CQ CQ CQ DE SOWP
Society of Wireless Pioneer News Updates
Spud Roscoe a Silent Key (posted January 1, 2024)
It is our sad duty to note that Spuds Roscoe, 2301-M, VE1BC became a silent key on December 28th at Halifax. His professional radio career began in 1957 aboard the HMCS Gloucester (CGV) and continued with more than a dozen other ship, the RCMP, and Halifax Coast Guard Radio (VCS). An avid amateur radio operator affiliated with many organizations, Spud was also a historian and author of three books on radio history. He will be missed.
New Book of Interest (posted November 12, 2023)
Award-winning author and CHRS member Valarie J. Anderson has a new book, Sparks in the Ether: A True Story About a Pioneer Radioman, that tells the story of her grandfather, George Street. Navigating the rough seas of the early 20th century, he encountered the Lindberghs and FDR, witnessed an assassination attempt on the Japanese emperor, “scooped” the Manchurian Incident, and was ravaged with polio while in Japan. Faced with financial ruin, foreign doctors and immobility, he married his Russian mistress. Then his family betrayed him. Sparks in the Ether is available at Amazon, Google Books, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookstore. Highly recommended!
SOUTH AMERICAN RADIO HISTORY (posted August 16, 2023)
Author and electronics historian Carlos Fazano, PU2KFZ, has published 2 books of interest to our website viewers. The first, The Thermionic Age in Brazil, covers the vacuum tube industry in Brazil from the early days of importing foreign technology to the large scale, nationalized television production (eg, the Philco-Brasil Predicta), with many photographs. His second book, Carving Out the Way to the Solid-State Domain: A Brief History of Semiconductor Making in Brazil, explains the history of this technology from the time of crystal radios to today’s hi-tech semiconductor fabrication. Those interested in radio history beyond U.S. shores will want to check these out.
WORLD WIRELESS BEACON NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE (posted May 18, 2023)
NEWS FLASH: We’ve started working with the Internet Archive to make more SOWP material publicly available. As a result, you can now easily find all 59 issues of the World Wireless Beacon, from 1989 to 2006 (more than 1000 pages of radio history!) online and search away to your heart’s content. Just type go to this link. Special thanks go out to Kay Savetz, K6KJN, for helping make this possible.
SOWP CW Net News (posted April 27, 2023)
SOWP CW Net News – Dick Singer, K6KSG, 662-M, gives the latest scoop about the SOWP 20m and 40m nets and invites all decent CW operators to give them a try, and fills us in on how the SOWP archives came to CHRS and this website. Read all about it.
SoWP Archive Update (posted November 23, 2022)
This website shows only a small percentage of the records that were left to us by the Society of Wireless Pioneers. There’s much, much more and we’re working to make it available to anyone (historians, radio collectors, etc.) who might be interested.
We recently completed the first phase of organizing the SoWP archives, sorting each letter, article, photo, artifact, etc. into one of 54 categories from Amateur Radio to Wireless Women. We’re into phase 2, which involves alphabetizing, indexing, and posting indices for the following categories: COMPANIES, MEMBERS, NON-MEMBERS, and STATIONS. The first 3 and list of categories have now been posted at the hyperlink above. An index of members, the biggest category, should be available in early 2023.
In addition, thanks to Brian Harrison, KN4R, we now host a digital copy of the Hugo Leuteritz Archives. Hugo was the chief communication engineer for Pan Am in its early years and a real force in aviation radio. Thanks to Brian we’ll be able to post articles of interest to our website viewers. So thank you Brian, and thanks to our supporters!
SoWP net frequency change (posted February 9, 2020)
From Dick Singer on February 7, 2020:
“To all Society of Wireless Pioneers members past and present;
Due to the heavy QRN on 14.055 MHz on Thursdays at 1500 GMT, I have decided to move the net down to 14.044 MHz plus or minus QRM 1 kHz. The 14.055 MHz frequency has been taken over by the SKCC group (Straight Key Century Club), and the QRM has been too difficult to run the net. The band conditions as well have been a real challenge at times. So as time goes on hopefully the conditions will improve. Please keep in mind that with time changes we will be on at 08:00 Pacific Time or at 15:00 GMT Daylight Standard time or when Daylight Savings time @ 15:00 GMT. The local time will still be constant at 08:00 Pacific Time no matter the time change. All are welcome to check in with us. We are trying to keep the SoWP/CHRS CW net going, for our past members that are SK worked hard to maintain the CW nets going on the ham bands. Thank you and see you on the net THursdays on 14.044 kHz +/- 1 kHz QRM.”
Maritime Memories by Spurgeon “Spud” Roscoe (posted August 29, 2019)
SoWP member “Spud” Roscoe (VE1BC, 2301-M) has now made his book Maritime Memories available for free download in many electronic formats at this link. We highly recommend this account of maritime radio history, which D.J. Ring, Jr. (N1EA, 3709-M) described as “an excellent read, well written by a master storyteller”.
