Designed and copyrighted by Norbert Oberweis, LX1NO/KM6RY
The very first amateur radio activity in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg began in the laboratory, most probably before World War I. During the war, Luxembourg was occupied by the Germans and all amateur activity was proscribed.
Commercial broadcasting began long before the war using wave lengths of about 1,000m and above, because it had been agreed at the International Telecommunications Conference of 1912 that wave lengths under 1,000m were not suitable for long distance contacts. Radio amateurs soon proved the opposite! With great success, radio amateurs used wave lengths of about 200m and less.
The first radio club in Luxembourg was founded in 1920 and comprised mainly of listeners. On the Board of Directors we find names like Weckering, Wolff, Mueller, Gillen, and Lagrange. It is worth mentioning that in 1919 a Luxembourg radio amateur, Aloyse Robert, published a booklet with instructions on how to construct a receiver capable of picking up Morse signals on damped waves transmitted by the big European commercial stations.
The idea of transatlantic contacts was first discussed by Hiram Percy Maxim, former president of the ARRL, soon after the American association was founded. On December 7, 1921, Paul F. Godley (2XE), also a member of the ARRL, heard an American amateur radio station on 270m from a location in Scotland. The first one-way amateur contact over the ocean was now a reality.
Professional broadcasters perked up their ears at this new revelation: why use many kilowatts on wave lengths of 10,000m if the same result could be achieved with only a few hundred watts on the shorter waves? Amateur radio had its first break-through.
Among the first Luxembourg amateurs we find pioneers like Jean Wolff (1JW), Dr. Auguste Schumacher (1AS), Greg. Gillen (1AG), Math. Wagener (1AW), who took an active part in the international experiments and DX-contacts carried out of their time.
But the first two-way transatlantic contact had still not taken place. This was achieved in November 27, 1923 at about 21:30, when the French station 8AB operated by Léon Deloy, contacted Hohn L. Reinarty (1XAM), and Schnell (1MO) in the USA.
The number of amateurs throughout the world grew rapidly; it wasn't long before the need for an international body was desired to represent them and deal with their current and future problems. Hiram Percy Maxim took the initiative of organizing a meeting in March 1924 at the Hotel Lutetia in Paris with representatives of France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Canada and the USA. The following year, 1925, about 200 delegates from 23 countries met between April 14-19 and founded the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). Luxembourg was represented by A.Schumacher (1AS), Jean Wolff (1JW), and Jean de la Fontaine (1AF).
Jean Wolff regrettably died in 1996. He graduated from RWTH Aachen as an Electronic Engineer and entered the Post and Telecommunications Administration in Luxembourg where he spent his professional life. On the occasion of IARU's sixtieth anniversary, Richard L. Baldwin, the president of the IARU wrote: "The other IARU pioneer is Jean Wolff, LX1JW, who is a familiar figure at Amateur Radio meetings throughout Europe and in the USA!" In 1983, the Quarter Century Wireless Association elected J-B. Wolff to the QCWA Hall of Fame in recognition of his life-long dedication to the welfare of the International Amateur Radio Community.
In the beginning of amateur radio, callsign prefixes were not standardized; the prefix used by Luxembourg was 1, by the United Kingdom 2,5 and 6, by Germany 4, by France 8, by Denmark 7 and by the Netherlands 0. During the IARU meeting in Paris, this system was deemed unsatisfactory; at this time, Luxembourg introduced the letter L as their national prefix. The 1927 international ITU Conference in Washington, D.C. set up the first prefix list and the Grand Duchy was assigned the letters EX. This prefix was subsequently changed by later ITU conventions to UL and then finally to LX, which is still in use today.
The old radio club, intially organized in 1920, had in the meantime evolved to become Association Luxembourgeoise des Amis de la T.S.F. (ALATSF). Its members participated with great success in the 2e Exposition Internationale de T.S.F. et des Industries Annexes organized in Luxembourg under the patronage of H.R.H. Prince Félix.
