Someone contacted me via email a few months ago in 2023, and asked if my dad was a Robert M Moore born 1904, whom he said was responsible for bringing SSB to ham radio in 1933. My dad was a ham, worked at Bell Labs from 1927 to 1969, and turns out to in fact be the man in question. He was humble, and never spoke a word about how he may have played an important part in the history of ham radio. I enjoyed this video history of SSB, and seeing dad's contribution acknowledged @18:00 here!
Hello Don: Wow, that is very interesting about your Dad and his early work with SSB. It's too bad that he didn't talk more about his work as a simple reel to reel tape recording of his ventures would be precious today. I enjoyed researching and gathering information for this video and finding the old S-9 magazine article was a highlight indeed. Thank you for your kind words. 73, Ed Gable K2MP/W2AN, Curator Emeritrus, AWA Museum
Very Interesting, held my attention and provided a lot of good info about ssb... Scientific Radio made a 100 watt three knob crystal controlled ssb radio, operating frequency was switch selected, (big knob in the middle), volume and power out. We at Operation Deep Freeze bought these radios to replace the KWM-2, because of the difficulty of the non-tech scientists to "peak the grid" and "dip the plate" into the dipole antennas, resulting in the constant replacing of the 6146Ws. The SR radios worked pretty well, and were easy for them to deploy and they made their skeds more regular... Thanks for the great look back into ssb history...
Thanks for the talk really enjoyed it very informative thank you sir. I've been licensed radio amateur for 48 years ... good health everyone... Thank you ...
Ed, this is another fantastic video. I’m doing a segment on ham radio history through the years. I’d like to use some of this to explain to people how far we’ve come and how much we’ve done over the decades. Thank you for putting such a great video out there. It’s done SO very very well done. WOW! Larry de K7HN
I don’t think it was mentioned but in early 80’s AT&T resurrected SSB and used it to enhance capacity on the terrestrial LD microwave network. SSB was used until the end of those big horn antennas blanketing the US about every 35 miles.
I think you mean now frequency division modulation FDM what actually are SSB signals. This is nothing to do with AT&T, FDM was widely used before digital transmission systems replace it
Great story Ed ... Was there another guy in the 1970s who claimed he invented amateur SSB he had a beard and I remember him in a 73/QST mag article but can't remember his name?
I used to work for the GPO British Telephone company in the 1966 era, and the Co-ax cable Carrier system was well established then. The major difference between that and amateur SSB was that the carrier frequencies were phase locked together. This produced a true pitch for the voice channels. With radio SSB your choice of carrier frequency, with the BFO, is always a hit and miss process.
Yeah I saw some of this stuff in a book on radio-telephony (as it was called) and I was thinking "that's SSB... Only with an alternator en passive modulators" and was flabbergasted, the book was from 1919! Some phase-modulation was in there as well, it's incredible what they did just using passive components.
Nice video, but there is a significant error: Without a sideband selection switch, the W2EWL Cheap and Simple SSB rig cannot produce the 75 meter LSB signal and 20 meter USB signal described around the 34 minute mark in the video. This is an important point -- this belief forms the basis for a serious misunderstanding of the origin of the LSB/USB convention that we have today. I hope AWA will correct the video, and that AWA will help find out where the current "LSB below 10 MHz, USB above 10 MHz convention" really comes from. 73 Bill N2CQR
Hello Bill: Thank you for your kind words. I have been made aware of the USB/LSB problem with the W2EWL rig by yourself and others and the original Powerpoint has been corrected. Now, I also join you in wondering where the LSB/USB versus band usage was generated. And the search begins again... Mni thanks and 73 Ed K2MP
Don't forget RL Drake who brought us 1A and then the 2B..... And my for love TR3 transceiver. I used a 1A and fell in love-- Drake must have had some extra oscilloscope cabinets put that receiver in. I had a 2B and a 2BQ nice add-on. The 2B should be an excellent receiver only for ham radio but I fear the little red slide switches maybe have died. With my TR3, I became a RL Drake man and had a TR7 and two R7s and all of the matching accessories except for the telephone connection and the RF amplifier. Sadly Drake son got a stereo manufacturer to design the front panel of the TR7 which looked more like a stereo and probably killed the line.. It was beautifully made with interchangeable card cage construction. New folks, get a 7 and look inside to see what I mean.
