As most readers of this site already know, one of my interests in amateur radio is portable operating, through activities such as Field Day, Parks on the Air, and World Wide Flora and Fauna. It’s fun to go to just about any spot on earth, and know that within a short time, I can be sending signals around the world. While most of my contacts wind up being domestic, there is always still a bit of a thrill when my signal hops the Pond.

And that excitement is nothing new, as shown by this ad in Popular Wireless a hundred years ago today, August 8, 1925. It recounts the recent field gathering of the Golders Green and Hendon Radio Society (assisted by the Hounslow and Inland Revenue Radio Societes) at which communications with the United States was first effected using portable apparatus.

To make this happen, the valves (what Americans would call vacuum tubes) bore the Marconi and Osram brand.

You can read more about this historic contact in the New York Times for June 8, 1925.