A Short History of Amateur Radio

Every time you key a microphone, you are using privileges that earlier hams fought for, tested and defended. Knowing a little of that story makes the hobby richer, and it explains a lot of odd things, from why we call it a “relay league” to why so many hams still love Morse code.

Here is a short tour, from spark gaps to software.

Early Wireless and Spark

Wireless telegraphy took shape around the turn of the twentieth century. In 1909, Guglielmo Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work developing it. The early transmitters used a spark jumping across a gap to make bursts of radio energy, and receivers were crude by any modern standard.

Hobbyists soon built stations of their own. Spark signals were broad, and with no rules at all, amateur, ship and commercial stations had to share the air however they could.

The Radio Act of 1912

Congress then passed “An Act to Regulate Radio Communication,” approved August 13, 1912. It required licenses for stations and for the people operating them, issued by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.

One rule shaped amateur radio for years. Private stations not doing commercial business were barred from wavelengths longer than 200 meters unless specially authorized. Commercial stations kept the long waves, so the limit looked like a heavy restriction. It turned out to be a lucky break.

The ARRL and the Relay

With limited range, amateurs found they could cover more ground by passing messages from station to station. Hiram Percy Maxim of Hartford, Connecticut, an inventor, saw that idea as the basis for a national organization. In 1914, with Clarence Tuska and the Radio Club of Hartford, he started the American Radio Relay League. Its magazine, QST, first appeared in December 1915.

World War I brought the first shutdown. In April 1917, all licensed amateurs were ordered to close their stations. The Navy lifted the last restrictions in September 1919, and amateur radio was back on the air before the end of that year. The International Amateur Radio Union followed in 1925.

Crossing the Atlantic on Short Waves

In December 1921, during the ARRL’s transatlantic tests, a receiving station on the west coast of Scotland copied a message from a station in Greenwich, Connecticut, and heard more than two dozen US amateur stations in all. These were the first amateur signals to span the Atlantic.

Two-way contact soon followed. In November 1923, amateurs in France and in Connecticut worked each other across the Atlantic on wavelengths near 100 meters. The short waves that had looked like leftovers opened the door to worldwide amateur communication.

Radio rules grew up too. The Communications Act of 1934 created the Federal Communications Commission, which still licenses US amateurs today.

War and Renewal

On December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FCC ordered all amateur radio operation suspended for the duration of the war. When the war ended, amateurs returned to the air.

One of the biggest changes was single sideband. According to the ARRL, a small group of amateur experimenters took up the technique after the war, and in 1947 an experimental station went on the air with SSB on 75 meters and then 20 meters. Over the next two decades sideband almost completely pushed AM aside on the lower amateur bands, because it puts more of your power into your voice and takes up much less room on the band.

Then amateurs went to space. On December 12, 1961, OSCAR 1 rode into orbit as a secondary payload. It weighed about ten pounds, sent the letters HI in Morse code on 2 meters, and lasted only 22 days, yet hundreds of hams in many countries reported hearing it. AMSAT, founded in 1969, has carried that work forward. Our article on your first satellite contact shows how to work today’s satellites.

Code and the Modern Era

For many years, a Morse code exam stood between newcomers and the HF bands. Effective February 23, 2007, the FCC removed the code exam requirement for General and Amateur Extra, the last license classes that had one. The same rule change gave Technicians the HF privileges that Novice and Technician Plus licensees already had.

Morse did not go away. Many hams still treasure CW for its simplicity and its rhythm.

The computer has changed the hobby enormously. Packet radio, PSK31, APRS, digital voice and many other modes have come along. In July 2017, a new mode called FT8 appeared in a test release of the free WSJT-X software. It spread quickly, and today FT8 makes up the large majority of the digital signals reported to the PSK Reporter network.

History You Can Touch

Here are a few ways to connect with this story:

• Visit W1AW, the ARRL’s station at its headquarters in Newington, Connecticut, the League’s home since 1938. Licensed visitors from around the world operate from it.
• Try CW. Our CW keys explained page is a good place to start.
• Join a club. Many clubs have members with decades of stories, and they love to share them. See clubs and nets.
• Browse our modes section to see how far the hobby has come since the spark gap.

When you get on the air today, you are adding your own small chapter to more than a century of amateur radio.