I have a 75S3 receiver and the KWM2A and accessories. They do work, bit I tend to just sit and look in admiration at them. I do like owning the top of the line and have IC-7800, FT-9000, and a K3. Those big companies making ham gear today have been hit by SDR and China cut rate prices, I guess. My 80 years reduce my operating time and I no longer try to keep up.
I recall the w2ewl arc command conversion. Purchased the transformers from Howard Goldberg W2iek of Arrow and built it. Howie was a friend of my father. But never got it operable. Bill w2eas who lived near me built his and got mine to work. I was 15 years old them. So many memories. W2HP
I bought a Icom 7300 back in April. I haven't even turned it on yet. I'm still trying to find the vacuum tubes. They must be small enough to fit under the circuit board..
In the early 1970's Communications Associates Inc. (CAI) in Huntington Ststion, NY was almost 10 years ahead of Harris with the first synthesized marine HF radio. Howie AB2S
Howie et al: This video brought back so many memories! --And some amazing coincidences. I attended Johns Hopkins University as an undergraduate, beginning in 1960. On the third floor was a guy from Libertyville, IL who roomed with my friend and fellow ham, K3CUW. That guy was named Joe Batchelor. And yes-- his dad was the Joe Batchelor who had invented the broadband tuning innovation of the Central Electronics 100V transmitter. By 1960, the dad was already at Hallicrafters. His dad was a distinguished-looking guy with a goatee, who drove a Mercedes sedan. But the dad and his two sons were also hot-rod car guys. They had put a Chevy 265 V-8 into that Merc, and had balanced the pistons so the engine would turn very high RPM. It was very fast from a cold start. Joe Jr. used to brag about the fact that his dad would come to a stoplight and when a kid in a hot car would pull up alongside him in the next lane, his dad took great pleasure in leaving the kid behind when the light turned. But, back to radio coincidences. Howie mentioned CAI--- but didnt mention that the company was co-founded by the engineers and management who had formed Eldico earlier. I worked at CAI during my summers and vacations on Long Island. The Chief Engineer was a Swiss electrical engineer named Werner Brach, and the CEO was named Don Merten. The VP and senior radio engineer was Everett Gibbs, W2FI-- who gave me my Novice ham radio exam in 1956. I worked building many commercial receivers and transmitters that CAI sold to various commercial entities. One of the most interesting at the time was a breadboard teaching tool--- a large vertically-oriented panel on a wheeled cart, that had the whole SSB signal path shown, with test points at many locations that could be used by the instructor to demonstrate the frequency and waveform at each step in the radio. All that gear in those days was wired with discrete components, and the wiring harness was hand-laid to interconnect everything in the chassis. I learned how to do all that stuff, and also was a tech in the lab where I learned how to tune a crystal filter for the desired passband shape. I am still a ham radio operator [K2TNO] and -despite the plug for SSB above, prefer high speed CW. 73 to all---- Bill
Hi Bill, I just learned of the Eldico connection last week when I went to lunch with a former co-worker who was also at CAI, Walt Perloski K2IBR. He loaned me his catalog of CAI equipment brochures which I am scanning to put online somewhere. I worked at CAI from 1974 to 1976. I knew Werner from CAI and worked with him at another company started by former CAI people. Sadly Werner passed away a few years ago.
looking into CE's 100V & 200V marvels, just wondering why nobody (as I know) have yet came with that output broadband couplers recipe.... were done with 1kUSD plate caps and coils for linear AMP construction
Back when SSB radios were new and cost a fortune, the wealthy guys were the first to buy them. About 40 hams were in the local club. Everyone showed up for the inaugural SSB contacts. There were people crowding the room and standing outside looking through the doors and windows. As one of the men who was there told me “we did not what to expect. Half were excited and half said it will never work.” I think everything that’s new does that to human beings. 😂
Ed - Your statement at time hack 35:16 is inaccurate regarding Collins Radio and SSB: "Collins Radio was not first nor very innovative, but had aggressive marketing". Some Collins innovations in SSB technology include (1) the Collins Mechanical Filter for high selectivity in transmitters and receivers; (2) the Permeability Tuned Oscillator for linear tuning, accuracy, and stability; and (3) RF feedback techniques for high linearity in RF Power Amplifiers. Almost all of the Collins engineers, managers, and marketing (including Arthur Collins) involved with HF SSB development were also active radio amateurs. The Collins 75A-4 and KWS-1, introduced in March 1955, incorporated these and other technical advancements.
