In 1987, as the celebrations for the winners of the international "LOANO ELETTRA" competition were coming to an end, some of the keenest CW enthusiasts attending the event proposed creating a club for all those who truly love and believe in the wonderful art of CW.
To become a member you would not need to be at the top of the DXers' lists, to be one of the fastest operators or to own the largest number of QSLs, but to use Morse code in your radio contacts with passion, and to spread and pass on to others the love for this way of communicating that the great Master taught us.
So it was that the then president of the ARI section of Loano, the late Libero Meriggi I1YXN, strongly encouraged by the well-known DXpeditioner Baldur DJ6SI, laid the foundations of our Club.
The idea, together with the offer of the Presidency of the newborn Club, was presented to Marquise MARIA CRISTINA MARCONI, then patroness of the Loano Elettra award ceremony, who enthusiastically welcomed the initiative and accepted the role.
The Marquise also gave us an original, unpublished photograph of GUGLIELMO MARCONI taken on board his yacht Elettra in the summer of 1936, which was later printed on the diploma. So, after finalising the rules and printing the diplomas, on May 8th, 1988, in the presence of the wife and the daughter of the illustrious scientist, the MARCONI CLUB officially began.
Today, 37 years after its foundation, the Club has a remarkable number of members: more than 960 enthusiasts, many of them well-known names, in 50 countries.
73 de I1WNB Mauro
