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Broadcast Radio Turns 100
GraWil writes "On Christmas eve 1906, a Canadian physicist named Reginald Fessenden presented the world's first wireless radio broadcast from his transmitter at Brant Rock, MA. The transmission included Christmas music and was heard by radio operators on board US Navy and United Fruit Company ships equipped with Fessenden's wireless receivers at various distances over the South and North Atlantic, and in the West Indies. Fessenden was a key rival of Marconi in the early 1900s who, using morse-code, succeeded in passing signals across the Atlantic in 1901. Fessenden's work was the first real departure from Marconi's damped-wave-coherer system for telegraphy and represent the first pioneering steps toward radio communications and radio broadcasting. He later became embroiled in a long-running legal dispute over the control of his radio-related patents, which were eventually acquired by RCA."
http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=14792
The third most important thing I have learned in life: Squeeze anything hard enough and it eventually makes a noise.
I don't know about anyone else, but with satellite radio becoming more and more popular, both of the radio stations that I can stand to listen to here in Phoenix (KDKB and KSLX) have changed formats.
The competition from these sat companies has lead to fewer commercials, a FAR more extensive playlist on LOCAL stations. KDKB has "deep cuts" where they take songs off popular albums that they never play on the radio. On weekends, KSLX plays ENTIRE ALBUMS *gasp*!
Now that sat radio has changed everything, I hope they don't run these locals out of town; they're just starting to get good!
As a side note, does anyone else who's taken physics see the issue with calling it "Satellite Radio" being as how it uses microwaves and not 'radio' waves?
Latewire
What I find interesting about the history of "radio" is that the word itself wasn't coined until some ten or twenty years after the invention. People used to call it "the wireless" before that. The guy who made up the word "radio" was an advertising expert named Waldo Warren. The same guy was later given the task to create a brand name for some of the early inventions of R. Buckminster Fuller. He came up with the word "Dymaxion", simply by jotting together syllables of random words Fuller used all the time: Dynamic Maximum Tension.
I like it that the word "radio" comes from the same heritage.
The ARRL is sponsoring an on-the-air celebration of the centennial of broadcasting. The Hello Radio campaign has been celebrating the upcoming event throughout most of 2006.
How many broadcasters will let this event go unremarked? That is sad indeed.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over again expecting a different result."
The Birthplace of FM Broadcasting, Alpine, N.J.
"I have in mind a plan of development which would make radio a 'household utility' in the same sense as the piano or phonograph. The idea is to bring music into the house by wireless.
"While this has been tried in the past by wires, it has been a failure because wires do not lend themselves to this scheme. With radio, however, it would seem to be entirely feasible. For example--a radio telephone transmitter having a range of say 25 to 50 miles can be installed at a fixed point where instrumental or vocal music or both are produced. The problem of transmitting music has already been solved in principle and therefore all the receivers attuned to the transmitting wave length should be capable of receiving such music. The receiver can be designed in the form of a simple 'Radio Music Box' and arranged for several different wave lengths, which should be changeable with the throwing of a single switch or pressing of a single button.
"The 'Radio Music Box' can be supplied with amplifying tubes and a loudspeaking telephone, all of which can be neatly mounted in one box. The box can be placed on a table in the parlor or living room, the switch set accordingly and the transmitted music received. There should be no difficulty in receiving music perfectly when transmitted within a radius of 25 to 50 miles. Within such a radius there reside hundreds of thousands of families; and as all can simultaneously receive from a single transmitter, there would be no question of obtaining sufficiently loud signals to make the performance enjoyable. The power of the transmitter can be made 5 k.w., if necessary, to cover even a short radius of 25 to 50 miles; thereby giving extra loud signals in the home if desired. The use of head telephones would be obviated by this method. The development of a small loop antenna to go with each 'Radio Music Box' would likewise solve the antennae problem.
"The same principle can be extended to numerous other fields as, for example, receiving lectures at home which be made perfectly audible; also events of national importance can be simultaneously announced and received. Baseball scores can be transmitted in the air by the use of one set installed at the Polo Grounds. The same would be true of other cities. This proposition would be especially interesting to farmers and others living in outlying districts removed from cities. By the purchase of a 'Radio Music Box' they could enjoy concerts, lectures, music, recitals, etc., which may be going on in the nearest city within their radius. While I have indicated a few of the most probable fields of usefulness for such a device, yet there are numerous other fields to which the principle can be extended...
Nikola Tesla demonstrated "wireless" communication (which became known as "radio") as early as 1893. In 1943, the Supreme Court declared that Tesla had invented the radio, not Marconi. I'm afraid this celebration is about thirteen years too late...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_whoradio.html
A really good book to read to learn more about one of the greatest electrical engineers in history is "Man Out Of Time" by Margaret Cheney.
libertarianswag.com
One 'stream', many clients.... This one worked right out of the box!
Multicast over modulated RF.
Too bad about IP multicast, which was the next up-and-coming thing in 1993!
Nikola Tesla, ubergenius, invented radio over a decade before these demonstrations. He even transmitted electric power by radio, to power light bulbs. And probably the robot submarine he also invented - all in the 1800s.