Yes, very interesting, my early days started in 1960, 1961, Hallicrafters SX-110 Receiver at Radio Shack for $169.95, at 17 years old, and becoming a ham, novice, in 1962, almost 60 years ago, as WV2ZPD, on 2 meter AM, with a Heathkit Twoer, and built an Eico 720 Novice 75 watts and Crystal controlled. I also built the Eico 730 modulator with a green eye to see the AM modulation, using 40 M crystal to go to 10 Meters AM, and remember W2PSU, in NJ, was a mobile contact. I saw Barry Goldwater at 1964 ARRL convention, in NYC, when he was a Presidential candidate. My first use of HF SSB was at Field Day in the 1960's on the Collins KW2M, as I remember. 73 de W2CH, ex WV2ZPD, WA2ZPD, WB7EGN, WB1BTO and V25CH, in Antigua 🇦🇬
Hello Ray. Thanks for your interesting response and the telling of your long career. Your WV2 callsign was a rare short lived FCC issue. Stay well and keep active. 73 Ed K2MP
I know you! Thanks Randy for the kind words. Anybody reading this should look up K7AGE's many writings and TH-cam videos on electronic history. You will be entertained and educated on many levels. 73, /Ed K2MP
Marketing photos haven't gotten any better. When I worked at a turbine engine company, I recall a photo taken in the control room of a engine test cell. I showed an operator at the control apparently running the engine. Through the armored widow there's a technician with hearing protection apparently making an adjustment. As a test engineer everything wrong just screamed that whoever staged this didn't have a clue and likely didn't care. All the instrument readouts on the control console made it obvious that it wasn't running and things weren't even hooking up. If that wasn't enough of a clue that the operator was play acting, through the window you could see a plywood cover on the engine exhaust. How many times do you see online ads or stories where the picture seems to have no correlation the the caption beneath it?
Hello Peter: The early transatlantic telephone tests were at VLF, around 50 kHz, using the long wave antennas at RCA's Rocky Point site. When the service really got running they moved first to low HF and then to multi-band day/night frequencies. Ed K2MP
How could it be that SSB started in the way that it did? I do not get it? They were using, what, AM, for telegraph? And they figured out way back then that SSB was a thing and it was better?
Short pants , long socks ! lol SpongeBob square pants! Government Acquisition, Kabul, 2019, --no IF! No AM, no HF , and no VPN . NO WIRES ON CW LOL ETVS
![ละลาย (LALALYE) - DAOU PITTAYA ต้าห์อู๋ พิทยา [OFFICIAL MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wo6r9TgausI/mqdefault.jpg)
Someone contacted me via email a few months ago in 2023, and asked if my dad was a Robert M Moore born 1904, whom he said was responsible for bringing SSB to ham radio in 1933. My dad was a ham, worked at Bell Labs from 1927 to 1969, and turns out to in fact be the man in question. He was humble, and never spoke a word about how he may have played an important part in the history of ham radio. I enjoyed this video history of SSB, and seeing dad's contribution acknowledged @18:00 here!
Hello Don: Wow, that is very interesting about your Dad and his early work with SSB. It's too bad that he didn't talk more about his work as a simple reel to reel tape recording of his ventures would be precious today. I enjoyed researching and gathering information for this video and finding the old S-9 magazine article was a highlight indeed. Thank you for your kind words. 73, Ed Gable K2MP/W2AN, Curator Emeritrus, AWA Museum
Very Interesting, held my attention and provided a lot of good info about ssb... Scientific Radio made a 100 watt three knob crystal controlled ssb radio, operating frequency was switch selected, (big knob in the middle), volume and power out. We at Operation Deep Freeze bought these radios to replace the KWM-2, because of the difficulty of the non-tech scientists to "peak the grid" and "dip the plate" into the dipole antennas, resulting in the constant replacing of the 6146Ws. The SR radios worked pretty well, and were easy for them to deploy and they made their skeds more regular... Thanks for the great look back into ssb history...
