July 30, 2016

At the center of The Gathering is the bravery of the men and women assigned to ‘Station C’, as the Navy called Chatham’s RCA ship-to-shore communications facility.

It's early in World War II. Chatham, like most of the US, has seen a burst of patriotism after Pearl Harbor. The tide is shifting, as hundreds of military and civilian personnel flood the little fishing village. The RCA ship-to-shore communications facility has been taken over by the Navy. It is a frightening new world. Ethan Doane, a high schooler not yet of draft age becomes entwined in the new normal, dealing with the shooting death of a close friend, then being a witness to fifth column activity, and ends up helping to foil a major German plot, then...

July 23, 2016

On Saturday July 23, Chatham native and career commercial fisherman Robert Ryder, better known as Captain Bob Ryder, met the public and signed copies of his memoir Voyages From Chatham from 12:30 until 2:30 PM at the CMMC Education Center.

In Voyages From Chatham, Capt. Ryder escorts us through a life lived on the water as a child, a teenager, a husband and father. He shares it all: successes, failures, the bitter, the sweet and the lessons learned along the way. From Chatham to Nova Scotia to the Panama Canal, to California and back again, Ryder encountered sharks, fire, sinkings and hypothermia, as well as record catches, pet-able whales, moonlight miraclesand a solar eclipse. Through it all one constant prevai led: the incredible camaraderie shared by men who give their lives, and their hearts, to the sea.

May 14, 2016

The Chatham Marconi Maritime Center held its Annual Meeting on Saturday May 14 at the Chatham Community Center.

J. Richard (Dick) Kraycir was elected President to head a new slate of officers for the 2016-2017 operation year, and a significant Bylaws update was approved. Reports by Treasurer David Smith and Mr. Kraycir reflected a very successful operating year in 2015. The meeting was well attended and featured two special presentations.

Stephanie and Chuck Bartlett with Frank Messina

On behalf of the Officers, Executive Director and the Board, Vice President Frank Messina presented a commendation to Chuck citing his successful leadership over the past decade.

We were also pleased to have David A. Speciale, J.D., CITRMS as our featured speaker this year, presenting Wireless/Mobile is the New Playground for Thieves.

Wireless/mobile devices have become the new playground for cyber thieves. Cyber attacks and data breaches have become a daily threat to both individuals and businesses. The different types of cyber risks are seemingly limitless and it's all but impossible to predict exactly how and when you or your business may become a target for cyber criminals.

Dave provided examples of the increased risks to mobile devices, and gave us tips on securing them.

Chatham Today Tells the 2014 Story of CMMC

CHATHAM, MA -- Chatham Today, the local CATV outlet, recently interviewed Chuck Bartlett, Dick Kraycir and Frank Messina, who told the story of CMMC's new 2014 exhibits, including the Antenna Trail. The video also highlights the renovation and Grand Opening of the former Hotel Nautilus, which is the new Education Center. To see the 17-minute video, courtesy of Chatham Today, click here.

Historic Groups Gather To Organize Chatham History Weekend, June 20-22

CHATHAM, MA -- After organizing history-related events for the town's 300th anniversary two years ago, that members of a "history subcommittee" decided that one year wasn't enough; there was just too much history here to celebrate. They decided to continue meeting to share information and plan events that highlight the town's rich heritage and the organizations that safeguard it. The result is Historic Chatham, a consortium of eight museums and organizations focused on history and education. This year is an especially important one for Chatham history – 1914 is the 100th anniversary of the Marconi Wireless Station, Chatham Bars Inn and a few other significant landmarks – all of which will be celebrated throughout the year. For Historic Chatham, the focus is on Chatham History Weekend, which will take place June 20 to 22. Eight museums will hold open houses and there will be various special events,

The participating organizations are: Atwood House Museum/Chatham Historical Society, Caleb Nickerson House, Chatham Lighthouse, Chatham Marconi Maritime Museum, Chatham Railroad Museum, Chatham Windmill Group, Eldredge Public Library, Mayo House/Chatham Conservation Foundation, Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Details about Chatham History Weekend: www.Historic-Chatham.org

To read more, click here to see the article from the Cape Cod Chronicle. (Article by Tim Wood. Used with permission of The Cape Cod Chronicle.)

