The Coast Star
  April 4, 2009

      Even though it may be a replica, Wall officials are sending a piece of the township's rich history to Marconi wireless stations
in Cape Cod and San
Francisco to help share the legacy of the man responsible for the advent of wireless technology.

     Fred Carl, who is the director of the InfoAge Science & History Learning Center at Camp Evans, said that a volunteer had made two plaster replicas of a plaque that adorned the 1914 Marconi Belmar Wireless station at Camp Evans. It is the last known surviving plaque of eight stations in the United
States, he added.
 

   Mr. Carl credited Bob Judge, of the Garden State Central Model Railroad Club, with making the plaster plaque, which Mr. Carl says looks exactly like the original bronze piece.

      One of the replicas will be going to the Chatham Station in Cape Cod, while another replica is headed for a Marconi station in San Francisco.  "It's like, 'From our station to yours," Mr. Carl stated.

Mr. Carl said the Cape Cod
station has a cardboard plaque there, which they helped create from old photographs.

     The InfoAge director said he would be bringing the replica up to the Cape Cod station in the near future, and the other one will likely be shipped to San Francisco, even though he has

visited that station twice before for research.
 

   "It'll be a pleasant surprise for them," Mr. Carl said.

   Wall Committeewoman Ann Marie Conte, Committeeman Jeff Foster, Committeeman
Clint Hoffman, Committeeman George Newberry, as well as
Mayor Mike Clayton and Mr. Carl all signed the back of the replica which will be sent to Cape Cod, adding inspirational
messages.

   Committeeman Foster said there is a lot of history on Marconi Road in the township, and gave kudos to Mr. Carl.

     "It's a part of Wall Township history," Committeeman Foster
said of the Marconi station, which is featured on the township seal.
     

Committeewoman Conte
said it was "amazing" that the committee members were able to sign the piece of history, which is something that will be
shared with people all over the country.

   All of the Marconi stations around the world had one of the plaques at one time, Mr. Carl stated.
 

 The Wall site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Camp Evans was once the 1914 Marconi Belmar Wireless station, opened worldwide
wireless communications,
played an important role in World War I trans-Atlantic communications, played a key

part in the development of radar as an effective World War II secret weapon, opened space
communications in 1946, was a cold war technology site, a nuclear weapons research site, visited by Sen. Joseph McCarthy as he suspected a communist spy ring may have been operating there, was the birthplace of satellite-based hurricane tracking, was a pre-NASA space research site, and is a black history site.

    Mr. Carl said the wireless stations
enabled a message to be
sent around the world in three minutes, an astounding feat at the time.

    During World War I, some of the most important messages of the war were sent and received at the station, according to Mr. Carl.

The U.S. Navy operated
the station and a company of 100 Marines guarded it during that time, he added. Published
reports after the war credit wireless use for shortening World War I and saving lives on both sides.

Dan Clark, an author, claims to have evidence that Fred Schnell was the wireless operator on duty in Wall when
Germany sent the message that they would accept the peace terms of the World War I armistice, Mr. Carl explained.

    "The message was forwarded to President Woodrow Wilson in
Washington, D.C," he further stated.