Have you read “Thunderstruck”? (posted April 21, 2019)
Of interest to SoWP enthusiasts, Erik Larson’s book “Thunderstruck” recounts the early days of wireless telegraphy, interweaving the tale of Marconi’s battles with skeptics, distinguished scientists (who said it couldn’t be done), and wired cable companies to make transatlantic wireless communication possible with the story of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, convicted of murdering his wife and dismembering her body. After boarding the Montrose to flee to Canada with his new love interest, the Captain recognized Crippen and contacted Scotland Yard by wireless. There followed a trans-Atlantic pursuit breathlessly followed by newspaper readers worldwide (and just about everyone but Crippen) that presented the power of Marconi’s invention to the general public probably for the first time. The book is well written and researched, even going so far as to include the Massie & Underhill volume among the references. Well worth reading!
But according to CHRS Chief Archivist Bart Lee, that’s not the end of the story. Later DNA research showed that the body buried in the pathway of Dr. Crippen’s surgery WAS NOT HIS WIFE. See the ABA Journal and BBC news stories on this. A case worthy of Sherlock Holmes, you say? Actually, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle attended the trial.
Website photo reorganization (posted April 6, 2019)
Now hear this… To avoid long page load times and make photos easier to find, we will be transitioning our “Misc photos” page to 3 new pages: Photos – People, Photos – Places, and Photos- Equipment. This will take a few weeks, so be patient. If you have any problems finding what you’re looking for, just contact us at the links on the bottom of the Home page. That is all.
SS Marine Electric Disaster TV Episode (posted January 20, 2019)
Followers of the Society of Wireless Pioneers website may be interested in an upcoming episode of “Disasters at Sea” on the Smithsonian Channel. “Deadly Neglect” chronicles the wreck of the SS Marine Electric, which resulted in deaths of 31 sailors, including radio operator Albion F. Lane, whose name is now engraved on the Wireless Operators Monument in New York thanks to the Veteran Wireless Operators Association
Spud Roscoe, 2301-M, documents wireless history (posted January 9, 2019)
Society member and amateur radio operator S.G. “Spud” Roscoe, VE1BC, continues his in depth examination of Nova Scotia maritime wireless history. You can find much of this on his website, which is well worth checking out. Spud hopes to self-publish a number of books on the subject.
Welcome Back, SoWP Members! (posted December 19, 2018)
We’ve recently been in touch with 19 (!) members of the Society of Wireless Pioneers, like David Eisenberger, 4522-M (shown above), and are happy to make their re-acquaintance. If you were a member just let us know by clicking on one of the contact links at the bottom of the home page. We’d be glad to hear from you.
SOWP Members Ride Out Hurricane (posted November 26, 2018)
Speaking of old acquaintances, when we learned that two SoWP members, Jon R. Benson, 4553-M (KB3XY) and Gary Ferguson (KN4IUK) lived in Panama City, Florida, we kept our fingers crossed that they were still “alive and kickin” after Hurricane Michael came through. The news was filled with reports of how it had leveled whole sections of the city.
But these seasoned mariners managed to ride out another “blow”, if shoreside this time rather than at sea. Jon reported that although the 155 mph winds took out his porch and some roofing shingles, he and Gary made it through OK. In fact, they drove around and documented the devastation on DVD. We’re thankful that the damage wasn’t much worse, as it was for many victims, and may post some photos in the future.
Hans Buehler, 3028-V, Now a Silent Key (posted August 9, 2018)
It’s our sad duty to report the passing of Hans Buehler, a long-time member of the SoWP Edelweiss Chapter in Switzerland, on July 27th at the age of 77. Hans had been involved in amateur radio since 1958, and held the callsign HB9XJ. His commercial radio activities began in 1963. He was a radio operator on a number of ships, including the MS Ariana, as shown below from a 1979 Sparks Journal. Our condolences go out to his friends and family.
Long Lost Society Brethren Found – Alive and Kicking! (posted July 27, 2018)
William Breniman founded the Society of Wireless Pioneers in 1968. William Breniman had founded the Society of Airway Pioneers in 1958. We only recently became aware of this and also that SoAP is an active organization with nearly 500 members! Their membership consists of those who are or had been involved in the Federal Airways System and those who were crew members, dispatchers, or DOD Air Traffic Personnel. Check out their website at this link. We’ll keep you posted on this remarkable intersection of aviation and wireless interests.
CHRS Radio Day By the Bay (posted July 23, 2018)
The California Historical Radio Society’s Radio Day by the Bay was again a success thanks to the many volunteers and patrons who showed their unwavering support. Ye Ed picked up a classic R3 horn speaker from Magnavox of Oakland on which to monitor 600 meter distress calls. So far, fortunately, none have been heard. Thank you, and we’ll start looking forward to Radio Day by the Bay 2019!
Sad News: Joseph Lodato, 4402-V now SK (posted July 1, 2018)
Joseph Lodato, 4402-V