Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

The First Amateur Radio Club in America 223 way, disclosed this type of condenser for the first time; and it is interesting to note that a long while afterward a condenser of this character was placed on the market by several companies and is used in several well-known wavemeters. Another paper, "A Telephonic Relay Amplifier," was prepared and read by that ardent amateur, Dr. Walter G. Hudson, who has since died. Doctor Hudson also prepared a paper on the oxide filament for vacuum tubes, and this idea of his has since become an important factor in the construction of efficient vacuum tubes. It was tubes with oxidecoated filaments which our Army and Navy used to so great an extent during the war. They are widely known under the designations "J"and "E", the former being used for detectingand amplifying, and the latter in lowpower radio telephone and continuous-wave telegraphy. At present, they are also employed in what are termed "power" amplifiers. Still another of the early papers was "The Wavemeter, Its Operation and Uses," by Louis G. Pacent. This paper marked the first attempt to disclose to radio amateurs the mysteries of the wavemeter and the measuring of radio waves. Before then, the wavemeter was used only commercially. Again, there were papers entitled: "Ground Antennae," by Walter S. Lemmon; "Radio Telephony," by Frank King; "A Radio Equipped Automobile," by Paul F. Godley; and "Audio Receiver System," by Edwin H. Armstrong. The membership of the Club grew and grew and has kept on growing. Its serious character attracted the attention of early radio workers, so that aside from papers prepared by its own members, it was soon honored with ad GEORGE BURGHARD President of the Radio Club of America dresses by such well-known radio men as R. H. Marriott, Dr. A. N. Goldsmith, J. V. L. Hogan, F. Lowenstein, Dr. J. Zenneck, F. Conrad, W. C. White, and others. Subsequently, all of these men became members. I n order that one may have a better appreciation of what the pioneering work of the Radio Club of America meant, it is well to sketch a true setting by way of contrast with the conditions of to-day. Turn back to 1909, and you find a very few young men, here and there, fascinated by the newspaper accounts of wireless attempting to receive and send radio messages. Wireless, it was then called, although the founders of the club had the vision to choose the word "radio" for their club name. Little or no real information on the subject was available. With a scant description of Marconi's experiments as a basis, the amateur of that day started to construct his set. There were no journals to guide him. He constructed his set through ingenuity of his own, and as often as not the finished product would not work. Occasional articles on the commercial stations appeared in newspapers and magazines, and each new idea, gleaned from various sources, was added piecemeal to the experimenter's stock of knowledge. It should be borne in mind that there were no radio manufacturers to turn to for complete sets and units. All the apparatus had to be constructed by the amateur. The success of each experiment was passed along by word of mouth to other amateurs and eagerly picked up. The coherer was then used as a detector; some of the more ambitious amateurs procured the Marconi magnetic detector. Later came the microphone, crystal and electrolytic types. All tuning was accom Bachrach