Some background on the not so famous radio pioneer and how he celebrated Christmas. I’m also planning to livestream reception of the broadcast.
Reg Fessenden; "AM No. 1". Factoid: Reg's first microphones were in the RF line to the antenna and were water cooled!
Our club's Holiday Program this year- History of Radio & 100th Anniversary of Commercial Broadcasting Slideshow from CFARC Christmas Party - tiny.cc/rrradio Youtube Video of presentation- Loaded with links & videos for you to view at your leisure.
Was looking on You-Tube for Christmas 1st broadcast and there you were.. Hi, N2RJ, Just saw your Fessenden explanation.. Very nice, thanks for a good effort like this.. Dave AA1A www.radiocom.net/Fessenden
This story was largely debunked in a lengthily and well-researched article in Radio World magazine several years ago: https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/fessenden-worlds-first-broadcaster Likely Fessenden did a broadcast on Christmas eve, but it's doubtful it was in 1906, which makes Lee de Forrest the first broadcaster with his transmissions of February 1907.
Controversy notwithstanding, the extraordinary Vienna Wireless Society (VWS) had a special event station to honor Fressenden's substantial accomplishments in the field of radio. Check out: https://viennawireless.net/wp/special-event-station-w4f/ I also operated W4F on WSPR to spread the love far and wide from my little uBITX qrp rig. If you use any of the WSPR web services, you can put W4F and see how far ol Fressenden went.
Even a Great White needs the community in order to help keep things straight...My neighbor heard that broadcast in 1906, Art Donovan, W1HM, and Fessenden's CE was Adam Stein Jr., who told hi son Adam Stein 3rd, who then told me..
It's disputed for sure, but not debunked. There is no conclusive evidence either way. Lee DeForest claimed to be first, but later on it was claimed that Fessenden was the first. The radioworld article doesn't rely upon conclusive evidence, but instead claims that the absence of press coverage means it didn't happen. We may never know who was actually first. Here is a paper from the IEEE with references: https://ewh.ieee.org/reg/7/millennium/radio/radio_differences.html And another: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1003633 73
The claim is that ships heard the signals as far as the Caribbean (West Indies). How many, is unknown.
And my Dad, Adam Stein III, N1CVG, told me, his son, George Stein, NJ3H. Regards, George, NJ3H Redmond, Oregon