[TenTec] Fessenden

[Ron Castro]

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 at verizon.net>
To: <tentec at 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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