[On] December 7 we remember the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces that killed more than 2,000 servicemembers and 68 civilians in 1941. It was a devastating act of aggression on U.S. soil, thrusting an entire country into a war and calling on everyone to contribute to the cause overseas and back home—including operators in the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL).

Established in 1914 (celebrating its 110th anniversary this year), the ARRL’s contribution to the war effort cannot be understated. That’s because amateur radio almost didn’t exist during the war, but the ARRL showed the country how vital it could be.

Following the attack, amateur radio communications were completely halted by order of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This was to prevent interference with military communications and to keep amateur radio operators out of the hands of foreign stations.

However, the ARRL saw the potential a radio service could have in protecting the nation and pushed for the FCC to incorporate it in civil defense. They believed that a ham’s emergency radio preparedness and their capabilities and readiness to serve the nation could help protect it, wrote Bart Lee, K6VK, in an article about emergency operating in San Francisco during the war.

It made sense—the ARRL had already formed the Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) in 1935 with the Radio Amateurs of Canada. Still in existence today, ARES’ purpose is to help those in need when disasters like hurricanes and wildfires damage critical communication infrastructure.

So, in 1942, the FCC formed the War Emergency Radio Service (WERS). Its purpose was to alert others in the event of an air raid or an invasion. It also functioned the same as ARES in the event of a natural disaster.

WERS was made up of multiple, small shortwave transmitters and receivers reporting to central stations working on VHF. The intention of the service was for communications up to about 10 miles, so power was restricted to 25 watts. It was recommended by the Office of Civilian Defense that home equipment using salvaged parts be used to avoid using items not readily available during the war.

Instead of individual operators getting licensed, WERS’ licenses were only given to entire communities, but participants still needed an amateur radio license to use WERS frequencies.

At the end of 1944, the service included about 5,000 transmitters operated under 250 licenses.

While it never raised the alarm on an invasion or air raid, WERS was used for several disasters throughout wartime. These included providing communications for the flood of the Mississippi and Lake Erie in 1942, the Atlantic Coast hurricane of 1944, and a snowstorm in western New York in 1945, according to K6VK.

WERS ended in 1945, just after the war. In its place, the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) was created and still stands today. Formed in 1952, it was designed to quickly silence regular amateur radio if the sitting president of the United States invoked the War Powers Act of 1941. It also helps during a plethora of different disasters ranging from natural to technological.

RACES has provided vital communications assistance during a range of disasters, including hurricanes Katrina and Maria, the Northeast blackout of 2003, and the Twin Towers attacks on September 11.

In honor of the ARRL’s 110th anniversary and everything it has contributed not only to the world of amateur radio but to the defense of the country and its communities, OnAllBands wants to say thanks!

Special Operating Event

From Dec. 1 to Jan. 31, hams will be able to join in and celebrate the ARRL’s anniversary and the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Amateur Radio Stamp (below) with the Utah DX Association’s special event station K7S—all bands, all modes; 7.260, 14.260, 21.300, 28.470. The first 200 confirmed contacts will receive a used Amateur Radio Stamp. SASE will be needed to receive your QSL.

For more information [about] the event visit the W7WES QRZ page

1912

The introduction of licensing. 5 wpm code required

1917

Code requirement increased to 10 wpm. Cessation of activity due to WWI (lasts till 1919)

1922

Amateur Radio call signs will now be government assigned. Previously, hams made up their own call signs (often a person’s initials). The Amateur Radio service is created with two classes of licenses, First Grade and Second Grade. First Grade required a written essay examination and a code test of 5 words per minute. The test was administrated before a “Radio Inspector” at a Commerce Department Field Office. The Second Grade license was for people who could not appear at a Commerce Dept. Field Office. An existing Amateur Radio First Grade licensee would administer the test.

1923

Amateur Extra First Grade license class added. Another new license class was created, the Amateur Extra First Grade. This license conveyed additional operating privileges, after passing a more difficult written examination and a code test of 20 words per minute.

1924

Spark gap transmitters banned on newly allocated 80, 40, 20, and 5 meter bands

1926

Spark gap transmitters made illegal on the ham bands

1927

The existing Amateur First Grade license is renamed the Amateur Class license. The Federal Radio Commission created.

1928

The Radio Commission starts testing for “Amateur First Grade” licenses.

1932

The Amateur Class license class is renamed the Amateur First Class license.

1934

Establishment of the FCC. License restructuring. Code requirement increased to 13 wpm. Accurate logging required. Mobile or portable operation required written notice to the FCC.

1939

FCC introduces multiple-choice tests.

