Communications 150 Years Ago and Now - July 13-14

photo Point Park at Lookout Mountain

Ham radio operators worldwide will have the chance to communicate with living historians from the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park in programs this weekend.

The Chattanooga Amateur Radio Club will set up a signaling station at Point Park on Lookout Mountain as part of the ongoing sesquicentennial observance of the Civil War.

These signaling programs will take place five times Saturday, July 13 (10:30 and 11:30 a.m., 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m.) and four times Sunday, July 14 (10:30 and 11:30 a.m., 1:30 and 2:30 p.m.). The call sign will be N4C.

In addition, the club will demonstrate telegraphic operations common during the era. While the mountains and ridges surrounding the city offered signaling as an excellent means of short-range communication, the telegraph served as the fastest long-range communication from Chattanooga. According to club members, the telegraph would have offered Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Chattanooga and the Lincoln administration in Washington, D.C., the capability to send and receive telegraphic messages in a matter of a few hours.

Admission to Point Park is $3 for ages 16 and older, free for younger visitors, seniors and holders of access and annual passes.

For details about programs at the park, contact the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 706-866-9241, the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center at 423-821-7786, or go online to www.nps.gov/chch.

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