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The History of Amateur Radio Landmarks These landmarks refer to the page where the subject has been developed (shortly or in extenso). Page 1 : The time of discoveries 900 BC : Homer Odyssey deals with strange beauty of amber 100
BC : Pline the Elder speaks of a strange property of amber able to
attact small objects
1700s:
Coded messages are sent with an optical telegraph, or semaphore 1835
: Birth of Morse 1844
: Samuel Morse invents the telegraph and the straigh key 1858
: First transatlantic cable laid down between Europe and the U.S.A. 1861
: Civil War in USA and use of telegraphy by the Army First fisheries
telegraph service in Norway (and of Northern Europe in 1906)
1866 : New transatlantic cable laid down between Europe
and the U.S.A. 1852 : The first submarine telegraph cable is laid across the English Channel 1859 : Bern Convention 1865 : Birth of the International Telegraph Union (future ITU). It is constituted of 20 Member States 1866 : Works of Mahlon Loomis 1872 : Death of Samuel Morse 1873 : Edison invents the incandescent lamp 1880 : Oliver Heaviside patented in England the first coaxial cable 1883 : Edison invents the vacuum tube 1887 : Hertz discovers the electromagnetic nature of waves Page 3 : Marconi, Time for business 1894 : Marconi succeeds the first wireless transmission over the Bristol Channel 1895 : Marconi inventes the spark gap transmitter working on wavelenghts between 250 and 550 meters 1897 : Marconi creates The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company Limited 1898 : Leslie Miller publishes the first description of a simple-to-build transmitter and receiver for an amateur audience. 1900 : Marconi takes his famous patent No.7777 for "tuned or syntonic telegraphy" 1904 : J.A. Fleming creates the first vacuum diode 1906 : Lee de Forest creates the Audion of Old, the first triode 1910 : First wireless transmission in Belgium by Paul de Neck, ON4UU Page 4 : Ham, the poor operator Aparte: Origin of word "Ham" (the poor operator), as well as two other possible origins 1910 : Birth of Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA), the first national radio society in the world 1911 : Birth of the first Wireless Club in the United Kingdom (future RSGB) There are 10,000 amateurs in the USA, as many or almost in the United Kingdom and probably as many in all Europe and Russia together. 1912 : The Titanic Tragedy (745 survivors on 2340 passengers) Radio Act initiated by Senator Smith 1912 : Q code created by 1909 is officially included in the International Radiotelegraph Convention Regulations 1913 : Edwin H. Armstrong fed back vacuum tubes and get an amplification up to 2000 times Page 5 : The American Radio Relay League 1912 : First telegraph stations in Belgian Congo First radio prefixes made of two or three letters 1914 : Hiram Percy Maxim founds the ARRL Amateur radio becomes a service in the U.S.A. The Great War. No amateur activity until 1920 1915 : ARRL releases the first issue of QST magazine 1918 : Armstrong creates the superheterodyne receiver 1922 : Armstrong creates the superregenerative receiver (including an oscillating detector) Page 6 : The 1920s. The discovery of HF and DX communications 1920 : First taxes on radio licenses (Belgium) 1921 : Birth of Radio Magazine (future CQ Magazine) First one-way transatlantic amateur wireless communication (USA-Scotland) 1922 : Birth of RSGB 1923 : First two-way transatlantic amateur wireless communication (USA-France) First assignation of K and W prefixes 1924 : Creation of CCIF First belgian radio club and foundation of the Réseau Belge some years after 1925 : Creation of CCIT and IARU Repeated QSOs on 5 meters First amateur segment in the 75-cm band (400-401 Mc) 1926 : Birth of JARL Birth of mobile activities First US amateurs successfully work amateurs on five continents. 1927 : Creation of CCIR, FRC (future FCC) ARRL organizes the first international DX-party, the precursor of international DX contests. 1928 : The ham spirit is defined by Paul M.Segal, W9EEA 1929 : ITU require that an additional national prefix be added to call signs The Crash of Wall Street, the "Black Tuesday" Page 7 : The 1930s. The Great Depression 1930s: The Great Depression but also non-stop progress 1930 : ARRL issue the WAC award Jenskins, W1XK, broadcasts the first TV commercial 1931 : Lloyd Espenschied and H.A. Affel from AT&T patented in the USA the coaxial cable (invented in 1880) 1932 : Marcel Wallace's Panadaptor, the first spectrum analyzer 1933 : Quantum theory meet semiconductors, discovery of Nylon, electron microscope 1933 : Birth of SSB First Field Day in the USA 1934 : TVI and first UK licenses 1936 : First experimental coaxial cable between New York and Philadelphia 1938 : The War of the Worlds is broadcasted on radio by Orson Welles Page 8 : Birth of Radioastronomy 1932 : Birth of radioastronomy, works of Karl Jansky, confirmation in 1936 by Grote Reber, W9GFZ Creation of ARES by ARRL 1934 : First WAZ award issued by R/9 magazine. It prefigures the CQ WAZ award (1949) 1935 : Edwin Armstrong invents the FM radio 1930s: Drs. Hidetsugu Yagi and Shintaro Uda invent the Yagi-Uda antenna (the Yagi patented in 1940) 1935 : Invention of DXCC entities by Clinton B. DeSoto from ARRL HQ 1936 : Death of Hiram Percy Maxim, cofounder of ARRL and IARU ARRL issue the WAS award 1937 : ARRL issue the DXCC award Death of Marconi. 