When Cunard’s express ocean liner, the luxurious RMS Aquitania, docked in Southampton on 22 November 1921, one of the 3,000 passengers who disembarked carried somewhat unusual luggage. 32-year-old radio amateur Paul Godley had sailed from NewYork on 15 November with a very special mission, for which he brought several cases of delicate wireless equipment, including two sensitive shortwave receivers. His aim was to see whether signals from the most powerful amateur radio stations in the US could be received in Britain.
This was not the first time that amateurs had attempted to bridge the Atlantic. In 1920, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) had organised a series of tests during which 25 of the best-equipped American stations transmitted their callsigns and secret verification codewords according to a prearranged schedule, while more than 250 British amateurs competed for prizes to receive them.The tests were made on a wavelength of around 200 metres, to which radio amateurs had been banished since these short wavelengths were considered useless for commercial purposes by the telecommunications authorities.
Unfortunately, these first tests were a complete failure. None of the UK stations received the codewords that would prove unequivocally that signals from a US station had been heard. Since shortwave conditions are variable,
