A GROUP of radio enthusiasts from Portishead, Tickenham and Nailsea travelled to Flat Holm Island to commemorate International Marconi Day.

Members of the Gordano Amateur Radio Group spent three days on the island operating two short-wave stations contacting fellow radio amateurs worldwide.

Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first wireless signals over open sea from Flat Holm to Lavernock in May 1897. International Marconi Day (IMD) is an amateur radio event, held annually, to celebrate his birth in April 1874.

Malcolm Pitt, one of the group members who travelled to Flat Holm, said: “The purpose of IMD is for amateur radio enthusiasts around the world to make contact with historic Marconi sites using communication techniques similar to those used by the great man himself.

“In this modern technological age it is so easy to forget how cutting edge these early transmissions were.”