DX RX The Doctor of DX prescribes the answers to your problems, low and high, near and far. A how to of what for, by Mike(aka Billy)Graham, K7CTW

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A Brief Historical Review of Amateur Radio in the U.S.
Part V - The Roaring 20s
(B - Growth, Discovery and Consolidation)

(Author's note: I was somewhat taken aback this week when the January, 2000 QST arrived and, starting on page 28, there was an article by Jim Maxwell, W6CF, titled "Amateur Radio: 100 Years of Discovery". I should have known that QST would run such an article. It even stole part of my thunder for the title of this month's installment: "Discovery". Oh well...... I did get quite a few grins out of the article though, as many of the conclusions of Mr. Maxwell in the portions leading up to and through the era of the 20s were also my own.)

On any given day or evening, sit back and take a listen to the HF Amateur bands between 160 and 10 meters. If you happen to be in the DX portion of those bands, you will almost immediately be assailed by signals from around the globe - thousands of DX stations routinely carrying on QSOs with other DX stations. If you happen to stray onto the HF bands during a major DX contest, there will be absolutely nowhere you can go that you won't encounter DX. During this particularly hot time in the sunspot cycle, even 6 Meters is hopping with all sorts of DX activity on a routine basis. Additionally, if you listen outside the amateur bands to the plethora of foreign broadcast and commercial stations, you can immediately understand and appreciate the value of these "shortwaves". Remember, it was the Federal Government and some members of the scientific community - thank God not all - who, during the late teens and early 20s, believed that the frequency spectrum below 200 Meters was useless for long haul communications, and that amateur radio operation was probably best confined to that portion of the spectrum.¹

Throughout 1922 and 1923, amateurs worked to bridge the Atlantic with two-way QSOs. They were using the fruits of Armstrong's labors, namely super-regen or superheterodyne detectors in their receivers and cw transmitters instead of spark. By this time it had been realized that the winter months would offer the quietest times and best conditions for finally establishing 2- way communications. Finally, on November 27, 1923, Fred Schnell, 1MO (W1MO) established communications with French station 8AB, Leon Deloy, on 115 Meters. Deloy immediately thereafter had a second QSO with 1XAM. The previous evening, after receiving cable confirmation that he was being received QRK 5 in the U.S., 8AB had sent the first-ever amateur radio message from France.² It read:

NICE, FRANCE A.R.R.L.
WANT THIS FIRST TRANSATLANTIC MESSAGE TO CONVEY MOST HEARTY GREETINGS OF FRENCH TO AMERICAN AMATEURS.
- LEON DELOY

During the actual 2-way QSO, 1MO sent this first message to French General Ferrie, directory of French military radio, and which read as follows ³:

HARTFORD, CONN.
GENERAL FERRIE, - PARIS, FRANCE
AMERICA GREETS YOU FOR THE FIRST TIME BY AMATEUR RADIO ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN ON 100 METERS.
AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE

The same issue of QST had a rather interesting cartoon (in addition to the two photos printed in the Jan., 2000 QST that I'd wanted to use) which depicts the emotions of hams of the day.

The feat had been accomplished using transmitters running about 500 watts. At about the same time, Australian ham Charles D. Maclurcan, 2CM (VK2CM), was conducting 2-way experiments across the Australian continent using just a few milliwatts. His activities were being reported in the February, 1924 issue of QST. I wonder if this was the first QRP article? A ham from my hometown of Tacoma, Washington, Charles York, 7HG, worked a Japanese station, signing the callsign 'JUPU'. The 2-way had occurred in November 25- 26, 1923, at the same time that the East Coast tests were being conducted! It would be fun to run the sunspot cycles backwards and check what the sunspot cycle activity could have expected to be at that time.

The year 1924 was particularly notable from an amateur perspective, in that the Department of Commerce radio conference of that year gave hams the 80, 40, 20, and 5- meter bands, and spark was prohibited. The September Issue of QST carries an Editorial starting with the single word "Eureka!". It goes on to explain the new "short wave" frequencies allocated to amateurs. After all, it was the amateur community which was setting new records virtually every day, as news of continental hookups first began to pour into ARRL HQ, and which were being duly reported. The accomplishments of the amateur community in setting fabulous new communications records on the "shortwave" bands was not going unnoticed elsewhere. By December of 1924 QST was abuzz about what was happening at the "3rd Washington Conference" and that someone was "out to get the amateur". Once again, Amateur Radio was being asked to take a back seat to the commercial interests. What did come out of the conference was a request from the Commerce Department that all Amateurs cease and desist with use of spark transmitters. As the Editorial in the December, 1924 issue of QST put it," Junk the dern things today, O.M., and get a bottle (tube rig) perking tonight!"

Also in March of 1924, The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was formed and officially kicked off at a banquet in a hotel dining room in Paris, France. Hiram Percy Maxim (HPM) was inducted as the first Chairman, and he served in that august role until his death in 1936.