I love this content and wish more people would enjoy the history of radio as much as we do
This was interesting, fun and really well presented. Thank You
Thank you for putting this all together. I really enjoyed your presentation.
Very enjoyable...thank you for the walk down memory lane.
Great re-cap! Thanks!
I'm restoring a DX-100B and a Globe Scout Deluxe as we speak. I also have a nice R8 in the shack. Thanks for the history, 73 KE6QK !
Context is everything! Thanks for this wonderful walk through history.
Thanks for the talk really enjoyed it very informative thank you sir. I've been licensed radio amateur for 48 years ... good health everyone... Thank you ...
Great Video. The 20a must have looked great sitting on the desk. I wish I had one just to bring it back to life. Many thanks. W5DN
Ed, this is another fantastic video. I’m doing a segment on ham radio history through the years. I’d like to use some of this to explain to people how far we’ve come and how much we’ve done over the decades. Thank you for putting such a great video out there. It’s done SO very very well done. WOW!
Larry
de K7HN
Very interesting, with lots of detail.
Loved it. Very well done.
In the 1980s I brought ACSB to my police dept in River Forest, IL. We used it as our 'secret talk around'.
I don’t think it was mentioned but in early 80’s AT&T resurrected SSB and used it to enhance capacity on the terrestrial LD microwave network. SSB was used until the end of those big horn antennas blanketing the US about every 35 miles.
I think you mean now frequency division modulation FDM what actually are SSB signals.
This is nothing to do with AT&T, FDM was widely used before digital transmission systems replace it
Great story Ed ... Was there another guy in the 1970s who claimed he invented amateur SSB he had a beard and I remember him in a 73/QST mag article but can't remember his name?
Thank you very much, this was so interesting to watch and learn! Much appreciated.
I used to work for the GPO British Telephone company in the 1966 era, and the Co-ax cable Carrier system was well established then. The major difference between that and amateur SSB was that the carrier frequencies were phase locked together. This produced a true pitch for the voice channels. With radio SSB your choice of carrier frequency, with the BFO, is always a hit and miss process.
Yeah I saw some of this stuff in a book on radio-telephony (as it was called) and I was thinking "that's SSB... Only with an alternator en passive modulators" and was flabbergasted, the book was from 1919! Some phase-modulation was in there as well, it's incredible what they did just using passive components.
Absolutely enjoyed this video thanks ...
Nice video, but there is a significant error: Without a sideband selection switch, the W2EWL Cheap and Simple SSB rig cannot produce the 75 meter LSB signal and 20 meter USB signal described around the 34 minute mark in the video. This is an important point -- this belief forms the basis for a serious misunderstanding of the origin of the LSB/USB convention that we have today. I hope AWA will correct the video, and that AWA will help find out where the current "LSB below 10 MHz, USB above 10 MHz convention" really comes from. 73 Bill N2CQR
Hello Bill: Thank you for your kind words. I have been made aware of the USB/LSB problem with the W2EWL rig by yourself and others and the original Powerpoint has been corrected. Now, I also join you in wondering where the LSB/USB versus band usage was generated. And the search begins again... Mni thanks and 73 Ed K2MP
Don't forget RL Drake who brought us 1A and then the 2B..... And my for love TR3 transceiver. I used a 1A and fell in love-- Drake must have had some extra oscilloscope cabinets put that receiver in. I had a 2B and a 2BQ nice add-on. The 2B should be an excellent receiver only for ham radio but I fear the little red slide switches maybe have died. With my TR3, I became a RL Drake man and had a TR7 and two R7s and all of the matching accessories except for the telephone connection and the RF amplifier. Sadly Drake son got a stereo manufacturer to design the front panel of the TR7 which looked more like a stereo and probably killed the line.. It was beautifully made with interchangeable card cage construction. New folks, get a 7 and look inside to see what I mean.