Final Touches for Hotel Nautilus

CHATHAM, MA -- Learn more about the history and current renovation of the Hotel Nautilus. The Hotel was built 100 years ago by the J. G. White Engineering Company for the American Marconi Corporation. The Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

To read more, click here to see the article from the Cape Cod Times.

Click here to see the photo gallery from the Cape Cod Times.

Trailblazing Eagle Scout Candidate Climbs New Heights

CHATHAM, MA -- For Boy Scout Elijah Eldredge of Chatham, attaining the rank of Eagle Scout has been an uphill climb. Actually, many, many uphill climbs, sometimes helping to tote 300-pound timbers. Under Eldredge's leadership, a small group of Scouts and volunteers have built a walking trail behind the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center in Chathamport. The trail brings visitors to the top of a hill offering glimpses of Ryder's Cove and Stillwater Pond. Once an overgrown footpath, the trail is now wide and free from obstacles, with benches at strategic overlooks.

On Jan. 19, Eldredge will go before an Eagle Court of Honor to present his project, which will review the details and either accept it or send Eldredge back to do additional work. In any case, the project must be completed before Eldredge's 18th birthday this spring. A passionate student of computer science, the high school senior chose the Marconi project because of his interest in technology and amateur radio. "I was really interested in the Marconi station," he said, and so in 2012 he approached the Marconi Center board to ask whether they would be interested in hosting his community service project.

To read more, click here to see the article from the Cape Cod Chronicle. (Article by Alan Pollock. Used with permission of The Cape Cod Chronicle.)

Chatham Marconi Maritime Center Receives Motorola Solutions Foundation Innovation Generation Grant.

Chatham, MA – CMMC has received a $15,000 grant as part of the Innovation Generation program from the Motorola Solutions Foundation, the charitable arm of Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Through the grant, the CMMC will expand its education programs which include summer-science classes for elementary and middle-school students; after-school sessions for middle- and high-school students and evening programs for elementary-aged students and their families.

Patrick Administration announces $5.2 million in new Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund Grants.

Boston, Mass.—On June 17, Governor Deval Patrick announced grants totaling nearly $5.2 million to support new capital projects for nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, schools, and communities across Massachusetts.

These projects will expand access and education in the arts, history, and sciences; create jobs in construction and cultural tourism; and improve the quality of life in cities and towns across the Commonwealth. Organizations receiving funding in this round plan to invest $87 million in their projects.

Grants range from $7,000 to $250,000, and must be matched with funds from private and/or other public sources.

Monomoy school partnership grows STEM

CHATHAM, Mass.—Engineer Charles Bartlett was always fascinated with Guglielmo Marconi, the father of wireless. As executive director of the non-profit Chatham Maritime Marconi Center, he and other volunteers worked to introduce Marconi's legacy to Cape Cod students.

Renovation Nears Completion on Historic "Hotel Nautilus"

CHATHAM MA -- The renovation which began in the spring of 2013 has made great progress and will soon be nearing completion. The official opening will be in 2014 with the unveiling of new exhibits housed in the hotel space.

The building is commonly referred to as Hotel Nautilus from its days as a hotel while the rest of the Marconi complex was being completed in 1914. Later it was used by the early RCA staff and the Navy in WWII. The first floor will be converted into expanded exhibit space, education center, meeting space, archival space and administrative space.

Click here for Chronicle Article, March 14, 2013. [Cape Cod Chronicle, used with permission]

Click here for Chronicle Editorial, March 14, 2013. [Cape Cod Chronicle, used with permission]

Tribute to Mass. radio operator in Titanic tragedy

CHATHAM, Mass.—Relatives of a former Massachusetts radio operator are commemorating the sinking of the Titanic by laying wreath at his grave in tribute to the role he played to transmit information about the fate of the luxury liner and its passengers.

