Speaker

April 23, 2024: Steve Jensen W6RHM and John Stanford KF6I: Spark transmission, an early technique in the evolution of radio

PLEASE NOTE: Our monthly general meeting is IN-PERSON, as well as webcast on the internet. See the notes at the top of this page for details.

We’ll hear about the early days of radio, in particular the pre-1922 era of the spark transmitter, such as that used by the experimental station 9YD at Nebraska Wesleyan University, which communicated by way of code, before the technology evolved to radio-phone. Voice transmission experiments began in 1920, and the first standard broadcast license was issued in 1922. In its original form, station 9YD sent out regular news and weather transmissions until 1917.

Steve Jensen holds extra class license W6RHM. He is the grandson of John C. Jensen, the early radio pioneer who set up the spark station 9YD in 1914. Steve has a BSE degree UCLA College of Engineering (1963) and is a graduate of the UCLA Executive Program (Group 43) in 1976, His long career was largely in Electromagnetic Comparability (EMC). He runs an engineering consulting company (Steve Jensen Consultants, Inc.) specializing in radio interference issues primarily for commercial and military aircraft programs.

John Stanford KF6I has been a ham radio operator since 1974, first licensed at age 13 as WN8SVN.  He has a Bachelors Degree from University of Dayton (1983) and a Masters Degree from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1996), both in Electrical Engineering. He lives in Placentia, CA. He worked earlier as an Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Engineer, and now has companies working with various HF amplifiers. John enjoys digital modes such as FT8, WSPR, and Meteor Scatter. He also can operate ESSB (high fidelity audio).