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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>
>
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