“From Short Waves To Satellites”, with Bill Farris

 With an act of Congress in November 1978, the handwriting was on the wall for the end of Chatham Radio/WCC.  Under Public Law 95-564, “The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United States to provide for the participation of the United States in the International Maritime Satellite Organization (hereinafter in this title referred to as 'INMARSAT') in order to develop and operate a global maritime satellite telecommunications system.”  INMARSAT was established in 1979 to serve the maritime industry by developing satellite communications for ship management and distress and safety applications.  Bill Farris, the last Manager at Chatham Radio/WCC and later a Global Technical Support Engineer for INMARSAT, describes how satellite communication put commercial maritime short wave radio (including WCC) out of business over the final 2 decades of the 20th Century, and led to other invaluable services such as the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Chatham Marconi Maritime Center is pleased to host its 2019 Summer Speaker Series, a summer-long series of lectures and presentations drawn from the resources of the Marconi-RCA Wireless Museum, the Summer Science program, and member-suggested topics related to our mission.