Fessenden: King of the Radio Waves

[g4tut]

BBC World Service Discovery - Fessenden: King of the Radio Waves

The world's first radio broadcast took place a hundred years ago on Christmas Eve 1906.

The broadcast, a programme of live music, readings and phonograph recordings, was transmitted to ships in the Atlantic Ocean by Reginald Fessenden – a prolific inventor largely forgotten by history.

Presenter Richard Hollingham traces the events of the world's first radio broadcast in Discovery - Fessenden: King of the Radio Waves on Wednesday 20 December.

In the early 1900s, people communicated by radio using Morse code. Fessenden, a Canadian rival of Marconi, decided to broadcast a voice message. His invention of AM radio was years ahead of its time.

On 24 December 1906, radio operators at sea were startled to hear a voice coming over their receivers. Before the word broadcast had even been invented, they heard a mix of speech with live and recorded music – including a rendition of 'silent night'. However, Fessenden's innovation failed to take off commercially and it wasn't until the 1920s that the massive potential of radio for entertainment was realised.

Fessenden originally planned to broadcast across the Atlantic to Scotland. With considerable effort, masts and equipment were built at the small hamlet of Brant Rock near Plymouth, Massachusetts and at Machrihanish on the west coast of Scotland. When, at the last minute, a storm destroyed the Scottish installation, he decided to broadcast to ships at sea instead.

Presenter/Richard Hollingham, Producer/Georgie Robinson


Listen on demand:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/meta/tx/nb/discovery_au_nb.asx




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[K8MHZ]

Hold the phone!

This may have never happened. #

Read About it Here (http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0052/t.437.html)

[wa3vjb]

Tthere's a club based on the east end of Long Island, NY whose members are planning to run AM as part of a Fessenden event Dec. 29-30.

Look for W1F running from the Brant Rock, Mass. site that Fessenden used 100 years ago for his AM broadcast to ships at sea.

I've dropped a line to Steve to ask him whether he would like to say anything to the AM Community represented on this site. We may at least be able to learn what frequencies they plan to operate on as they recreate Fessenden's signal, which of course was Amplitude Modulated.

W100BO/W1F at Brant Rock with Steve Barreres, K2CX of the Peconic Amateur Radio Club, as team leader. GB1FVT will be at Machrihanish with Duncan MacArthur, GM3TNT, as team leader.

Much of Fessenden's radio work was done while he was chair of the electrical engineering department at Western University of Pennsylvania, now the University of Pittsburgh.

George Westinghouse lured Fessenden to the University in Pittsburgh because Westinghouse had already seen the engineer's genius and wanted him close at hand. Fessenden's invention of silicon-iron and nickel-iron alloys for the lead-in wires in electric light bulbs and the methods for sealing wires in a glass envelope had allowed Westinghouse to fulfill his commitment to light the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

It was at the University that Fessenden developed the idea to use continuous high-frequency electromagnetic waves to transmit the human voice. This then led him to the “heterodyne principle” of amplitude modulation (AM), which eventually allowed us to hear such famous voices as Charles Osgood, Garrison Keillor, and Myron Cope.

Because of Fessenden's Pittsburgh connections-electrical and human-Western Pennsylvania became the incubator of modern radio. And in 1920, KDKA, owned by Westinghouse, aired the first commercial broadcast.

Source:
http://mac10.umc.pitt.edu/m....3&-find (http://mac10.umc.pitt.edu/m/FMPro?-db=ma&-lay=a&-format=d.html&id=2703&-find)

[G4PZK]

Quote[/b] (k8mhz @ Dec. 24 2006,09:36)]Hold the phone!

This may have never happened. #

Read About it Here (http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0052/t.437.html)


This is a very interesting article. The jury is definitely still out!

Cliff, G4PZK

[K4MO]

For some addtional thoughts on the whole Christmas Eve Broadcast claim, give this a listen:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6665738

[wi8w]

Just because there is no record anywhere does not mean it did not happen.

Today, people all over the world are celebrating the birthday of someone who has never been absolutely proven to have existed.

Have a great day

[KW0U]

Granted you can't prove a negative (that something isn't true--although you can show how it has low odds), K8MHZ's report does demonstrate excellent archival research and raises real questions. Too bad that, absent further evidence, we'll probably never be sure.