Titanic sinking being remembered near and far

[excerpt from main article] ... Tierney's story is told in a documentary featured at the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center. The center, in conjunction with the National Park Service, is also gathering ham radio operators to relay commemorative messages to other wireless operators around the world during the anniversary weekend. The effort began Thursday and will continue around the clock until Sunday afternoon. Said Frank Messina, the center's vice president: "We're focusing on the radio operator, and the fact that they were really the heroes of the day."

Gonsalves: The story behind the (Titanic) story

[excerpt from main article] ... Of course, we have our own vicarious connection to the Titanic through Matt Tierney, a ham radio operator working at the Marconi station on Nantucket in the wee hours of April 15, 1912. Tierney is the subject a new documentary ("The Titanic, Matt Tierney, and Marconi's Marvelous Invention") that premiered Friday as part of the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center and Cape Cod National Seashore's 100th anniversary commemoration of the infamous iceberg-induced tragedy.

Tribute to Radio Operator Matt Tierney in Titanic Tragedy - Chatham, MA (04-14-12)

CHATHAM, Massachusetts — Relatives of a former Massachusetts radio operator are commemorating the sinking of the Titanic by laying wreath at his grave in tribute to the role he played to transmit information about the fate of the luxury liner and its passengers.

Cape Cod's Titanic connection

Chatham — The Titanic's radio had been down and there was a backlog of messages from the Cape – "See you soon," "Pick you up in New York" – waiting to be delivered. While radio operators in nearby ships took off their headphones and went to bed late on April 14, 1912, a Marconi employee on one of those vessels, the Carpathia, sent a message to the "unsinkable ship" reminding them of the growing pile of correspondence. "They replied, 'We struck a berg, save us,'" said Barbara Dougan, educational coordinator at Cape Cod National Seashore. "It was a lucky fluke."

VIDEO:Titanic remembered at Marconi station

Chatham — Frank Messina, vice president of the Chatham Maritime Marconi Center, speaks about events being held to remember the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic

Cape Cod National Seashore and the Chatham Marconi Maritime Museum to Commemorate Wireless Technology and the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic

"Titanic 100 Years Later and Marconi's Wireless Technology" is a week-long commemoration featuring programs by Cape Cod National Seashore, the Falmouth Amateur Radio Association, and the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center to remember the souls lost and interpret wireless communication. All activities are free and open to the public.

Marconi Center wins $75K Grant

CHATHAM — With the economy increasingly hinged on technology, local students will have an advantage thanks to the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center. The center received a $75,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation to strengthen student achievement in science, technology, engineering and math.

Verizon Foundation Awards $75,000 to Chatham Marconi Maritime Center to Strengthen Student Achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

With funding from the Verizon Foundation, CMMC, the MIT Club of Cape Cod, and the new Monomoy (Chatham & Harwich merged) Public Schools, have partnered to form CMMC's STEM initiative. Members of the partnership have met and the teachers have begun the process of writing new lesson plans with an expanded STEM focus. Meetings were held throughout 2012 resulting in lesson plans that are being trialed in the Spring 2013 school session.

The Marconi Center to be on Channel 5 Boston as part of the "Chronicle" news magazine's Veterans Day Special -- November 11 at 7:30pm

It was Lights! Camera! Action! in early November at the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center when Kathy Bickimer, field producer from the WCVB-TV (Ch. 5) Chronicle news magazine focused on the Center's Navy exhibit displaying the fascinating story of the World War II years at what was then called Station 'C'. She interviewed Donna Lumpkin, whose father was chief radioman at the Chatham Station during World War II.

Chronicle will be broadcast at 7:30pm on November 11 as part of Channel Five's Veterans Day tribute.

Ericsson donates $100,000 to Marconi Center educational wing [from the Cape Cod Times, used with permission]

The Chatham Marconi Maritime Center received a $100,000 capital donation from Ericsson Inc. Wednesday for the museum's future educational wing.

New film explores Marconi station's 'super-secret' past [from the Cape Cod Times, used with permission]

CHATHAM — Early in World War II, German submarines waited off America's East Coast to sink convoys of tankers carrying vital oil to Great Britain.

