ENTHUSIASTS hoping to send their message across the world will be gathering in Caister to celebrate a radio landmark within the village.

Those gathering at Caister Lifeboat Visitor Centre will once again be trying to contact other amateurs around the world on Saturday, April 30 as part of the international Marconi Day celebrations.

The day is the closest Saturday to the birthday of Guglielmo Marconi, a key figure in the development of radio.

To celebrate, stations around the world are being set up at sites with historical links to the inventor’s work including Cape Cod, Nova Scotia and Bologna, Italy and others.

Anmd in Caister, the Norfolk Amateur Radio Club (NARC) will be running an all-day special event station with the callsign GB0CMS at the centre to commemorate the village’s original Marconi Wireless Station, which was established at Caister in 1900.

The station was in a house in the High Street known as Pretoria Villa and its original purpose was to communicate with ships in the North Sea and the Cross Sand lightship.

Last year the radio amateurs managed to contact more than 130 other radio amateurs in 29 different countries during the 2010 event.

Notable contacts included Queensland, Australia and another in Saint Thomas on the US Virgin Islands.

Once again, radio amateurs around the world will try to contact as many of these stations as possible to win an award.