[w3wn]

Quote[/b] (G4PZK @ Dec. 24 2006,17:37)]Quote[/b] (k8mhz @ Dec. 24 2006,09:36)]Hold the phone!

This may have never happened. #

Read About it Here (http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0052/t.437.html)


This is a very interesting article. The jury is definitely still out!

Cliff, G4PZK
It is an interesting article. A very interesting article, and proof once again that if you pick and choose what to believe with care, you can cast doubt on just about anything.

But don't take my word for it. In fact, unlike the author of the RadioWorld article, do a few minutes of research here on the Internet, and you'll discover quite a bit of information that he conveniently overlooked, including many earlier mentions of the first voice broadcasts by Fessenden. Start with these links:

http://www.radiocom.net/Fessenden/BelroseXmas.htm
http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0106/t.502.html
http://www.worldofradio.com/dxld6161.txt

...but please, do your own research. The RW author didn't... and I have much more faith in the research of a communications historian like Donna Halper than I do in him.

Based on this information, it would appear that the worst you can say, IMHO, is that Fessenden's first voice transmission didn't take place on Christmas Eve, but roughly TWO WEEKS EARLIER. Maybe even earlier than that. Which would explain why there was little or no press coverage of the Christmas Eve broadcast... it (a voice transmission) had already been done! (Also consider that not only had the term "broadcasting" not yet been coined, but that no one at the time thought that there would be any practical value in what we now consider "broadcasting," so is it any wonder that this transmission was overlooked at the time?)

73

[K8MHZ]

It may be pertinent that Fessenden's research was funded by the US government. #There were indeed reports of earlier voice communications, the first word uttered being 'Hello'. #I think that the very first successful experiments were in June of 06. #The government may not have wanted the info to be made public at the time.

It would seem that if there were radio operators that did hear the transmission in question they would have passed their stories on to many others. #They did have the ability to, perhaps more than anyone else via their radio stations, and it seems that they did not.

Granted, that era was not a time of precise documentation like ours has become, but it seems odd there there is virtually no record of this most noteworthy event other than those of forty years later.

[kb2vxa]

Hi Sparks, and Raiders of the Lost Electric Arc,

First, thanks to WA3VJB and others for their tireless inspiration which leads me to this side track just to see where it may lead. Remember, history is written by those in power (pun very much intentional) and with the power of an antimatter - it really doesn't matter reactor powering my keyboard at warped speed...

"Much of Fessenden's radio work was done while he was chair of the electrical"

You can see where this is going already.

"George Westinghouse lured Fessenden to the University in Pittsburgh because Westinghouse had already seen the engineer's genius and wanted him close at hand."

It has been said "Hold your friends close and your enemies even closer." Fess had proven himself a dangerous man, potentially a strong ally in the Westinghouse - Edison Wars.

"Fessenden's invention of silicon-iron and nickel-iron alloys for the lead-in wires in electric light bulbs and the methods for sealing wires in a glass envelope had allowed Westinghouse to fulfill his commitment to light the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago."

In the Battle of the Bands ACDC was a horrible noise and still sounds like a riot in a boiler factory with a screech owl for a lead singer. Edison lost the contract because his DC half proved unworkable trying to power all those light bulbs. He came up with the notion the AC half was dangerous and decided to provide some on stage fireworks, he electrocuted an elephant.

"Hmmm" said Westinghouse as the light bulb upstairs came on, the "chair electrical" was beginning to take form.

"It was at the University that Fessenden developed the idea to use continuous high-frequency electromagnetic waves to transmit the human voice."

And a few Berliner Gramophone records, besides boycotting Edison Emile's recordings were far superior.

"Because of Fessenden's Pittsburgh connections electrical and human" the chair electrical became the executioners' choice, AC powered of course. Old Sparky left his maritime position and found a better job at a Florida penitentiary.

"And in 1920 KDKA, owned by Westinghouse, aired the first commercial broadcast."

Naturally, Edison couldn't come up with a generator capable of supplying the plate voltage while a Westinghouse transformer took it in stride. As for the music, Emile Berliner's turntables made it all possible, Edison's cylinders proved impossible to back-cue.