During the year 1925, the ARRL pressed forward with additional daytime experiments, and amateurs were pushing the envelope of the frequency spectrum, and setting new records in the process. By the end of 1925 the stage had been set for the great "Summer of Anarchy" as was previously discussed.⁴ With the breakdown of the Radio Act of 1912, and the total chaos which ensued on the commercial bands, one would think the same fate befell the amateur community. Not if HPM could help it! His editorial in the September, 1926 issue of QST, titled "Loyalty", very nicely summed up the stance that organized Amateur Radio would take, and which would be the hallmark of organized American Amateur Radio from that time forward:

"Government regulation of radio broadcasting has now broken down completely.........An emergency resolution, which would give the Department of Commerce adequate authority to regulate radio until legislation can be enacted in December, was then passed by both Houses but unfortunately not in sufficient time to be signed before adjournment, which is necessary for it to become effective. Thus the adjournment of Congress left the country exactly where it has been all these years--- with only the ancient 1912 law. Then Secretary Hoover sought an opinion of his powers under that act from the Attorney General. It confirmed what he must have suspected for years - that he must give a broadcasting station a license on demand, and they can use practically any wavelength, power and operating hours it chooses......"

HPM goes on to assert that the chief interest of the amateur in this "spectacle" is to "compare broadcasting and our own non- commercial amateur radio. Broadcasting is essentially a matter of commercial competition, and it will not be particularly surprising to see the 'business' instinct to take advantage of every legally permissible opportunity to send broadcasting to everlasting bowwows."⁵ He goes on to talk about selfish individualism of these various commercial interests, and how they compare with the "splendid loyalty to organization which has always characterized our American Radio Relay League." He later reminds the reader that the current condition is only temporary, and that eventually justice will prevail. He then states "It is perfectly simple to see that when new regulations do come, they may come with a vengeance to those who to-day decline to play fair, and that those who show they are made of the right stuff will fare much better. In other words, behaving ourselves now is certain to pay us huge dividends in the near future."

And the amateur didn't have long to wait. On February 23, 1927, Congress passed the Radio Act of 1927. It created the Federal Radio Commission, the precursor to our "beloved" Federal Communications Commission, and established rules and regulations by which all communications for the future would be governed. The ARRL, for its part, in the April, 1927 Editorial in QST, stated "Now the merry war begins. We are afraid that the radio situation is by no means cleared up by the passage of this new law."⁶ It concludes with this rather lukewarm statement: "This country is now about to test in practice a theory which has been largely expounded in recent years; that a radio law should contain no technical stipulations, no guaranties to anyone, but should give discretionary power in regulations to an administrative authority. We shall very soon see." It would be the 30s before Congress would again further amend and strengthen radio regulations.

Also notable in 1927 was the International Radio Telegraph Conference, held in Washington, D.C. during October. ARRL was advocating a number of proposals, and they were highlighted in the September QST Editorial. The final outcome was that, despite overwhelming odds, and against the wishes of the commercial interests of the 70 represented countries, amateurs were able to keep the 160, 80-75, 40, 20 and 5 Meter bands, and gained 10 Meters as well. The downside of it was that approximately 37% of the total frequency allocation was lost to the commercial and military interests of the convened parties. International prefixes were also assigned at this conference, and the now-familiar W and K prefixes were assigned to the United States, with W being the prefix for use inside the continental U.S., and K being used for stations outside the continental U.S. Thus, 1AW now officially became W1AW. QST through late 1927 and early 1928 reminds amateurs that hams only have friends---real friends---in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain, alluding to the fact that virtually every other nation viewed amateur radio activity as revolutionary, or at least not in the best commercial interests of the "fatherland". We are also reminded that because we "behaved ourselves" during the Summer of Anarchy, we got a few extra "brownie points". But the overall tone after the conference was somewhat somber. The realization was there that we, as amateurs, had barely escaped being completely eradicated in the great "gobble" for H.F. spectrum. You can sense in HPM and others at ARRL HQ the determination that they will not allow this to happen again.

As the decade began to draw to a close, advertisers were hawking all sorts of supplies which would permit an amateur to build a complete state-of-the-art tube-type amateur station for $50 or less. Hams began experimenting more and more in the VHF spectrum, and phone operation now began to be heard on some of the ham bands. The Stock Market crash of October, 1929 did little to staunch the rapid growth of the hobby through the depression era, as we shall see in our next installment.

de K7CTW

¹ "DX Rx", M. Graham, NARC Bulletin, 10/99

² QST, January, 1924, Page 10

³ Ibid.

⁴ "DX Rx", M. Graham, NARC Bulletin, 12/99

⁵ QST, September, 1926, Editorial, Pg. 7

⁶ QST, April, 1927, Editorial, Page 7

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