Allen Pitts, W1AGP
Media and PR Manager
ARRL
apitts@arrl.org
(860) 594-0328
Newington, CT Mar 17, 2006 -- "Hello!" -the first spoken word to be heard over the radio a century ago. The ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio, is celebrating 100 years of voice over the airwaves in 2006.
As a boy,
Reginald Fessenden heard his uncle describe Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.
The 10 year-old asked, "Why do they need wires?" He then spent much
of his life trying to figure it out.
His early
attempts at voice transmission were unintelligible. Then, on December 23, 1900,
he was able to pass a voice message by radio to his assistant. His first word
was "Hello."
Later, while working to
improve wireless Morse code type communication between land stations and ships
at sea, he continued his voice experiments. Working in secrecy, he planned a
surprise for a 9 p.m. broadcast on Christmas Eve in 1906. Shipboard radio operators
had been tipped to listen for something special during the December 24
transmission, but no one could have anticipated what happened. At the appointed
hour, radio operators across the North Atlantic were surprised to hear, not the
expected Morse code tapping, but a voice coming from their radios, calling
"CQ, CQ". It was Fessenden beginning the very first "radio program." After a brief introduction, he played music. The planned Bible readings by Mrs.
Fessenden and his secretary had to be quickly covered by the inventor as the
first cases of microphone fright occurred when both women froze.
While commercial
broadcasting didn't begin for another 14 years after Fessenden's historic first
broadcast in 1906, thousands of inquisitive amateur hobbyists began to
experiment with this new fangled technology. They were, and are still, called
"Amateur Radio" operators. They labored in attics, barns, garages and cellars
to perfect what we now call radio. In the USA, they formed the American Radio
Relay League (ARRL).
These Amateur Radio operators, also known as "hams", continue to be at the forefront of developing technologies years in advance of when they are rolled out to the public. FM, television, and even our small mobile telephones were all used by Amateur Radio operators many years ahead of the public.
You can find Amateur Radio groups in your area at http://www.hello-radio.org . Visit one and say, "Hello!"