1940

US amateurs prohibited from contacting other countries. All licensees required to supply fingerprints, photo, and proof of citizenship to FCC

1941

80m taken over by Army

1942

Cessation of activity due to WWII (1942-1945)

1945

Amateur license terms are extended from 3 to 5 years

1949

Citizen’s Radio Service established (the 11 meter ham band is reassigned to models and Class D Citizens’ Band radio in 1958)

1951

New license classes and names changed. FCC creates the Novice, Technician and Extra class licenses to join the Advanced (formerly class A), General (formally Class B) and Conditional (formerly class C) licenses. Licenses terms were now 5 years except Novice which was 1 year, non¬ renewable. Novices were limited to 75 watts input with crystal frequency control of CW on portions of the HF bands. Novices also had CW and Phone privileges in the 145-147 MHz segment of 2 meters. Ah Novice call signs were 2×3 with the second letter being an “N”. The Novice test was a 20 question written and 5 wpm CW test originally administered by FCC examiners. Also, a person could only hold a Novice license one time. The Technician license as created had ah amateur privileges from 220 MHz and up (No 6 or 2 meters). The intent was to get a bunch of people experimenting on the then new (their first use was during WWII) “UHF” frequencies.

1952

FCC stopped issuing new Advanced class licenses December— FCC stopped issuing new Advanced class licenses and took away unique Advanced and Extra privileges, everyone General and up had the same privileges (after changing license classes and rules 1 year earlier).

1954

Novice license testing duty turned over to hams. Novice license testing was turned over to volunteer hams who would administer the code test, send paperwork to the FCC who would then return a written test which the volunteer would administer and then send to the FCC for final grading.

1955

Technician class licensees receive 6 meter privileges.

1959

Technician class licensees are given a portion of the 2 meter band (145-147MHz).

1967

Incentive Licensing takes effect “Incentive Licensing” takes effect, returning the Advanced class license and taking privileges away from Generals, effectively stopping growth of Amateur Radio and causing a lot of bad feelings among the amateur community for the ARRL who originally proposed the program.

1972

Technician licenses are granted access to the complete 2 meter band. Novices are allowed to use radios with a VFO, and logging requirements are relaxed.

1974

FCC begins issuing “WR” prefix callsigns as part of new repeater regulations.

1975

The Novice and Technician licenses get major changes. Among the changes are an increase in power for Novices from 75 to 250 watts. Technicians are also given full Novice privileges on the HF bands

1976

“WN” prefixes for Novice licenses were eliminated Effective July 1, 1976, any Extra class licensee who had been a licensed Amateur for 25 years or more could select one specific 1×2 call sign. Effective October 1,1976, anyone who had held an Amateur Extra class license prior to November 22, 1967, could select one specific 1×2 call sign.

1977

FCC suspends all Amateur Radio license fees. Code sending test is waived. Effective January 1, 1977, anyone who had held an Amateur Extra class license prior to July 2, 1974, could select one specific 1×2 call sign. Effective April 1, 1977, anyone who held an Amateur Extra class license prior to July 1, 1976, could select one specific 1×2 call sign. Effective July 1, 1977, any Amateur Extra class licensee could select one specific 1×2 call sign.

1978

Call signs now assigned automatically in sequential order. As of March 24, the FCC will be assigning call signs automatically, in sequential order. This is the start of the “Group” call sign assignments. Also, the Novice license becomes a renewable license (following the example of all other license classes). The FCC stopped (February 23) the Extra-class only vanity call sign program due to internal mishandling and maybe some corruption. The ability of a person to hold multiple station licenses (having multiple callsigns), known as a secondary callsign, at different addresses is eliminated by the FCC. Instant upgrades (/AE) allowed. Moving to a new call district no longer required a change of callsign.

1982

VEC created President Regan signs into law a bill that allows the FCC to authorize licensed hams to create and administer amateur radio license tests.

1984

Amateur licenses go from a 5 year tenn to 10 years. Testing no longer required to take place at FCC field offices.

1987

Novice enhancement. Expansion of privileges for Novices; voice privileges; a chance to sample HF without a Morse key.

1988

Military and commercial use of Morse code ceases.

1991

No-code Tech license class created. FCC creates a new Technician license without a Morse code requirement. This was based on a proposal by QCWA.

1995

Vanity callsigns introduced.

1999

Three license classes now. The FCC proposes major changes to amateur rules, cutting license classes from six down to three with a single 5 wpm code test for the two highest classes – General and Extra (new Novice and Advanced class licenses are eliminated).

2000

Highest code test is 5 WPM April 15 — Code speed for General and Extra license reduced to 5 wpm. No new Novice, Technician Plus or Advanced class licenses will be issued. Novice and Advanced class licenses can continue to be renewed. All Technician Plus licenses became converted to Technician (on the license), but retained their HF (equivalent to Novice) privileges. In a few years when all code tests were eliminated, ALL Technician Licensees have HF (Novice) privileges.

2005

No more code test FCC releases NPRM regarding the elimination of Morse Code tests for all licenses.

2006

December – Coming just before the end of the year (like the license restructuring of 1999/2000) FCC releases first a confusing press release and then a few days later the official Report and Order eliminating Morse Code testing requirements for all license classes. The FCC also opens the door for a possible reconsideration of some of the voice frequency allocations announced just 1 month previously.

On July 22, 2024, The MIT Press Reader published an excerpt from Ham Radio’s Technical Culture; a book by Auburn University Assistant Professor of History, Kristen Haring.