The prowling U-boats sank 2,600 Allied merchant ships ferrying supplies to Britain and more than 30,000 merchant marine seamen died during the Battle for the Atlantic between 1939 to 1945, according to research by Ed Fouhy of Chatham.

The tides of war shifted against the U-boats in 1942, thanks to the U.S. Navy's listening post in Chatham which intercepted encrypted messages between the German high command and its Atlantic fleet.

Chatham station played pivotal WWII role [from boston.com (The Boston Globe), used with permission]

CHATHAM — During World War II, as London burned and German submarines circled like sharks off the Atlantic Coast, the US Navy plotted a secret attack against the Nazis.

In a nondescript red-brick building in this sleepy Cape Cod town, the Navy converted a wireless radio receiving station into an intelligence hub that intercepted coded messages from German submarines and transmitted them to Washington, D.C., to be analyzed. The initiative, which ran from 1942 until the end of the war, employed nearly 600 sailors. But what went on inside the station was so secret that the naval archives has almost no information on it, and many longtime Chatham residents are just hearing about it now.

Film Shows How Chatham Crews Helped Turn The Tide In ‘Battle Of The Atlantic’ [from the Cape Cod Chronicle, used with permission]

CHATHAM — A bulwark of confidence for his besieged countrymen during the second World War, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later admitted that one thing that truly frightened him was the U-boat peril. With England bracing itself for possible invasion and buying time until the U.S. joined the war, German submarines were destroying their very lifeline across the Atlantic. A new short film produced for the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center shows how a small group of young people in sleepy Chatham helped turn the tide of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Chatham's Marconi museum gets $100,000 gift [from the Cape Cod Times, used with permission]

NORTH CHATHAM — Two national wireless companies are investing in a small Cape museum as a way to entice young people to follow careers in science and engineering.

Qualcomm Inc., a wireless communications company that manufactures computer chips for cell phones, donated $100,000 Wednesday to the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center.

The gift was in the name of Richard Lynch, Verizon's chief technology officer and a wireless industry leader in the creation of cellular telephone networks and technologies.

Q-and-A with Verizon Chief Technical Officer [from the Cape Cod Times, used with permission]

A Wireless World [Editorial from the Cape Cod Chronicle]

Without the foundation of wireless radio, our world would be a much different place today. Imagine no cordless home phones, no cell phones, no wireless Internet. All of these technologies owe their existence to early communications pioneers such as Guglielmo Marconi, who ignored convention and followed their own visions to create technology that, in its day, was truly remarkable.

Marconi Center Lands Big Donation, Ponders Expansion [from the Cape Cod Chronicle, used with permission]

CHATHAM — Though it hasn’t technically had its grand opening yet, the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center (CMMC) is already pondering an expansion. The news comes as the center announces the receipt of a significant financial contribution this week.

QUALCOMM HONORS VERIZON'S DICK LYNCH WITH $100,000 DONATION TO THE CHATHAM MARCONI MARITIME CENTER

Qualcomm Makes Donation on Behalf of Dick Lynch, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Verizon, as part of its 25th Anniversary Technology Innovation Partner Award Program

"Time Capsule" opens in Chatham [from the Cape Cod Times, used with permission]

CHATHAM — For decades, few people really knew much about the work inside the red brick buildings near Ryder's Cove.

Workers at the former RCA buildings had signed confidentiality agreements about the ship-to-shore radio transmissions from around the world and, during World War II, German transmissions that, when decoded, helped save American convoys.

Starting Tuesday, everybody can find out about the telecommunications history made at the new Chatham Marconi Maritime Center, part of a global network built in 1914 by radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.

Marconi museum begins construction in Chatham [from the Cape Cod Times, used with permission]

CHATHAM — Construction has started on the Chatham Marconi Maritime in North Chatham with completion expected in August. The new museum will focus on the history and science of radio communication in the 20th century and, in particular, Guglielmo Marconi. In 1914, the radio pioneer built the brick complex that, in its heyday, sent messages from WCC Chatham Radio to ships all around the world.