Tag Archives: Hiram Percy Maxim

Regulations and Enforcement, Hard and Soft

Posted on by June 2, 2021
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Descriptions of the radio laws and anecdotes about their enforcement during the early years paints a picture of a regulatory environment that could be alternately strict or flexible.  A QST article in 1916 by “Little Willie” described his and his friends’ experience preparing for and taking an exam for the “first grade comm” (First Grade Commercial license) which consisted of a code test and a written test.1  Although the author’s identity is likely fictitious, the story probably relates an actual … Continue reading →

Trunk Lines

Posted on by June 2, 2021
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Clearly, Maxim’s main goal was to establish reliable relaying across the entire country. He was excited by its collaborative nature. In the third and last free issue of QST he wrote, “The co-operation of a few unknown but nevertheless kindred spirits between Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon, by means of which the message is handed on, adds a touch to the whole scheme and makes it almost Utopian.”1 It was the primary reason for organizing the League, whose membership had … Continue reading →

The Relay’s the Thing

Posted on by June 2, 2021
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Whether for public service or as a challenge worth attacking, transmitting information across ever greater distances is what drove members of the Relay League to organize. The thrill of wireless communication was reinforced with each additional mile covered, even as signals became weaker. Relaying was an obvious way to extend range beyond the capability of one pair of stations in direct contact, and it required more than just knowing who was located where. Urged by the first district Radio Inspector, … Continue reading →

Aerials, Attachments, and Audibility

Posted on by June 2, 2021
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Aside from the spark gap, the aerial was then, as the antenna system is today, a source of intense interest and experimentation. Aerials partly governed resonance in both transmitter and receiver, and therefore played an integral part in determining the wavelength of operation. In QST, The Old Man advised that amateurs should not simply make aerials as long as possible but stick with lengths of around 175 meters with short lead-in and ground connections, so as to stay close to … Continue reading →

Humor, Poetry, and Rotten Rants

Posted on by June 2, 2021
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Humor played a prominent role in QST from its first issue, born of the evident joy hams derived in pursuing their passion for radio. The first curious attempt, in the first issue, two pages from the back cover, was not an article at all but a reprinted letter. It had been sent in by a Japanese radio student, identified only as Kathis Kathan, of Hynacus, who attempted to ask a technical question in painstaking, but painfully broken English—the main source … Continue reading →

A Patriotic and Dignified Effort

Posted on by June 2, 2021
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ARRL membership was free in 1915; QST would be a new and separate entity. With a mixture of enthusiastic optimism and a strong belief in the necessity to organize hams across the country, Maxim and Tuska were confident enough of the magazine’s future to risk some of their own money (mostly Maxim’s, one would think) to get it rolling. The state of the world and the country at this point made such optimism a little difficult to muster. In fact, … Continue reading →

QST at the Beginning

Posted on by June 2, 2021
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The membership had long perceived the need for a regular bulletin of some kind, but the League lacked the funds needed to jump-start it. So, as before, the 46-year-old inventor and businessman Maxim teamed up with 19-year-old Trinity College student Tuska to publish the first few issues themselves. They had already funded the initial printing of the list of stations and other materials. Sometime in early December 1915, the first issue of a new “Amateur Wireless Magazine” went from the … Continue reading →

Getting Organized

Posted on by June 23, 2013
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A growing number of clubs across the country, especially in and around cities, continued to spur interest in amateur radio. One of them, the Radio Club of Hartford in Connecticut, held its first meeting on 14 January 1914, and would soon play a larger role than most in amateur radio history. Local businessman and engineer Hiram Percy Maxim was among the group in Hartford that evening. Already a prominent radio amateur, he operated a one-kilowatt station, with call sign 1WH, … Continue reading →