The Relay’s the Thing

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

A Patriotic and Dignified Effort

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

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

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