Tag Archives: Reginald Fessenden

WI2XLQ: Brian Justin’s annual longwave broadcast starting Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve

Canadian Reginald Aubrey Fessenden in his lab believed circa 1906 (Source: Radio Canada International)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Brian (WA1ZMS), who writes:

What has now become an annual LF listening event, WI2XLQ (an FCC Experimental Callsign) will once again be QRV for a recreation of the alleged first voice transmission made by Reginald Fessenden in 1909. Transmission on 486kHz in full carrier AM will start at 22:00z on Dec 24th and run for 24hrs. In keeping with tradition, a repeat transmission will take place on Dec 31st at 22:00z and run for 24hrs. Further details about the Fessenden transmissions can be found in prior years of ARRL News.

-Brian, WA1ZMS

I look forward to tuning in each year. Thank you so much, Brian, for making this annual broadcast a reality!

WI2XLQ: 2023 Fessenden Event on 486kHz starting Christmas Eve!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Brian (WA1ZMS), who shares the following announcement. Please spread the word:

As in years past, Brian, WA1ZMS of Forest, VA will have FCC Part 5 station WI2XLQ QRV starting appox. 21:00 UTC on Dec 24th for the now annual Fessenden Event. Transmissions will last for at least 24hrs. A repeat will take place again on Dec 31st also starting appox. 21:00 UTC and run for 24hrs. All transmissions will consist only of the two Christmas songs claimed to have been played by Fessenden himself on his violin, as well as a brief Bible verse. WI2XLQ’s voice ID and transmission description is via computer generated voice.

Heising & Fessenden

While the story of Fessenden’s alleged first voice transmissions using an Alexanderson alternator on Dec 24th and Dec 31st has never been proven to have taken place the way the now-legendary story claims; early in Dec of that year Fessenden did demonstrate AM voice transmissions over just a few miles for the US Navy. So some credit is due to his early pioneering work of human speech via RF rather than the typical spark generated CW of the time.

MOPA Transmitter front

WI2XQL uses a slightly more modern home-brew 1920’s era Amateur-grade MOPA transmitter (based on a UV201 oscillator and UV202 final) and a high power linear FET amplifier. The MOPA also uses true AM Heising modulation as was first done in WW1 for the US military.

MOPA TX inside

So set-up your long-wire antennas and with a simple modern SDR or a vintage MF RX, give a listen for WI2QXL. SWL reports can be sent to [email protected] and e-mail confirmation of reports will follow. Audio samples of what you heard are also welcomed.

73,
-Brian, WA1ZMS

WI2XLQ: Brian Justin’s annual longwave broadcast on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve

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Canadian Reginald Aubrey Fessenden in his lab believed circa 1906 (Source: Radio Canada International)

Now an annual Christmas tradition, Brian Justin (WA1ZMS) will put his longwave experimental station WI2XLQ on the air to commemorate the anniversary of Reginald Fessenden’s first audio transmission.

As in years past, he will be conducting the Fessenden transmission on Christmas Eve, as well as New Year’s Eve. The plan is to start each day around 1800z and run for 24 hours.

Listener reports may be sent to Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, at his QRZ.com address.

If you would like more information about Brian Justin and WI2XLQ, check out our interview with him in 2013.

Additionally, SWLing Post reader, George Stein has a very personal connection with radio pioneer, Reginald Fessenden: click here to read his story.

Experimental Station WI2XLQ will recreate 1906 Fessenden transmissions again this Holiday season

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Canadian Reginald Aubrey Fessenden in his lab believed circa 1906 (Source: Radio Canada International)

(Source: ARRL News)

Experimental Station will Recreate 1906 Fessenden Transmissions

Experimental station WI2XLQ will be on the air on 486 kHz AM for the Reginald Fessenden commemorative transmission. Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, is the licensee. He will transmit for 24 hours starting at 2000 UTC on December 24, with a repeat transmission starting at 2000 UTC on December 31. Justin will use a homebrew 1921-era MOPA exciter with Heising modulation, followed by a modern 500-W linear. The transmission will be the same as in past years — two violin pieces that Fessenden claims to have played as one of the very first voice transmissions from his Brant Rock, Massachusetts, radio lab site. “While doubt remains that such a transmission ever took place, Fessenden did perform some crude voice transmissions over a few miles distance in early December near Washington, DC, as a demonstration for the US Navy,” Justin said. “So, perhaps some credit is due Fessenden for his efforts to transmit the human voice in an era of spark transmissions.”

If you would like more information about Brian Justin and WI2XLQ, check out our interview with him in 2013. Indeed, I successfully heard the 2013 WG2XFG broadcast and posted this audio clip on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

Reginald Fessenden’s connection to Bermuda

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Reginald Fessenden: “The Father of Radio Broadcasting” (Source: Wikipedia)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Evans (W4/VP9KF), who writes:

The story of Reginald Fessenden has a background in Bermuda.