This book (an MIT Press publication) provides an inside look at ham radio culture—and its impact on hobbyists’ lives—through personal accounts found in magazines, newsletters, and trade journals,

Introduction to the article

Every night thousands of men retreat to radio stations elaborately outfitted in suburban basements or tucked into closets of city apartments to talk to local friends or to strangers on the other side of the world. They communicate by speaking into a microphone, tapping out Morse code on a telegraph key, or typing at the keyboard of a teletypewriter. In the Internet age, instantaneous, long-distance, person-to-person communication seems ordinary. But amateur radio operators have been completing such contacts since the 1910s. The hobbyists often called “hams” initially turned to radio for technical challenges and thrills. As the original form of wireless technology became more reliable and commonplace in the 1930s, ham radio continued as a leisure activity. Hams formed a community through the same general practices of other social groups. They set conditions for membership, established rules of conduct, taught values, and developed a specialized vocabulary known only to insiders. What made hams’ culture different was its basis in technology. In her book “Ham Radio’s Technical Culture,” … historian of science and technology Kristen Haring draws on a wealth of personal accounts found in radio magazines and newsletters and from technical manuals, trade journals, and government documents to illustrate how ham radio culture rippled through hobbyists’ lives. ¹

This article includes numerous historical photographs of QSL cards, hams, and their rigs / shacks.

Read The Article…

Where to buy this book

ℹ️ Purchasing links may be found on the book’s MIT Press Catalog Listing.

An important component used in our radios is 75 years old today!

On December 16, 1947, Walter Brattain and John Bardeen—two physicists who were members of Mervin Kelly’s Solid State Physics Group and Semiconductor Sub-Group at Bell Labs—managed to make the first working transistor, now known as the point-contact transistor.

“A week after that, the device was officially demonstrated to Bell Labs executives as a magnificent Christmas present. In January 1948, William Shockley demonstrated the junction transistor. All three received The Nobel Prize in Physics (1956)”. ¹

The New York Herald Tribune predicted that this invention would be a revolution in the electronics industry. Little did they know just how big of a technology revolution this invention would end up being. The invention of the transistor may have been the greatest technology development of the 20th century!

As the performance, reliability, and manufacturability of discrete transistors improved commercial products began to use transistors, including amplifiers, switches, and detector circuits. In 1954 the silicon bipolar-junction transistor (BJT), perfected by Gordon Teal of Texas Instruments Inc., brought the price of this discrete component down to $2.50. The Texas Instruments news release from May 10, 1954, read, “Electronic brains approaching the human brain in scope and reliability came much closer to reality today with the announcement by Texas Instruments Incorporated of the first commercial production of silicon transistors kernel-sized substitutes for vacuum tubes.” Also in 1954 Bell Labs unveiled Tradic Phase One. The Tradic Phase One was the world’s first fully transistorized computer containing 800 transistors instead of vacuum tubes. In March 1955 Sony began to sell its TR-52 transistor radio in the US for $29.95, soon capturing this market. It is no wonder that in 1956 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Thanks to Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor, the 1960’s ushered in the era of Integrated Circuits (ICs). In the early 70’s the crowning achievement was the ability to integrate thousands of transistors and resistors onto a silicon chip. One of the most important ICs was the microprocessor. Intel’s 4004 microprocessor is widely regarded as the first commercial microprocessor. The 4004 was fabricated in 1971 with 2,250 Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) transistors using 10 µm PMOS technology. PMOS logic is a family of digital circuits based on p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). In the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the mid-70’s PMOS circuits were superseded by Complimentary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) circuits. CMOS circuits use both p-channel and n-channel transistors. Today Apple’s M1 chip has 16 billion transistors using TSMC’s 5 nm FINFET CMOS technology node! ²

Visit the 75th Anniversary of the Transistor page to view the IEEE EDS 75th Anniversary of the Transistor video and celebration photos; and to learn about upcoming activities, EDS newsletter articles, and media coverage.

About the Anniversary Celebration

The Electron Devices Society has decided to celebrate the year 2022-2023 as the 75th Anniversary of the Transistor. As the history of this invention and of its consequences is much more involved and interesting, it is imperative that the leading EDS Luminaries share the scientific & technological developments which took place in the last 75 years, with the current generation of researchers. Popularizing talks at Conferences and Mini-Colloquia, Technical Articles in the EDS Newsletter, Webinar Series shall be a part of the various activities undertaken by [the] “75th Anniversary of the Transistor Adhoc Committee” with an aim to provide technical information and education to enlighten EDS members. This shall be a mark of tribute to the men and women who have contributed to the Transistor Story—Discovery, Development, and Applications which has had a lasting impact on people’s lives and has benefited mankind where it serves good in social relations, caring for the Earth, science, technology, engineering, and economy. ¹

In an era before instantaneous global communication, the telegraph allowed President Franklin Roosevelt to receive vital information and conduct critical government business while away from the White House. This portable telegraph and vibroplex key were used by Dr. E. Stuart Davis, communications aide and personnal telegrapher during President Roosevelt’s travels. ¹

The portable telegraph and Vibroplex key used by Dr. Davis are part of a display of presidential memorabilia in The Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World.