1939 : First CQ WW DX contest Page 9 : The 1940s. All at war, single on sideband 1939 : World War II. Amateur activities suspended until 1946. Power rationing and "Système D" 1942 : ARRL releases a special Defense edition of the Handbook. 1945 : Atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski Birth of CQ magazine and CQ WAZ award 1946 : Birth of Army surplus (called American Stock abroad) FCC moves the 112-Mc band to 144 Mc, birth of 2-m band First Meteor Scatter experiments on VHF DX record on 6 m (16800 km, 10500 miles from Chili to Japan) New HF and VHF licenses in France and Belgium 1948 : QST publishes a long article about SSB, warm reception ITU at the United Nations. Move from Berne to Geneva. It is constituted of 150 Member States Page 10 : The 1950s. The King Transistor 1950 : Bell Labs develop the first transistor 1951 : The junction transistor. DNA discovery FCC creates three classes of licences : Novice, Technician and Extra New licenses in Japan 1954 : First radio "transistor" sold by Texas Instruments TRADIC, first transistorized minicomputer 1955 : World distribution of radio transistors by Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Sony) 1956 : TAT-1, the first Transatlantic Telephone cable is inaugurated 1958 : First integrated circuit made by R.Noyce from Fairchild Semiconductor J.Kilby from Texas Intruments invents a similar chip The good time of amateur radio First SSTV and APT transmissions, intensive activity on VHF Stories of rescue by amateurs, film "Si tous les gars du monde" Page 11 : Echoes from Moonbounce to Sputnik 1953 : First EME echoes received by W4AO and W3GKP 1955 : Meteor Scatter and Stacked Yagis on VHF 1958 : Following the launch of Sputnik-I in 1957, first US artificial satellite, Explorer-I. Discovery of Van Allen radiation belts Birth of Citizen's Band Birth of ARPAnet ON4UB at the Brussels Universal Exhibition 1959 : Birth of CEPT Page 12 : The 1960s. Megahertz and small steps 1960 : Standard weights and measures system changed for the International System SSB becomes the standard operating mode Shortwave avids : CB and SWL First EME QSO on 1296 MHz 1961 : First amateur satellite OSCAR-1 Birth of electronic mail thanks to ARPAnet 1962 : Birth of 4U1ITU radio club 1965 : Arecibo radiotelescope test EME communications with hams Amateur radio recession 1967 : New licenses in the U.S.A. Release of the first code-less license to belgian amateurs working above 30 MHz 1968 : After the birth of SSTV in 1957 and vidicon in 1958, FCC authorizes SSTV 1969 : Apollo XI landed on the Moon Creation of AMSAT Page 13 : The 1970s. The FM repeaters 1970s: First FM repeaters Development of EME on VHF and UHF bands. Use of professional facilities 1974 : AT&T provides the new L5 coaxial First underground cabling network in Belgium 1977 : Packet radio is developed by the "Groupe de Montréal" (VE7APU, VE2EHP, etc) 1979 : New WARC bands, 30, 17 and 12 meters (no contest) Page 14 : The 1980s. Computers, packet radio, and space 1981 : birth of the IBM Personal Computer (PC XT 5150) Arecibo tests new EME communications with amateurs 1982 : AMTOR (SITOR-B) is developed by G3PLX The first Terminal Node Controller (TNC) is developed by VADCG Packet radio is granted by FCC SAREX, ARISS, and amateur satellites 1986 : Birth of TP2CE, the Council of Europe's Radio Club 1989 : ARRL's petition about the code-free license over 30 MHz Page 15 : The 1990s. Digital modes and Internet 1990s: Development of clusters and Internet 1990 : PSK31 is developed by Pawel Jalocha, SP9VRC, and Peter Martinez, G3PLX PACTOR, Clover, Hellschreiber, MFSK16, THROB, G-TOR, MT63 Internet, the global village is created at CERN 1991 : FCC grants the long-awaiting code-free license to Technicians over 30 MHz 1994 : Creation of the International Broadcasting Bureau, IBB Page 16 : Breakthrough of Japan know-how, HAREC, GSM and DRM 1990s: Breakthrough of Japan know-how, but some darks clouds HAREC and CEPT recommendations W5UN's DXCC on 2 meters EME 1992 : Birth of GSM ITU adopts structural reforms 1998 : Low power and private mobile radio (LDP, PMR) 1996 : Hubmasters provide high speed packet radio (up to 1 Mps) ITU adopts the first international standard for universal international freephone numbers (UIFN) Birth of DRM, LPD and PMR devices as well as the first digital HF to SHF receivers 1999 : ITU becomes founding member of ICANN PSO Page 17 : The 2000s : a new millenium, wireless and code-less 2000 : Development of Wi-Fi AMSAT launches AO-40 on a Molnya orbit with video capabilities Louis Varney, G5RV, is Silent key 2002 : Birth of Echolink developed by Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD New novice license in the United Kingdom (W3). Belgium (ON2), Holland and Norway will follow. Warm welcome 2003 : Digital Radio Mondiale enter into force First Walky-talky feature implemented in GSM Page 18 : China is awake and WRC 2003 2003 : China is awake ! At WRC 2003 ITU decided to remove the Morse code examination to access HF bands. Immediately after tens of national administrations grant to their VHF licensees access to HF bands 2004
: Oswald G. "Mike" Villard, W6QYT, "Mr SSB" is Silent key
Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit,
is Silent key 2005
: First ham tourist in space
2006
: FCC eliminates the Morse code exam.
The future of communications
(In addition) Caught
in the web (Internet) GSM,
the new radio access network The
digital amateur radio. Back
to the History of Amateur Radio
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