Before he finished his college education in Canada, he spotted an advert for Headmaster at a school in Bermuda. He applied for it and got the job. At the right age of 18 he became headmaster of Whitney Institute, a school near the top of the hill in Flatts and where your scribe went to school starting in 1968! He met Helen Trott of Flatts and they were married and he moved on to his radio and scientific fascination. The main school building that I attended is exactly as it was in Fessenden’s time (and is to this day).

Later, they moved back to Bermuda and bought Wistowe a house on North Shore Road in Flatts (on the east side of the inlet), which was no more than a stiff 10 minutes walk to Whitney). The school and house still stand although the roads are now so very busy (and the house literally within an inch of passing buses) it’s hard to see them (I do have pictures!). Wistowe is just yards from the Bermuda Aquarium across the road.

In October 2007 the amateur radio special callsign VP9F was used to celebrate his life (indeed he held the callsign himself in 1929).

A fuller article is at http://vp9ge.com/vp9f.htm as written by myself and Ed, VP9GE.

The celebrations also included Ken Hubbard who demonstrated radio to students from Whitney and other Bermuda schools (Ken was my Physics instructor at Bermuda College, although not a radio ham). In 1976 Ken and I did a public demo of radio while I manned the world’s first all solid state transceiver, the Atlas 210X at a similar open day at Bermuda College (ironically the student [me] taking the lead and having to supervise the instructor!).

Once again, a small world!

Thanks for sharing this interesting bit of Fessenden history, Paul!

WI2XLQ: Brian Justin’s annual longwave broadcast

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Canadian Reginald Aubrey Fessenden in his lab believed circa 1906 (Source: Radio Canada International)

(Source: ARRL News via Harald Kuhl)

The Canadian inventor, experimenter, and entrepreneur Reginald Fessenden has been credited as the inventor of radiotelephony. Fessenden claimed to have made his first voice — and music — broadcast on Christmas Eve in 1906 from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, although his account is disputed. As he has done each December for the past few years, Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, of Forest, Virginia, will transmit a program on 486 kHz, under authority of his FCC Part 5 Experimental License WI2XLQ ito commemorate Fessenden’s accomplishments.

Justin will transmit for at least 24 hours starting at around 2000 UTC on December 24, with a repeat transmission on New Year’s Eve likely, “keeping in step with what Fessenden was reported to have done on both nights in 1906,” Justin explained.Fessenden’s transmitter was most likely a high-speed “dynamo” or alternator — a predecessor to the later Alexanderson alternator — modulated by placing a carbon microphone in series with the antenna feed line to create an amplitude modulated signal. Fessenden a few years earlier had limited success making voice transmissions using a rotary spark gap transmitter. Fessenden fed his signal into a substantial antenna system erected in Brant Rock for his experiments. Accounts say on Christmas Eve 1906, he transmitted recordings of two pieces of music and read a verse from the bible.

Justin will use somewhat more modern equipment — a home-brew master oscillator, power amplifier (MOPA) transmitter based on a classic design from the early 1920s. It uses a UV-201 oscillator tube driving a VT-25 tube — a modern equivalent to a UV-202 — to generate “a few watts” on 486 kHz. His modulator consists of another VT-25, which uses a large inductor in the RF amplifier’s plate supply to serve as a Heising modulator. The audio program comes from a laptop computer.

“Heising modulation was used in World War I as an easy way to achieve AM in rigs such as those used in aircraft,” Justin said. “My particular Heising modulator can deliver only around 60% modulation, so an audio processor is used to help boost the average volume level ahead of the modulator tube.”

Justin uses far more modern technology to boost “the few watts” of modulated RF to drive a modified Hafler 9505 solid-state 500-W audio amplifier. “The idea for the amp came from W1TAG and W1VD,” he said, “and information on using such an amp on the 630 and 2200-meter ham bands can be found on the web.” After a multi-pole low-pass filter, the carrier output is 150 W.

Justin’s antenna is a Marconi T, crafted from a 160-meter dipole some 60 feet above ground and fed with open-wire line, which is shorted at the transmitter end. A homebrew variometer — constructed from 14-gauge wire wound on a piece of 4-inch diameter PVC pipe — is placed in series to resonate the antenna, which is fed against an extensive ground system. “Most of the RF is lost due to the ohmic losses of the ground system, but at least 15 W ERP is possible, depending on the dampness of the soil. Damp soil helps lower the ground losses,” Justin said.

Click here to read the full article on the ARRL News.

Listener reports may be sent to Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, at his QRZ.com address.

Additionally, SWLing Post reader, George Stein has a very personal connection with radio pioneer, Reginald Fessenden: click here to read his story.