I have a 75S3 receiver and the KWM2A and accessories. They do work, bit I tend to just sit and look in admiration at them. I do like owning the top of the line and have IC-7800, FT-9000, and a K3. Those big companies making ham gear today have been hit by SDR and China cut rate prices, I guess. My 80 years reduce my operating time and I no longer try to keep up.
I recall the w2ewl arc command conversion. Purchased the transformers from Howard Goldberg W2iek of Arrow and built it. Howie was a friend of my father. But never got it operable. Bill w2eas who lived near me built his and got mine to work. I was 15 years old them. So many memories. W2HP
I bought a Icom 7300 back in April. I haven't even turned it on yet. I'm still trying to find the vacuum tubes. They must be small enough to fit under the circuit board..
Good subject to cover, Ed
👍 as a "new" ham (2011) this was great.
Great ending! Thanks.
In the early 1970's Communications Associates Inc. (CAI) in Huntington Ststion, NY was almost 10 years ahead of Harris with the first synthesized marine HF radio.
Howie AB2S
Howie et al:
This video brought back so many memories! --And some amazing coincidences.
I attended Johns Hopkins University as an undergraduate, beginning in 1960. On the third floor was a guy from Libertyville, IL who roomed with my friend and fellow ham, K3CUW.
That guy was named Joe Batchelor. And yes-- his dad was the Joe Batchelor who had invented the broadband tuning innovation of the Central Electronics 100V transmitter. By 1960, the dad was already at Hallicrafters. His dad was a distinguished-looking guy with a goatee, who drove a Mercedes sedan. But the dad and his two sons were also hot-rod car guys. They had put a Chevy 265 V-8 into that Merc, and had balanced the pistons so the engine would turn very high RPM. It was very fast from a cold start. Joe Jr. used to brag about the fact that his dad would come to a stoplight and when a kid in a hot car would pull up alongside him in the next lane, his dad took great pleasure in leaving the kid behind when the light turned.
But, back to radio coincidences. Howie mentioned CAI--- but didnt mention that the company was co-founded by the engineers and management who had formed Eldico earlier. I worked at CAI during my summers and vacations on Long Island. The Chief Engineer was a Swiss electrical engineer named Werner Brach, and the CEO was named Don Merten. The VP and senior radio engineer was Everett Gibbs, W2FI-- who gave me my Novice ham radio exam in 1956. I worked building many commercial receivers and transmitters that CAI sold to various commercial entities. One of the most interesting at the time was a breadboard teaching tool--- a large vertically-oriented panel on a wheeled cart, that had the whole SSB signal path shown, with test points at many locations that could be used by the instructor to demonstrate the frequency and waveform at each step in the radio.
All that gear in those days was wired with discrete components, and the wiring harness was hand-laid to interconnect everything in the chassis. I learned how to do all that stuff, and also was a tech in the lab where I learned how to tune a crystal filter for the desired passband shape.
I am still a ham radio operator [K2TNO] and -despite the plug for SSB above, prefer high speed CW.
73 to all----
Bill
Hi Bill, I just learned of the Eldico connection last week when I went to lunch with a former co-worker who was also at CAI, Walt Perloski K2IBR. He loaned me his catalog of CAI equipment brochures which I am scanning to put online somewhere. I worked at CAI from 1974 to 1976. I knew Werner from CAI and worked with him at another company started by former CAI people. Sadly Werner passed away a few years ago.
looking into CE's 100V & 200V marvels, just wondering why nobody (as I know) have yet came with that output broadband couplers recipe.... were done with 1kUSD plate caps and coils for linear AMP construction
Back when SSB radios were new and cost a fortune, the wealthy guys were the first to buy them. About 40 hams were in the local club. Everyone showed up for the inaugural SSB contacts. There were people crowding the room and standing outside looking through the doors and windows. As one of the men who was there told me “we did not what to expect. Half were excited and half said it will never work.” I think everything that’s new does that to human beings. 😂
Ed - Your statement at time hack 35:16 is inaccurate regarding Collins Radio and SSB: "Collins Radio was not first nor very innovative, but had aggressive marketing". Some Collins innovations in SSB technology include (1) the Collins Mechanical Filter for high selectivity in transmitters and receivers; (2) the Permeability Tuned Oscillator for linear tuning, accuracy, and stability; and (3) RF feedback techniques for high linearity in RF Power Amplifiers. Almost all of the Collins engineers, managers, and marketing (including Arthur Collins) involved with HF SSB development were also active radio amateurs. The Collins 75A-4 and KWS-1, introduced in March 1955, incorporated these and other technical advancements.
