IRTS reports Colonel Meade Dennis, who lived near Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow, began experimenting with radio transmission in 1898, making him probably the first amateur radio experimenter in the world

His first call sign was DNX. Following Irish independence he was issued with the call sign GW11B, becoming EI2B in 1928 when the Irish Free State began issuing EI call signs. Colonel Dennis continued with his radio experiments until his death in 1945. The house in which he lived and undertook most of his experiments was recently sold by his great-grandchildren. The radio equipment belonging to EI2B has been donated to the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland, at NUI Galway.

Robert EI5KH and Joe EI7GY, on behalf of IRTS, recently assisted the family in identifying the radio equipment of historical interest and, during this process, the family agreed to make available to IRTS the Colonel’s papers relating to his radio experiments and also agreed that these papers could be published.

A project to scan and index Colonel Dennis’s papers have now been completed; they are available for viewing on the IRTS web site - http://www.irts.ie/ei2b

These papers, comprising more than 400 pages of correspondence and notes, show the considerable lengths to which early radio experimenters went to understand the theory and practice behind radio transmission and reception. They should be of great interest to all radio amateurs and experimenters, and also represent a valuable resource for anyone researching the history of radio communications. We are very grateful to the Dennis family for their initiative in preserving the papers and agreeing to their publication.

Source IRTS News - https://www.irts.ie/cgi/showarchive.cgi?190428.txt