What is it about Tesla that his pioneering inventions are usually ignored in favor of later copycats?
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make install -not war
In its early days, radio was a 2-way, peer-to-peer medium. It was instantaneous (zero latency), hifi (plus noise), and global. It could transmit pictures (by wiring it to a pantograph or fancier device). Everyone into the hobby thought it would become what we like to think the Internet is becoming today.
But after a couple of decades, radio was reduced to a one-way, broadcast medium dominated by commercial corporate interests.
The main way this shutdown was executed was by the new US agency, the "FCC". The early tech made necessary a central registry of unique frequencies assigned to "stations", or multiple stations would "interfere", or really just all be heard by a receiver tuned to that frequency. A signaling protocol for yielding could have avoided that centralized control. A transceiver attempting a frequency could have first listened to the frequency for a signal:noise ratio above some standardized threshold before using it as a clear channel, and group comms could have signalled with a "heartbeat" above the threshold of human hearing. Or some other approach either automatic or negotiated. But the US Federal government legislated instead of letting tech solve the real problem. Which also let them control the content of the public airwaves, eventually requiring broadcasters to be officially licensed as publishers. Which now costs $millions, forcing mere hobbyists out of the market.
We can already see this same pattern repeating. Publishing streams of copyrighted material on the Net costs not only a ridiculous $0.0007 per "song" per listener (therefore 10K listeners costs $7, thousands of times more than broadcast, though the tech is cheaper). But the license requires a minimum $500 per year. Which is the cost of about 6 listeners continuously 24x7, to 4 minute average length songs. Or really more like 25 listeners, who'd have to pay $20 a year to listen (or $95 for each of 6) - just for the royalties. That minimum fee puts radio out of the reach of most hobbyists to even reach their friends. It forces streaming to go commercial. The first step towards the really expensive licenses that keep the official publishers in the same billionaire's club, with mostly the same agenda. Purely "political": controlling the people to ensure only rich commercial interests can publish.
And that's all before video streaming is really regulated. They'll surely increase the license fee for that, and probably raise the audio fees "now that the industry has gotten on its feet".
Who believes that "wireless networks", really just digital radio, will stay P2P, unregulated content, when the rest of the industry has the worst history of forcing regulations to define its limited competition? For those who do believe that, look at your radio dial. And, if you can stand it, try listening to it.
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make install -not war
I am quite a few others can see little reason for paying for something I can get free. Pay radio seems like a RIAA dream.
If anything the ability to take YOUR music with you will lead to less and less radio. Cars these days are being designed with MP3 players in mind and that to me is more important than satellite. Besides I still use the radio for local news, talk radio, and to hear new songs. A lot of songs I hear on top40, country, and rock stations, I later and go buy off of iTunes or similar. Sometimes I still buy the CDs.
CD buying is still spurred by radio play and I don't think the record companies will give that up. Sure I can hear music on satellite but then I would be paying for someone to broadcast to me. Living in a big city (Atlanta) I have a large number of stations to choose from. Sure many are Clearchannel owned or similar (I don't recall the names of the other large holding companies) but I still have more stations than I have presets.
Satellite will augment radio but never replace it. Maybe when someone comes up with an ad supported model that is free except for equipment it might make a real dent. If they want me to pay for satellite radio then nearly any station that I want needs to be available. In a way it might morp into something akin to cable/sattelite tv.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Remember to keep all your good patents under the floorboards.
Well, other countries may believe in Santa Claus and WMD in Iraq.
:)
Russians KNOW that they invented all things first
Popov's radio was used to save the crew of a ship caught in ice when Marconi was only making his first experiments (BTW, Popov actually thought that Tesla was the first inventor of radio). Nobody claims that rockets were invented in Russia but liquid-fuel rocket engine was.
Television was not invented by Russians, but CRT was (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Zworykin).
Electric lamps (too lazy to search for links) and airplanes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Jatho), alas, were invented by Germans.
Americans often claim credit too fast.
If you're ever going to Plymouth MA as a tourist, you can make a detour to visit the remains of the tower, it's only a short detour if you're headed there from Boston.
If you look at the photo on the Wikipedia, you'll see that there it is currently in a trailer park. My wife grew up spending every summer in that park and my mother-in-law still as a place there. The house that is visible in the post card is still there, as are some of the concrete anchor points for the tower's guy wires and a concrete slab that was probably the foundation for a building that was part of the complex.
The view in the postcard is what you would see walking up Central Street from the town pier at Green Harbor. It is part of the Brant Rock neighborhood of Marshfield, but is about half a mile south from Brant Rock proper. It is called on some maps as "Blackman's Point". It looks like the easter guy wires in the postcard are anchored to some of the granite ledge that forms the beach. They may still be there, I've never looked for them.
I have centered this map on the approximate location of the tower base. The aerial was taken during winter storage of the trailers, but you can see the tower base between two trailers, north and a little bit west of the western edge of the brown roofed permanent structure. If you pan south of the photo a bit, you'll see a small shed (a bathroom), in front of which stands one of the surviving guy wire anchor points. To the northwest of that is a the slab mentioned earlier but it is covered with disassmbled decks that have been stored for the winter.
