Post by Anthony~KD3Y on May 8, 2022 19:54:34 GMT -5
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden ~ "The "father of voice radio".
Some of you may not know of Mr. Fessenden. Reginald Fesseden was an early radio pioneer born in Canada who unleashed the potential of several concepts in radio communication and applied them in ways that are often taken for granted in our hobby today. At the beginning of the 20th century, radio was still very much a mystery. Others such as Tesla, Einstein, Marconni, Morse, and Edison had certainly made great advances in radio, but their accomplishemnts were generally sending spark-gap, audible tones, and CW messages across the air waves.
Reginald Fessenden wanted to send a VOICE over the airwaves, not simply a tone or "dah-dit". And you may not know, he did it right here in our backyard from the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. In 1901, Fessenden found himself experimenting on Roanoke Island, NC and the surrounding region for 18 months from 1901 to 1902 while as contractor for the U.S. Weather Bureau. Fessendens research while working for the U.S. Weather Bureau involved constructing an efficient continuous-wave transmitter and also improving signal reception with a continuous wave-detector. Based on Roanoke Island, NC, he erected 50-foot tall radio towers on Roanoke Island, Cape Hatteras, and Cape Henry to conduct his research.
In March of 1902, Reginald Fessenden demonstrated a successful transmission from Cape Hatteras, NC to Roanoke Island, NC by sending the worlds first voice radio transmision. A 127-word voice message was sent from the Cape Hatteras transmitter tower to the Roanoke Island station. While it was only a short distance transmission, it proved the concept that sending human voice over the air was possible and within reach. Unfortunately, the U.S. Weather Bureau was immediately interested and sought ownership of Fessendens research. Fessenden charged Weather Bureau Chief Willis Moore had attempted to gain a half-share of his patents. This was unacceptable to Fessenden and he refused to sign over the rights to his work. So in August of 1902, Fessenden resigned his government research contract and continued his research independent of the U.S. Weather Bureau.
Beginning in 1904, the U.S. Navy had broadcast daily time signals and weather reports, but these used spark transmitters transmitting in Morse code. On Christmas Eve of 1906, Fessenden had refined his system and made the first public demonstration of a voice radio broadcast using an HF alternator, modulated by an asbestos-covered microphone in series with his tuned antenna system... "Calling CQ to all ships. This is station BO, Bravo Ocean. Listen. You are about to hear a special transmission for Christmas Eve" Fessendens CQ was was followed by some phonograph music. Then came a violin solo by Fessenden himself, which he sang one verse of, in addition to playing the violin. Then came the Bible text, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will", and finally wound up by wishing all listeners a Merry Christmas and then saying that he proposed to broadcast again on New Year's Eve.
At the outbreak of World War I, Fessenden volunteered his services to the Canadian government and was sent to London where he developed a device to detect enemy artillery and another to locate enemy submarines. Fessenden also patented reflection seismology, a technique for exploring for petroleum, and received patents for other subjects that included tracer bullets, a radio paging system, a television apparatus, and a turbo electric drive for ships.
Fessenden eventually became the holder of more than 500 patents. He could often be found in a river or lake, floating on his back, a cigar sticking out of his mouth, and a hat pulled down over his eyes. People who knew him said of him, "Fessenden was never a difficult man to work with but he was an intensely difficult man to play politics with." One of his former assistants, Charles J. Pannill, recalled that "He was a great character, of splendid physique, but what a temper!", while a second, Roy Weagant, ruefully noted that "He could be very nice at times, but only at times." Reginald Fessenden passed away on July 22, 1932, and was interred in the cemetery of St. Mark's Church, Bermuda. On the occasion of his death, an editorial in the New York Herald Tribune, "Fessenden Against the World", said:
"It sometimes happens, even in science, that one man can be right against the world. Professor Fessenden was that man. It is ironic that among the hundreds of thousands of young radio engineers whose commonplaces of theory rest on what Professor Fessenden fought for bitterly and alone only a handful realize that the battle ever happened. It was he who insisted, against the stormy protests of every recognized authority, that what we now call radio was worked by "continuous waves" of the kind discovered by Hertz, sent through the ether by the transmitting station as light waves are sent out by a flame. Marconi and others insisted, instead, that what was happening was the so-called "whiplash effect"... It is probably not too much to say that the progress of radio was retarded a decade by this error. The "whiplash theory" faded gradually out of men's minds and was replaced by the continuous wave one with all too little credit to the man who had been right."
