Radio Broadcast - 1923, August - 86 Pages, 8.5 ... - VacuumTubeEra

, office.'Eighteen Years of Amateur Radio291y1N AN attempt to create a precedentit is earnestly hopedwhichwill be followed aslong as the Radio Club of America exists,this paper is presented as the first of aseries of papers by the Chief Executive,describing the activities of the organizationand its members during the last twelvemonths. As this is the first of the series,however, it may be well to review the achievementsof the Club from the time of its inception,and even the work of its members beforethe idea of organization had materialized.In this way it is possible to gain a good idea ofthe beginnings of amateur radio as well as theearly strivingsof the art in general,since theClub numbers among its members many ofthe radio pioneers.It is the earnest hope of the writer that theaforementioned precedent will be followedclosely and that each succeeding President ofthe Club will prepare and read a paper coveringits accomplishments during his period ofThus, an accurate record of RadioProgress can be maintained and should proveof considerable interest and value both to thepresent and future radio generations.The early days of radio were indeed days ofdarkness and pioneering days when traffichad to be handled with a coherer and a straightgap spark transmitter. This meant that thepersonnel was really the most importantfactor, and operators were developed whocould copy coherent messages under conditionswhen the average mortal could distinguishnothing but crashes and noises. These men,who learned their lessons in a very hardschool, learned them well and are in manycases the prime factors in radio to-day.At the same time that the commercialcompanies were making their initial stand, thefascination of sending messages through spacewithout wires began to take hold of the youngergeneration, and we have the beginning of amateurradio, about 1905. Of course, there hadbeen private experimenters prior to this, butthe real radio amateur had his beginning in theend of 1904 to 1905. Small boys began to inveigletheir parents into giving them moneywith which to buy wire and other material tobuild their own sets in imitation of those usedby the commercial companies. Their effortswere gallant indeed, for there were no booksBACK IN 1910, WHEN THE WRITER WAS AN ARDENT FANGeorge Burghard operating one of his first transmitters, located at i East 93rd Street, New York City