There's not very much left to see from the tower, so it's probably a visit for radio buffs only. Maybe if you're a ham who'd like to make a call from the historic point. A visit could also be combined with a trip to beach for swimming or tide pooling, if kids are in tow. The area an easy side trip on a visit to the Plymouth attractions (the Mayflower II, Plimouth Plantation). this map shows a slightly enlarged view of the neighborhood, the trailer park containing the tower remains is at the end of Central Street.
The closest parking is at the town pier to the west, or if that is full at the intersection of Rt 139 and The beach near the park is rocky ledge, excellent for tidepooling, but trecherous for swimming. There are no public restroom or changing facilities. The same goes for a small but excellent beach that is adjacent to the breakwaters entering Green Harbor. To the north there is a small village center along Ocean Street that offers several restaurants and an ice cream shop. Arthur and Pat's is highly recommended for breakfaast. The beach at the end of Rt 139 is good, and offers a walk via breakwater to the interesting ocean ledge which gives the village its name, so a visit for breakfast, the beach, followed by a lunch and hike down to the site is a possible program for the day. The harbor makes a nice canoe or kayak trip, from a put near a footbridge on a stream south of the town pier on the eastern bank. The "river" directl across from this stream is actually the oldest canal in North America. It is possible with some dragging, to navigate all the way to Duxbury Bay and Plymouth Harbor, although it's an all day trip.
Finally, on your way out of the neighborhood, there is small Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant on Route 139 south of the Marina, near the end of West Street. This restaurant changes hands frequently, but is currently quite good. You can also get takeout fried clams and steamed lobsters from the Green Harbor Lobster Pound.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Radio has been paying performance rights from day one.
BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) was a creation of the broadcast industry.
And while we're on the "my country is better than yours" track, here's an interesting find:
http://www.tuc.nrao.edu/~demerson/bose/bose.html
So while Marconi and most other radio pioneers worked at LW and MW bands, Bose was working at 60 GHz in 1895. The thing that really struck me was the waveguide and horn in the pictures of his equipment, and how similar they look to today's MM-wave equipment. Also note that he used a point-contact diode detector, and even made I-V plots (see Figure 5 in the article).
I just mentioned, in two sentences, a basic "cognitive-radio infrastructure". Known to real people as "listen politely before you speak".
Anonymous Coward is spewing gibberish, like starting out with a declaration that their post is "just nuts". OK, then keep it to yourself.
Why would anyone get into a discussion with an anonymous jerk about scrapping the FCC now that we can? You're obnoxious, have no imagination, and are just wrong.
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make install -not war
The story in Boca Raton, Florida, location of the original engineering design team, was that "XM" stood for "Ex-Motorolan," since a very large fraction of the engineers and engineering management came from a Motorola plant in nearby Boynton Beach that had just gone through several rounds of layoffs. (The Motorola plant has since been closed, sold and razed, replaced with condominiums.)
I'm pretty sure the story is apocryphal, but it's too good not to repeat.
What is important is not that Fessenden broadcast a signal to ships at sea, but that he did it using an audio signal, i.e. music and speech. He invented radio telephony. Before Fessenden, radio was purely Marconi's radio telegraphy (morse code).
Also, it is not entirely accurate calling Fessenden Canadian. He lived in the US at the time of this breakthrough, and would for some time, before moving to Bermuda. He can be said to be of 'Canadian origin'.
I know much about Fessenden because of the house he had owned in Newton, Massachusetts during and after his Brant Rock experiments. After Fesseden's death, the house was sold to my mother's family, and she recalls that there was some strange laboratory equipment in the basement of that house, where she grew up. This house is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Let's not forget the programs Doc broadcast in the Bay area in 1909 albeit these are now ham frequencies.
See:Setting The Stage for KMPX & KSAN
http://www.chriskern.net/history/voaFirstOnTheInte rnet.html
By far, Fessenden's is the most interesting idea for Atlantis:
The Deluged Civilization
There is also some very good economics theory after the Deluge bit.
I'd do it myself if I could. This is a very interesting website.
I love how all the "Tesla did it first" comments come out whenever there is a post about early electrical technology. Unsung genius? Yes, certainly. But not the only one. Why does Tesla get so much attention? Why is he, and not some other unsung genius, featured so prominently on these wierd "alternative science" websites, for example http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/tesla/esp_tesla_ a.htm ? What is it about him or his work?
Is it all the weird pictures of large inductors throwing sparks? It can't simply just be the "eccentric mysterious inventor mystique", because lots of other have that.
Tesla is a phenominon now. Why him?
I've heard enough about Tesla. Here's your new unsung genius, who you probably know very little about but whose conceptual understanding of electricity underpins so much modern technology. And he was at least as nuts as Telsa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Heaviside
Yes, that's interesting. Bose certainly deserves recognition.
It's at http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/worldserv ice/meta/tx/discovery?nbram=1&nbwm=1&size=au&lang= en-ws&bgc=003399 (26 minute RealAudio stream). Or if that gobbledygook doesn't work, navigate to the World Service Discovery programme from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/worldservice_promo. shtml.