Outstanding. i learned a lot.Tom,Petaluma CA
Ive wondered a long time about this.
Very nice video
Yes, very interesting, my early days started in 1960, 1961, Hallicrafters
SX-110 Receiver at Radio Shack for
$169.95, at 17 years old, and becoming
a ham, novice, in 1962, almost 60 years
ago, as WV2ZPD, on 2 meter AM, with
a Heathkit Twoer, and built an Eico 720
Novice 75 watts and Crystal controlled.
I also built the Eico 730 modulator with
a green eye to see the AM modulation,
using 40 M crystal to go to 10 Meters
AM, and remember W2PSU, in NJ, was
a mobile contact. I saw Barry Goldwater
at 1964 ARRL convention, in NYC, when
he was a Presidential candidate. My first use of HF SSB was at Field Day in
the 1960's on the Collins KW2M, as I
remember. 73 de W2CH, ex WV2ZPD,
WA2ZPD, WB7EGN, WB1BTO and V25CH, in Antigua 🇦🇬
Hello Ray. Thanks for your interesting response and the telling of your long career. Your WV2 callsign was a rare short lived FCC issue. Stay well and keep active. 73 Ed K2MP
@@edwardgable8583 Thanks 😊, Yes the
WV2ZPD call as a novice lasted only
for one year. 73 de W2CH Ray
Outstanding, good job Ed.
I know you! Thanks Randy for the kind words. Anybody reading this should look up K7AGE's many writings and TH-cam videos on electronic history. You will be entertained and educated on many levels. 73, /Ed K2MP
Thanks for XF9B!
I gave up my SX99, 2B, Johnson Viking Valiant or the new Drake TR3 as soon as I could get it.
Great history lesson! A 3 mile long antenna! Holy shite! 73 W8XDX
Marketing photos haven't gotten any better. When I worked at a turbine engine company, I recall a photo taken in the control room of a engine test cell. I showed an operator at the control apparently running the engine. Through the armored widow there's a technician with hearing protection apparently making an adjustment. As a test engineer everything wrong just screamed that whoever staged this didn't have a clue and likely didn't care. All the instrument readouts on the control console made it obvious that it wasn't running and things weren't even hooking up. If that wasn't enough of a clue that the operator was play acting, through the window you could see a plywood cover on the engine exhaust.
How many times do you see online ads or stories where the picture seems to have no correlation the the caption beneath it?
You say how much power was used, but unless I missed it, what frequency was used in the 1923, 1927 and other tests please?
Hello Peter: The early transatlantic telephone tests were at VLF, around 50 kHz, using the long wave antennas at RCA's Rocky Point site. When the service really got running they moved first to low HF and then to multi-band day/night frequencies. Ed K2MP
@@edwardgable8583 Thank you for the info Ed. 73's GW4NFJ
I used the Swan 250C for 6 meters, about 50 years ago.
Oh, yes. We used to call those the "drifty 250" Nice to hear from you,
Ray. 73 Ed K2MP
It might have been advantageous for AT&T to have a 17 year delay.
Scotland is well known for “beverages” (scotch).😮
How could it be that SSB started in the way that it did? I do not get it? They were using, what, AM, for telegraph? And they figured out way back then that SSB was a thing and it was better?
Side bands are literally the "side bands" of AM 🤷
@@RobBob555 yes, but not an answer
@@RobBob555correct
R4B the B stands for Best
1911 who knew ? w6wuh
#POW KEESLER 338
Short pants , long socks ! lol
SpongeBob square pants!
Government Acquisition, Kabul, 2019, --no IF! No AM, no HF , and no VPN .
NO WIRES ON CW LOL
ETVS
#POW SAYS 2E1X3 x5
Wonderful video, thank you so much. N5RXP