Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

RADIO BROADCAST 129 s > tions can also be reliably carried on in active competition with the ocean cable systems. When it is understood further that there are now ten super-high power radio stations in daily operation in the United States, five of the adio Corporation of America, and five Naval, and seven similar stations in daily operation in our outlying possessions, one of the Radio Corporation of America, and six Naval, making a total of seventeen such American stations, ne gets the picture. These stations are capable of spanning the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, the Bering Sea, and reaching out into the Medierranean, Black and Red Seas, the ndian Ocean and Asiatic waters. The reliable effective transmitting ranges of each of these stations is from 3,500 to 6,000 miles, and, as the stations are located along our Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the West Indies, in the Panama Canal Zone, in Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines, it is obvious that their effective transmitting ranges cover the entire globe. In addition to these, there are approximately 200 medium and low power stations having effective reliable communication ranges from 500 to 3,500 miles. The number of American super-high power stations alone exceeds those of the rest of the world combined. When the importance of radio is more fully realized by the general public, with the passing of time and the effecting of new developments in the radio art, the date of April 7, 1920, is likely to stand out more and more prominently in the history of radio signalling in its various forms and its relation to American interests and to the world. Before that date, the birth-date of the Radio Corporation of America, there had been two or three attempts to form a large strictly American commercial radio company, but always without definite success. The Navy never had felt free to give full encouragement to the American Marconi Company because of its non-American character, as it was the established policy of the Government to encourage only companies controlled, at least largely, by American citizens. The negotiations leading up to the formation of the Radio Corporation of America, and the decisions necessary to bring this about required foresight and courage, and a high sense of patriotic duty on the part of those prominently engaged in its successful accomplishment. The writer claims no credit for the result achieved, other than having made the original suggestion that the time seemed opportune to bring about its accomplishment. After the negotiations were gotten under way the necessary details were handled by those within whose province those details came. Special mention should be made however of the name of Admiral Bullard, who was detailed to the Department for duty as Director of Naval Communications and for carrying on the negotiations for the Navy; and particularly of the name of Mr. Owen D. Young, Chief Counsel and Vice President of the General Electric Company, whose sense of patriotic duty, totally regardless of financial considerations, was the determining factor in the successful conclusion of the negotiations. The United States had not long been in the war when it became evident that the transAtlantic and trans-Pacific cables were loaded to their full traffic capacity, and it became obvious therefore that preparations would have to be made to handle large volumes of transocean traffic by radio, thereby not only augmenting the cable service but providing emergency communication facilities should the ca.bles be cut by submarines, especially the transAtlantic cables, the safety of which was by no means certain. As Head of the Radio Division, the responsibility devolved on me to formulate plans, as far as the material matters were concerned, and consequently I arranged for conferences early in the fall of 1917 to decide definitely on plans for building up this service. Representatives of the Army and of the Allied Powers were present at these conferences. The requirements were placed before the conferees, and, as a result of the deliberations, definite plans were made, and the service was eventually built up to such a state of perfection that trans-ocean communications were made reliable and effective throughout the year. This necessitated the replacement of the German transmitting apparatus by more modern and powerful equipment of American manufacture in the Sayville and Tuckerton stations; the replacement of the Marconi apparatus in the New Brunswick station by