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Radio Act of 1912: 100 Years of Amateur Radio Licensing
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Radio Act of 1912, signed into law on August 13 of that year, was the first federal law
regulating the transmission of RF signals. Licensing and operational requirements for
private (amateur), commercial, and military radio stations were set forth. In response
to the sinking of the Titanic in April, the Act also stipulated rules for mandatory mutual
monitoring of emergency signals from ships at sea. Prior to the Act, military communications
was being jeopardized by uncontrolled high power transmissions (private and commercial)
stepping all over critical transmissions. Amateurs were assigned a portion of the spectrum
specifically chosen to discourage their activity. Rather than being discouraged, they
developed technology to exploit the characteristics of the wavelengths. Khrystyne Keane
(K1SFA) wrote a good article about it in the August 2012 QST - "100 Years of Amateur Radio Licensing." The ARRL restricts access
to article to members only, but fortunately permission was given to the IEEE
for public posting.Posted August 2012 |
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