Cooperation and QRM

In mid-February 1916, coincident with Maxim’s second article on relaying, one of the first organized relay tests was run. With everyone sharing very little spectrum, cooperation was the only way to avoid QRM (a constant fact of life at the time) and hear weak, distant signals. In a rare cooperative operation between an amateur group and the government, a relay test was conducted on Washington’s Birthday by Colonel W. P. Nicholson, 9XE at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois, and … Continue reading

Beginnings

Technologies that change the world often arise from the work of people whose passion and imagination were ignited by the wonder of something entirely new to human experience. Radio is one example. Before there were radio engineers, scientists were the professionals paid to spend their time studying and experimenting with radio. People who spent their own time and money to do the same thing were by definition amateurs, but were no less passionate, no less imaginative than their professional peers. … Continue reading