"This is a very interesting article. The jury is definitely still out!"

Why, thank you but I have to disagree on the last. If the jury were still out those on Death Row would have died of old age but instead their dreams of becoming career criminals all went up in smoke.

"Just because there is no record anywhere does not mean it did not happen."

While Edison didn't make any records of the death screams of an elephant to be played on KDKA, he filmed the electrocution so it DID indeed happen. BTW, it became a training film for the fledgling broadcast engineering field warning of the dangers of working on transmitters with the cabinet doors open.

"Granted you can't prove a negative"

Of course you can! How do you think you set the grid bias? You just have to use the correct volt meter setting.

"A very interesting article, and proof once again that if you pick and choose what to believe with care, you can cast doubt on just about anything."

Thanks, and you can cast doubt on THIS article if you put your mind to it.
"A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
Paul Simon, The Boxer.

"...but please, do your own research."

Yes, please do and you'll discover this whole thing is a big load of hooey.

"Granted, that era was not a time of precise documentation like ours has become, but it seems odd there there is virtually no record of this most noteworthy event other than those of forty years later."

Now you know the precise reason why I made this whole thing up. Thank you very much.

Warren has LEFT the building. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[w3wn]

Quote[/b] (k8mhz @ Dec. 25 2006,17:44)]It may be pertinent that Fessenden's research was funded by the US government. #There were indeed reports of earlier voice communications, the first word uttered being 'Hello'. #I think that the very first successful experiments were in June of 06. #The government may not have wanted the info to be made public at the time.

It would seem that if there were radio operators that did hear the transmission in question they would have passed their stories on to many others. #They did have the ability to, perhaps more than anyone else via their radio stations, and it seems that they did not.

Granted, that era was not a time of precise documentation like ours has become, but it seems odd there there is virtually no record of this most noteworthy event other than those of forty years later.
*sigh*

Do the research. You'll find that there was no secret government conspiracy to supress the transmission of voice, other operators did report hearing them, and there were published reports of them much less than 40 years after the fact (including at least one from a rival... do the research!).

[wa3vjb]

Although legend has it Fessenden's "first" was in 1906, that's generally considered the first AM broadcast available to the general public.

It was actually 1900 (Jan. 5th correction from my 1902 posting here) when Reg uttered something on an Amplitude Modulated transmitter situated at Cobb Island, on the Chesapeake Bay.

I was part of an AM Expedition to Thomas Point Lighthouse celebrating the 100th anniversary of that transmission. We used vintage vacuum tube gear and exclusively ran AM. TPL is located about a mile offshore in the Chesapeake Bay, north of Fessenden's site.

See:
http://www.qrz.com/callsign/K3L

http://amfone.net/K3L/k3lphotos.htm

http://amfone.net/K3L/100-1203.JPG

And a float-by movie, small file size:
http://wa3vjb.amham.com/pics/TPL-3%20Qtrs%20LoRes.MOV

[kg6amw]

Why should I give a crap about the BBC's history or future? Its an ingrown organization that is anti-American/Israel to the core.

[KC5TER]

yeah, I have to admit that anything that the BBC puts out better be very carefully studied and researched futher, because they put thier own biased spin on about every artical or report I have ever seen or heard from them.

[VE7RFH]

Quote[/b] (KC5TER @ Dec. 26 2006,09:36)]yeah, I have to admit that anything that the BBC puts out better be very carefully studied and researched futher, because they put thier own biased spin on about every artical or report I have ever seen or heard from them.
And Fox or CNN don't do it - time to look in the mirror?
Bias and spin is in the mind of the reader/viewer/listener.

[M3KCK]

You can listen to the BBC world service broadcast regarding Fessenden here.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediase....ySeen=1 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/worldservice/meta/tx/discovery?nbram=1&nbwm=1&size=au&lang=en-ws&bgc=003399&checkedBandwidth=nb&checkedMedia=ram&subtitles=hide&alreadySeen=1)
es 73
Regards,
Andrew M3KCK

[K3VR]

I learned something new in the rwonline article. Fessenden was a Canadian who was "bombastic, type A, arrogant, insulting and demanding in the extreme" and the Fessenden broadcast may not have happened at all!

