Responsible  DL1BFE

Centenary of the WORLD's FIRST OFFICIALLY OPENED RADIO SERVICE on May 15th, 1900, by the German PTT. This was the BEGIN OF REGULAR USE of RADIO.

"KBM" was the first known callsign of the station on Borkum island, abbreviation of "Kuestenfunkstelle BorkuM" (1905)

Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company visited the island of Borkum at the end of 1899 to install the first official wireless service in Germany in the island’s lighthouse, and then on the 'Borkumriff' lightship in early 1900.

At the same time, the first commercial installation on a merchant ship took place, when the German liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was fitted with untuned Marconi equipment. This was the fastest ship of its day, and it sent its first 'Marconigram‘ to the company at Bremerhaven, via Borkum Island, on 28 February 1900.

The German Imperial PTT managed the service and opened these first coast stations for public correspondence on 15 May 1900, with the stations operated by the lighthouse keepers and the captain and mate of the lightship.

Between 1900 and 1904, paid telegrams via both stations totalled about 5000. Both stations, lightship and lighthouse, normally made traffic with passing ships by flag signals. Ships who wanted their presence advised to shore hoisted the signals QP or QR.

All telegrams went via the Telegraphenamt Emden, which was the terminal for German submarine cables. By 1913, there were 350 officers employed here, handling around 18000 telegrams a day, totalling over 5,6 million in that year. Successive ‚Borkumriff‘ lightships were official coast stations from 1900 till 28 February 1975, coincidentally exactly 75 years from the date of the first official telegram sent by the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse.

AGCW No. 2840. callsign finished end of 2000.

*********************** Callsign "KBM":

Connected with the callsign DQ0KBM the Federal Communications Commission of the United States let the callsign "KBM" for temporary use from 12-15 May 2000 to the German FCC (RegTP).

It was used to identify radio transmissions with a spark transmitter (Loeschfunkensender) in the frequency range 1810-1890 kHz during historical celebrations on Borkum island.

The German RegTP authorized radio amateurs to contact this station in crossband/crossmode in the 80m band.

It was big fun for all participants and a great event. About 150 stations listened to the transmissions.

70 stations confirmed the signals, some of them recorded them on tape. dx was about 700km to Stuttgart, Nuernberg, Leipzig.

Power about 40 Watts, antenna 32 m lw, tuned with a coil, about 25m over sea level.