Beginning in 1961, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists has annually awarded its Reginald Fessenden Award to "a person who has made a specific technical contribution to exploration geophysics". In 1980, a Fessenden-Trott Scholarship was established at Purdue University's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in memory of Reginald Fessenden and his wife. Fessenden's home in the village of Chestnut Hill in Newton, Massachusetts is on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
Homepage of the Fessenden Amateur Radio Society, Hatteras Island NC
Some of you may not know of Mr. Fessenden. Reginald Fesseden was an early radio pioneer born in Canada who unleashed the potential of several concepts in radio communication and applied them in ways that are often taken for granted in our hobby today. At the beginning of the 20th century, radio was still very much a mystery. Others such as Tesla, Einstein, Marconni, Morse, and Edison had certainly made great advances in radio, but their accomplishemnts were generally sending spark-gap, audible tones, and CW messages across the air waves.
Reginald Fessenden wanted to send a VOICE over the airwaves, not simply a tone or "dah-dit". And you may not know, he did it right here in our backyard from the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. In 1901, Fessenden found himself experimenting on Roanoke Island, NC and the surrounding region for 18 months from 1901 to 1902 while as contractor for the U.S. Weather Bureau. Fessendens research while working for the U.S. Weather Bureau involved constructing an efficient continuous-wave transmitter and also improving signal reception with a continuous wave-detector. Based on Roanoke Island, NC, he erected 50-foot tall radio towers on Roanoke Island, Cape Hatteras, and Cape Henry to conduct his research.
In March of 1902, Reginald Fessenden demonstrated a successful transmission from Cape Hatteras, NC to Roanoke Island, NC by sending the worlds first voice radio transmision. A 127-word voice message was sent from the Cape Hatteras transmitter tower to the Roanoke Island station. While it was only a short distance transmission, it proved the concept that sending human voice over the air was possible and within reach. Unfortunately, the U.S. Weather Bureau was immediately interested and sought ownership of Fessendens research. Fessenden charged Weather Bureau Chief Willis Moore had attempted to gain a half-share of his patents. This was unacceptable to Fessenden and he refused to sign over the rights to his work. So in August of 1902, Fessenden resigned his government research contract and continued his research independent of the U.S. Weather Bureau.
Beginning in 1904, the U.S. Navy had broadcast daily time signals and weather reports, but these used spark transmitters transmitting in Morse code. On Christmas Eve of 1906, Fessenden had refined his system and made the first public demonstration of a voice radio broadcast using an HF alternator, modulated by an asbestos-covered microphone in series with his tuned antenna system... "Calling CQ to all ships. This is station BO, Bravo Ocean. Listen. You are about to hear a special transmission for Christmas Eve" Fessendens CQ was was followed by some phonograph music. Then came a violin solo by Fessenden himself, which he sang one verse of, in addition to playing the violin. Then came the Bible text, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will", and finally wound up by wishing all listeners a Merry Christmas and then saying that he proposed to broadcast again on New Year's Eve.
At the outbreak of World War I, Fessenden volunteered his services to the Canadian government and was sent to London where he developed a device to detect enemy artillery and another to locate enemy submarines. Fessenden also patented reflection seismology, a technique for exploring for petroleum, and received patents for other subjects that included tracer bullets, a radio paging system, a television apparatus, and a turbo electric drive for ships.
Fessenden eventually became the holder of more than 500 patents. He could often be found in a river or lake, floating on his back, a cigar sticking out of his mouth, and a hat pulled down over his eyes. People who knew him said of him, "Fessenden was never a difficult man to work with but he was an intensely difficult man to play politics with." One of his former assistants, Charles J. Pannill, recalled that "He was a great character, of splendid physique, but what a temper!", while a second, Roy Weagant, ruefully noted that "He could be very nice at times, but only at times." Reginald Fessenden passed away on July 22, 1932, and was interred in the cemetery of St. Mark's Church, Bermuda. On the occasion of his death, an editorial in the New York Herald Tribune, "Fessenden Against the World", said:
"It sometimes happens, even in science, that one man can be right against the world. Professor Fessenden was that man. It is ironic that among the hundreds of thousands of young radio engineers whose commonplaces of theory rest on what Professor Fessenden fought for bitterly and alone only a handful realize that the battle ever happened. It was he who insisted, against the stormy protests of every recognized authority, that what we now call radio was worked by "continuous waves" of the kind discovered by Hertz, sent through the ether by the transmitting station as light waves are sent out by a flame. Marconi and others insisted, instead, that what was happening was the so-called "whiplash effect"... It is probably not too much to say that the progress of radio was retarded a decade by this error. The "whiplash theory" faded gradually out of men's minds and was replaced by the continuous wave one with all too little credit to the man who had been right."
Beginning in 1961, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists has annually awarded its Reginald Fessenden Award to "a person who has made a specific technical contribution to exploration geophysics". In 1980, a Fessenden-Trott Scholarship was established at Purdue University's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in memory of Reginald Fessenden and his wife. Fessenden's home in the village of Chestnut Hill in Newton, Massachusetts is on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
Homepage of the Fessenden Amateur Radio Society, Hatteras Island NC