Amateur Radio Pioneer Willis Corwin, Jefferson City, MO - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

A new plaque along tree-lined McCarty Street in Jefferson City, Missouri proclaims:
"On this site, during the night hours of January 27, 1917,eighteen year old Willis Porter Corwin received and retransmitted three Morse Code messages, which became the first successful one-way transcontinental relay of formal message traffic in the history of American radio. Conducted as an experiment by pioneer amateur radio operators,these messages which were originated in Los Angeles were sent to a station in Denver which relayed them to young Corwin in Jefferson City. He in turn passed them on to a station in Albany, New York from whence they were forwarded to their destination in Hartford, Connecticut. He repeated the experiment ten days later, conducting the first successful two-way transcontinental relay whereby a message was started from the east coast,relayed to the west coast, and an answer received back on the east coast within a span of eighty minutes."

Willis was Jefferson City's first-known amateur wireless operator. He was recognized throughout the country by the call sign,9ABD. He constructed his spark-gap transmitter, power supply, and antenna entirely by hand.

His radio shack was located in an enclosure at the base of a wooden tower supporting his Marconi-style antenna at the rear of his parents residence at 117 East McCarty Street.

The attractive black granite plaque is in the concrete wall along McCarty Street for the upper parking lot for a bank and the First Presbyterian Church. It was placed there and dedicated by the Mid-MO Amateur Radio Club of Jefferson City to mark the 90th anniversary of the first wireless transcontinental relay of formal message traffic.

The plaque goes on to note Corwin's service in World War I in France, and as a wireless operator aboard the troop ship that took him to Europe.

After the war, Corwin built and installed Jefferson City's first commercial radio station, WOS in the dome of the Missouri State Capitol for the Misssouri Department of Agriculture.

Later, he helped construct radio station KSD in St. Louis for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The URL Link below shows the Timeline for American radio. Note the year 1917 and the mention of the two successful experiments that young Willis Corwin participated in as an amateur operator 9ABD in Jefferson City, Missouri.

The plaque is obscured from view by the row of trees along McCarty Street. So it is a bit more visible in the winter. But, now that you know its WAYMARK coordinates, visiting the site should be easy.

Group that erected the marker: MID-MO Amateur Radio Club, Jefferson City, MO URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link] Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: 117 East McCarty Street Jefferson City, MO USA 65101

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