Well, whether it happened or not, I was thinking of Fessenden's AM Broadcast last night as I used a combination of computer, Software Defined Radio, 12AX7 microphone preamp, open wire line, and a 1950's era Johnson Match Box to talk with WA3VJB, W8BAC, and WA1HLR on AM in our fresh and spacious new frequency allotment on 80 meters.

Today's AM operators use vintage equipment as well as home-brew stuff and the latest software defined radios. I hope to hear other AM enthusiasts during the Heavy Metal Rally (http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=9165.0) this Saturday, December 30.

Heavy metal means a rig that weighs over 250 pounds, or any rig running a carrier of 250 watts or more. However, "light metal" ops are certainly welcome too!

Suggested Frequencies are: 1885 kHz east of Mississippi, 1915 kHz West. Also, 3830 kHz, 3870-3890 kHz, nationwide, and 7290 kHz.

I plan to use my SDR to drive a Henry 3K Premier (very heavy metal) to about 375 watts into an inverted Vee at 60 feet, which will be tuned by a Johnson KW Matchbox.

Look for me around 3830 kHz and vicinity. No music, or broadcasting allowed, but it should be lots of fun!


K3VR

[K8MHZ]

Quote[/b] ]Fessenden was a Canadian who was "bombastic, type A, arrogant, insulting and demanding in the extreme"

Remind you of anyone?

Anyone descriptive of the fine line between insanity and genius?

The question is rhetorical, of course. #No answer needed.

[VE7NOT]

Because of this my callsign for awhile is CG7NOT http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[K3VR]

"A Canadian who is bombastic, type A, arrogant, insulting and demanding in the extreme?"

Hmmmmm. Who (http://www.ve7kfm.com) did you have in mind Mark? Better not mention anyone in particular, because if you do, he's liable to get on the radio and whine like a 7 year old girl for hours at a time!

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[N3KIP]

I'm afraid that you are all a little adrift as to the date of Fessenden's first voice transmission. In fact he set a one mile record for a voice transmission in December 1900. The exact date may have been the 12th, although that is uncertain.

This was the Cobb Island, Maryland experiment already alluded to, but which took place two years earlier than previously posted. The house he and his assistant Fank Very used still stands, and the current owners have an interest in it from a historical angle, although they know very little about radio. I have been in the house twice to operate special event stations, including for the centennial in 2000, and am quite convinced of the date at least down to the month from period newspaper clippings and copies of Fessenden's letters in their scrapbook.

'Phone' as we hams call it was not even new in 1900. Fessenden's innovation, which he patented but which was ultimately a dead end, was to use a high frequency alternator running at a frequency too high for human hearing (possibly 80 kHz) to drive the spark gap.

Using alternator driven spark gaps was standard practice at that time for Morse (not Continuous Wave, which hadn't yet been invented), but the alternators used audible frequencies, so they couldn't be used for phone. DC excited spark gaps had to be used for phone for this reason, so phone stations could only run a few watts, wheras alternators enabled Morse stations to run a few kW. Detector technology was also very crude, so that a few watts of phone that we could hear with a modern receiver would have been too weak back then.

Phone is older than you think.

73 de Alun, N3KIP, G8VUK

[K7ZZY]

"... bombastic, type A, arrogant, insulting and demanding in the extreme".

He sounds alot like my boss...

[kb2vxa]

"... bombastic, type A, arrogant, insulting and demanding in the extreme".

"He sounds a lot like my boss."

You work for Glen Baxter?

[wa3vjb]

Quote[/b] ]I'm afraid that you are all a little adrift as to the date of Fessenden's first voice transmission. In fact he set a one mile record for a voice transmission in December 1900. The exact date may have been the 12th, although that is uncertain.


My error on the 1902.

The K3L AM Expedition was in Sept. 2001, during the 100th anniversary year of the Dec. 1900 event you correctly cited.

I wasn't good at math.

Alun, do you have a web page with some pictures from the Cobb Island station you ran to honour Fessenden? #I had asked a fellow in southern Maryland back when we were planning, but not much turned up we could use in our pitch to the Coast Guard to let us on board the offshore lighthouse.


Paul/VJB