[Swprograms] Fw: A CHRISTMAS EVE RADIO STORY - Fessenden's broadcast of Dec. 24, 1906

["Keith Anderson" <kmanderson4@xxxxxxx>]

Received this on another list that I subcribe to about ham radio operators
who transmit in AM.

Seasons Greetings and 73 to All
Keith Anderson, Houston, TX, USA

> >     The year was 1906.  Marconi had already invented the wireless
> > telegraph and land and sea communication networks were being
> > established.  DeForest was attempting to perfect his "audion" (triode)
tube.
> >
> >     Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor and Ernst Alexanderson, a
> > Swedish immigrant, were hard at work in Fessenden's Massachusetts
> > laboratory.  They developed a mechanical device to "alternate" a
> > continuous radio wave. The device consisted of a huge disc that revolved
> > at 20,000 rpm. They had connected it to a transmitter and a microphone,
> > and discovered that they could "modulate" a radio signal!
> >
> >     On Christmas Eve, as wireless operators at land stations and aboard
> > ships off the Massachusetts coast diligently maintained their radio
> > watches by listening to the familiar Morse code signals; they were
> > startled when they suddenly heard voices in their headphones!
> >
> >     They listened spellbound. Then, they heard a woman singing!
Finally,
> > they heard someone playing a violin! It was Fessenden himself...playing
> > the sacred carol "O Holy Night".  No longer would radio sounds be
> > restricted to the "dit's" and "dah's" of the Morse code.
> >
> >     That's how it happened.  Christmas Eve...Nineteen Hundred and Six.
> >
> >73 and the Merriest of Christmases in spite of the weather!
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> AMRadio mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html
> Post: mailto:AMRadio@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>

_______________________________________________
Swprograms mailing list
Swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms

To unsubscribe:  Send an E-mail to  swprograms-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.