While Rogers' family were living in Rosedale at the time (near Bayview and Rosedale Road), Edward Sr. had moved into Pickering College on Bayview Avenue in Newmarket. The Rogers family is credited with founding Newmarket in the early 19th century, and building the main building, "Rogers House", at the college's Bayview St. location.
Pickering College in the 1920s "Pcold". Licensed under PD-US via Wikipedia |
January 1922 QST (page 7) reports Rogers' achievement under the headline "Transatlantic Tests Successful". 26 Amateurs had were heard by Europe, Rogers being the only Canadian. Out of the 26, Rogers used one of the 6 spark transmitters to make the connection. According to the article, these were not 2-way communications, but scheduled transmissions from this side of the Atlantic that were heard by a specially set up station in Scotland.
Edward Rogers Senior went on to invent and commercialize many new radio technologies and founded radio station CFRB (among others), which had its transmitter site in Aurora, very close to In December 2021, the York Region Amateur Radio Club will celebrate the 100th anniversary of this important milestone in Amateur Radio that occurred right in our back yards.