we have availability we will offer places to non-members on a first come first served basis. To register your interest to attend this event as a non-member of Cambridge Wireless please email Clare.kettle@cambridgewireless.co.uk
Provisional schedule
Tuesday 23rd September - Optional tour of Geevor Tin Mine
Wednesday 24th September - Cable and Wireless Museum in Porthcurno
Thursday 25th September
- AM: The Marconi Centre in Poldhu
- PM: Goonhilly
Practical details to note:
This exclusive opportunity is being led by one of the SIG Champions from the Heritage SIG. Geoff Varrall will contact you directly to confirm your place on the tour and share all of the relevant details you will need for the tour.
Delegates will need to book and arrange all of their hotels and transport independently. We are using the Land End Hotel as the host hotel but there are plenty of other options available - further details will be shared with you.
The tours will be pre-booked and will cost about £20 each with optional additional donations for ongoing telecom restoration projects being undertaken at Porthcurno, Poldhu and Goonhilly.
For technical background on the tour see the two attached pdf files, 'Cornish Connections' and 'From Tin to Telecoms'.
Other useful links
www.landsendhotel.co.uk
https://geevor.com/
https://pkporthcurno.com/
https://www.marconi-centre-poldhu.org.uk/
https://www.goonhilly.org/
If you have additional time available, The Marconi hut on the Lizard is also well worth a visit. This is the site used to establish a radio link to Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight a year before Marconi's Atlantic Leap (1901). The two sites together mark the beginning of long distance (over the horizon) radio communication.
Wireless Heritage SIG Champions
Stirling Essex
Stirling Essex has over 25 years of product development, product management, strategic marketing and business development experience in many areas of wireless technology, and has been intimately involved in the development of test systems for GSM, CDMA (IS-95), 3G (W-CDMA) and LTE. He founded Espansivo, a technology consultancy specialising in helping organisations with their technology, product and business decisions, in 2005. Stirling was previously a co-champion of the CW Future Wide Area Wireless Special Interest Group and and was a member of the CW Board from 2004 to 2015.
Professor Andy Sutton
Andy Sutton is a BT Fellow and Principal Network Architect for Wireless Access. The wireless access domain includes 4G/5G RAN architecture and mobile backhaul/xhaul, along with microwave and millimetre wave radio systems, and satellite communications. Andy holds an MSc in Mobile Communications from the University of Salford and has over 35 years of experience within the telecommunications industry. Andy’s current research interests include advanced RAN coordination techniques, including C-RAN and OpenRAN, optical fibre and radio based backhaul/xhaul, along with LEO satellite communications and High-altitude Platform Systems (HAPS), all in the context of building resilient heterogeneous networks. Andy holds the post of Visiting Professor of Telecommunications at the University of Liverpool and the University of Salford, he is a Chartered Engineer and holds Fellowships from the IET, ITP and BCS. Andy sits on the editorial board of the ITP Journal and is a CW SIG Champion for eMBB and Wireless Heritage.
- Twitter:
- @sutton960
Geoff Varrall
Geoff Varrall joined RTT in 1985 as an executive director and shareholder to develop RTT's international business as a provider of technology and business services to the wireless industry. He co-developed RTT's original series of design and facilitation workshops including 'RF Technology', 'Data Over Radio', 'Introduction to Mobile Radio', and 'Private Mobile Radio Systems and developed 'The Oxford programme', a five day strategic technology and market programme presented annually between 1991 and 2005. Geoff has been running in depth technology and market workshops for the industry for over 33 years, spanning five generations of mobile cellular technology. A co-author of the Mobile Radio Servicing Handbook (Heinemann Butterworth, UK), Data Over Radio, (Quantum Publishing, Mendocino, USA and 3G Handset and Network Design (John Wiley, New York). Geoff's fourth book, Making Telecoms Work – from technical innovation to commercial success (John Wiley) was published in early 2012 followed by 5G Spectrum and Standards published by Artech House in July 2016. His latest book 5G and Satellite Spectrum Standards and Scale is now available from Artech House and can be ordered from http://uk.artechhouse.com/5G-and-Satellite-Spectrum-Standards-and-Scale-P1935.aspx. As a past Director of Cambridge Wireless, Geoff is actively involved in a number of wireless heritage initiatives that aim to capture and record past technology and engineering experience and is a patron of the Science Museum In his spare time he plays Jazz trumpet semi-professionally and is a marathon and ultra-runner.
Nigel Wall
Nigel has been involved with connected vehicle research since 1992 when he led BT’s mobile data research team – initially using modems on first generation analogue TACS mobile phones! Since 2001 he has provided consultancy complex-systems, with a primary specialism in connected vehicles. He acted as the Monitoring Officer for twelve of the Connected and Autonomous Vehicle research projects supported by Innovate UK and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. Climate Associates provides consultancy on delivering pragmatic sustainable systems and services, based on life cycle assessments where wholesale replacement of current systems with lower footprint solutions may not be the most sustainable option.