In 1930 the radio amateurs in the ALATSF formed a separate group which later went on to constitute the core of a new society, the Réseau des Emetteurs Luxembourgeois. The Group included well-known call-signs like 1AS, 1AC, 1AI, 1AL, among others.
In 1931, a new association was founded, the Fédération Nationale Luxembourgeoise des Associations Radiophiles (FNLAR).
In 1932, finally the Réseau des Emetteurs Luxembourgeois was created. The founding members were: 1AS, President; 1JW, QSL-Manager; 1JS, Secretary; and members 1AG, 1AB, 1RS, including the President of the Dudelange Radio Club, Mr. Mart who had no call-sign.
It should be mentioned at this stage that a number of radio amateurs who did not live in the capital had created local radio clubs, some of them extremely active, thus contributing to the spread of amateur radio throughout the country. In the early thirties there were radio clubs in the following cities: Esch/Alzette, Dudelange, Rumelange, Tétange, Schifflange, Bettembourg and Diekirch. Where no radio club existed, amateurs had to develop on their own.
However, due to different circumstances explained briefly below, the newly founded club Réseau des Emetteurs Luxembourgeois had no great success. So on March 7, 1937 a new and autonomous organization was founded: the Réseau Luxembourgeois des Amateurs d'Ondes Courtes (RL).
Let us briefly recall that amateur radio had been prohibited in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg by a law inacted December 19th, 1929. In January 1937, a radio amateur was accused and sentenced for infringing this law. His own association did nothing to help him; on the other hand, the existing associations representing amateurs had been shown to be powerless in obtaining written regulation for amateur radio activity. These were the main reasons for the creation of another society, the RL.
The history of amateur radio in Luxembourg cannot be told without mentioning François Anen. He was not a radio amateur in the sense of the word used today since his activities were directed more towards commercial broadcasting. In fact, in 1923 he was the first to make a commercial broadcast from Luxembourg. Many future radio amateurs were inspired by his experiments and activity. Moreover, through him found their way to amateur radio.
During the nights of December 23 and 24, 1924, Mr. Anen made his first telephony contact between Luxembourg and the USA.
Only 10 years later, in 1933, Radio Luxembourg opened its broadcasting station in Junglinster. In 1929, Mr. Anen's station was incorporated into the Compagnie Nationale de Radiodiffusion.
In December 1937 the newly created Réseau Luxembourgeois des Amateurs d'Ondes Courtes was admitted as a national member society of IARU, thus the only one with the right to represent Luxembourg radio amateurs internationally.
However, the struggle for the legal right for radio amateur to transmit continued. In 1938, the RL wrote to the Prime Minister; the reply stated that the issue would be dealt with during the 1939 meeting by the Council of State. This never happened; instead, World War II broke out and the Government preferred to suspend all radio transmissions from the territory of the Grand Duchy---even those of the commercial broadcast station, Radio Luxembourg---in order not to provoke the warring neighbors and thus jeopardize the neutrality of Luxembourg. This great "QRT" was to last until 1946-47.
The first general meeting of R.L. after the War took place in January 1946, attended by only 18 members. At the general meeting of January 27, 1947, there were 52 members. The surplus stocks of the Allied Forces and of the Germans were a source of materials for radio amateurs; many young people started their life-long association with amateur radio with rigs they had constructed with the spare parts from these sources.
Finally after a "QRT" of about 21 years, on July 25, 1950, the RL succeeded in its efforts and the authorities allowed amateur radio activity in Luxembourg! However, when analyzing the reasons for this long silent period it must be stressed that it was not only the internal politics of Luxembourg, but most probably the international situation that influenced the Luxembourg authorities' decision not to allow private radio transmissions in the country---Luxembourg being geographically sandwiched between tw o powers who had been hostile to each other throughout the centuries.
In the decade to follow, Luxembourg radio amateurs would dedicate themselves to the technical problems of the radio art rather than in fighting the administration and fearing discovery or prosecution when transmitting. Today, amateur radio in Luxembourg is very much alive, with the membership in the RL around 346 members.