The Origins of Radio
These days with so many radio devices around us from Bluetooth to space
communications, with mobile phones radio and TV broadcasting and so
many more, it would fill an article just to list them; it is worth a
moment to look back and see how it all started and to whom we owe this
legacy.
As with so many things it was Isaac Newton and his experiments with
light who saw that light was a lot more complex than previously thought.
In the 19th century science blossomed, names such as Davy, Faraday,
Henry and Federson were already experimenting with electricity and
magnetism, however a young mathematician and physicist James Clerk
Maxwell put it all together in a theory and set of equations that
predicted the existence of a whole range of "electrical waves" of which
light was just a minute fraction.
Many in the scientific community dismissed Maxell's theory as
speculation, but a few turned to their laboratories and tried to find
these "electrical waves". In 1887 Heinrich Hertz a teacher in a private
school in Germany proved by experiment the existence of these waves and
confirmed Maxwell's theory. Others followed, but it was generally
considered to be nothing more than just an interesting laboratory
phenomena.
It was left to the "amateurs" to find that radio waves were much more
than that.
Alexander Stepanovich Popov a Russian physicist continued Hertz's
experiments but showed no interest in commercial applications while
young Guglielmo Marconi the son of a wealthy landowner and a daughter
of the Jameson family had the free time and the money to pursue his
interest. His hard work bore fruit such that he soon ran out of space
to conduct his experiments and had to set up one end on the land of a
neighbour.
After being snubbed by the Italian authorities young Marconi came to
England, and with the help of William Preece the Chief engineer of the
Post Office (who had already conducted some experiments of his own) was
soon producing promising results.
Soon many "wireless experimenters" were building their own "wireless"
apparatus both in Europe and America. By 1904 in the UK, the Post
Office was issuing licences for the use of "Wireless Telegraphy
for experimental purposes".
In the US in 1910 attempts were made to ban amateur experimenting but
were unsuccessful. In 1912 the US started issuing amateur experimental
licences with clearly defined operating procedures.
Broadcasting, as we know it, was at first the province of the amateur,
the main use by government was maritime communications, "the best
wavelengths" were reserved for official use, amateurs were banished to
the "useless" wavelengths shorter than 200 metres, however by the
outbreak of the First World War amateurs were regularly making contact
over distances of 350 miles and more.
The out break of war meant an immediate cessation of amateur activity,
but the thousands of amateur operators were brought into service by the
military and performed sterling service maintaining communications.
After the war, both sides of the Atlantic, the military authorities
were reluctant to part with their monopoly of the airwaves, however
pressure was placed on governments by those who realised the valuable
contribution the amateur had made to the development of "wireless" and
the value of having available a large number of skilled people to
further this new technology. Amateur licences were restored in
many countries in 1919.
International co-operation in communications was first in the form of
the International Telegraph Union formed in Paris 1865, with the
emergence of "wireless" it became the International Telecommunications
Union and is the second oldest international organisation, and is now
an agency of the UN.
Since radio waves know no borders, the amateur community worldwide also
needed co-operation and the International Amateur Radio Union was
formed in 1925, today 162 national societies are represented at the
I.R.A.U. The I.A.R.U. represents the amateur radio community at the
meetings of the I.T.U.
The formation of the I.R.A.U. is celebrated each year on the 18th
April, and is known as World Amateur Radio Day. This year the
R.S.G.B. the UK national amateur radio society, is celebrating W.A.R.D.
by highlighting the way that radio amateurs have served the community
by providing communications during times of nation or local emergency,
when normal lines of communication have failed or become overloaded. In
the UK groups of amateurs formed to provide such emergency cover are
part of the Radio Amateur Emergency Network, RAYNET.