Metrocrest Amateur Radio Society
Way Back When
July
17 July 1960
The first amateur radio moon-bounce two-way microwave communication took place on 1296 MHz.
17 July 1999
The ARRL Board of Directors unanimously approved the recommendation of the ARRL Executive Committee to emphasize the initials “ARRL” in conjunction with the tag line, “The national association for Amateur Radio®.”
23 July 1962
The Telstar satellite was used to make the first live transatlantic television transmissions.
25 July 1924
The Bureau of Navigation, Department of Commerce, granted amateur radio operators access to five new bands: 75 to 80 meters (3.75 to 4.0MHz); 40 to 48 meters (6.25 to 7.5MHz) 20 to 22 meters (13.6 to 15MHz); and 4 to 5 meters (60 to 75 MHz). These new bands were in addition to the existing 150- to 200-meter band. The new bands were restricted to CW only.
July Birthdays
Nikola Tesla (Никола Тесла; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system. Tesla’s experiments led to many patents furthering development in radio.
Tesla’s theories on the possibility of the transmission by radio waves go back as far as lectures and demonstrations in 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Electric Light Association. Many devices such as the Tesla Coil were used in the further development of radio.
In 1900, Tesla was granted patents for a “system of transmitting electrical energy” and “an electrical transmitter.” When Guglielmo Marconi made his famous first-ever transatlantic radio transmission in 1901, Tesla quipped that it was done with 17 Tesla patents, though there is little to support this claim.
Tesla about 1890
Tesla Envisions the Smart Phone in 1901
In the race to develop transatlantic radio, Tesla described to his funder and business partner, J.P. Morgan, a new means of instant communication that involved gathering stock quotes and telegram messages, funneling them to his laboratory, where he would encode them and assign them each a new frequency. That frequency would be broadcast to a device that would fit in your hand, he explained. In other words, Tesla had envisioned the smart phone and wireless internet, according to W. Bernard Carlson, author of Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age.
On 7 January 1943, at the age of 86, Tesla died alone in his room at the New Yorker Hotel.
Wardenclyffe Tower
Tesla with a few of his inventions
Tesla and one of his experiments (known to be a composite photo)
James Millen, W1HRX, (11 July 1904 – 8 June 1987) was a radio designer and engineer who helped move the National Toy Company into the electronics business as the National Company, Inc., makers of high-quality radio equipment for military and amateur use. Millen joined National in 1927 as Chief Engineer and General Manager. When the company went public in 1938, he formed the James Millen Company. The company was known for their extremely high-quality products for the commercial and amateur markets.
Walter Hermann Schottky (23 July 1886 – 4 March 1976) was a German physicist who played a major early role in developing the theory of electron and ion emission phenomena. Schottky formulated a theory that expressed his understanding of the physical processes governing cathode ray tubes. This theory laid the foundation that enabled him to develop the screen-grid tube successfully in early 1916.
His research in solid-state physics and electronics yielded many effects and devices that now bear his name (Schottky effect, Schottky barrier, Schottky diode).
Mahlon Loomis (21 July 1826 – 13 October 1886) was an American dentist known for proposing a wireless communication and power delivery system based on his idea of charging a layer of the earth’s atmosphere.
Loomis, a Washington, DC dentist, claimed to have transmitted signals in October 1866 between two Blue Ridge Mountain-tops 14 miles apart in Virginia, using kites as antennas, but without having identified the names of independent witnesses.