Of course you can't 'prove' a negative. But there is pretty close to zero
proof of the positive in this case when real investigative journalism
questions long-held assumptions.
Ron Castro
Chief Technical Officer
Results Radio, LLC
N6IE
www.N6IE.com
(Formerly N6AHA)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Notarius W3WN" <wn3vaw@verizon.net>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 7:10 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Fessenden
Forgive me for making one last post after my official "last comment and
I'll shut up" post from last night...
I have some down time from work this morning, and did a little checking on
the Fessenden history (I have an interest in early radio history, as you
can well imagine by now). In summary, while there is some doubt raised
about the Christmas Eve first broadcast (from a respected communications
historian, Donna Halper, for one), there is also no conclusive proof that
the first broadcast DIDN'T take place as claimed.
So why wasn't there more about it in the press at the time? Because it
appears that it was an afterthought... Fessenden's experiments were for
point-to-point voice communications; broadcasting (a term in use at the
time) to the public, or even a wide audience was never his intention at
the time. It was probably not until many years later that he realized
what he did.
Also, with all due respect to N6IE and the author of the RadioWorld
article he cites, it appears that a letter written "five months before his
death in 1932" was not the first citation of the first broadcast. I found
references to a 1928 speech that brought the matter up. (And if I could
find that within 5 minutes of a quick Google search, why couldn't the RW
article author?)
Suffice to say, we may never "know" for sure. But until proof to the
contrary surfaces, I think we can accept this one, even with a grain of
salt.
73, ron w3wn
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