❝The Calling Lady❞

A horizontal nymph with her mouth wide open and her hair streaming out behind shouts above a pond with reflections in its surface. The bronze statue’s open mouth symbolises the concept of the wireless radio link. The “Radio-monument” is locally known simply as “The Calling Lady,” a landmark at the Municipal Park (Stadswandelpark) in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

The monument commemorates the first wireless radio connection between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies (March 11, 1927) and also the radio transmission of Queen Wilhelmina’s speech from the Philips Research Lab, NL (June 1, 1927):

The “Semper Targens” (the statue’s name, meaning “always on target”) was created by the sculptor Albert Termote, in collaboration with the architect Dirk Roosenburg. The pond was added later by Dirk Frederik Tersteeg. The monument was unveiled on November 28, 1936 by HRH Princess Juliana

The monument was deliberately captured dark at dusk, in order to remind us of the skywave propagation that is most reliable at night: it is only at night, that shortwave frequency radio waves can reach great —or even transcontinental— distances, far far beyond the horizon, after having been reflected in the ionosphere.