What changed
A short history of amateur radio — edited Sep 5, 2026 by Unknown editor
Compared with the version from Aug 31, 2026. Note: Imported from content/wiki
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shortened to HAM; there is no contemporary evidence for it. And "ham" is not an acronym for
anything, which is why it is properly written lower-case.
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## Wars, and the transatlantic tests
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## Organizing, and the transatlantic tests
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- **1917** — Congress ordered all US amateurs off the air for the First World War, and required
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equipment to be dismantled. Amateur operation resumed on 1 October 1919.
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- **1914** — Hiram Percy Maxim and Clarence Tuska founded the American Radio Relay League to link
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amateur relay routes into a national network; *QST* began publishing in December 1915. See
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[how amateurs organized themselves](/wiki/radio-history/organizing-the-service).
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- **1917** — about 6,000 US amateurs were licensed, and the code test had risen to 10 wpm, when
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Congress ordered them all off the air for the First World War and required equipment to be
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dismantled — the Navy banned even receiving. Amateurs were back on the air in the fall of 1919,
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helped by Marconi and Ambrose Fleming arguing publicly that the service was worth keeping.
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- **1920** — Eunice Randall was announcing and engineering at 1XE near Boston at nineteen, built her
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own amateur station, and became one of the first women in New England to hold a first-class
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license — 1CDP, later W1MPP. See [women in amateur radio](/wiki/people/women-in-amateur-radio).
- **1921** — American amateurs challenged British counterparts to hear them across the Atlantic.
US signals were copied in the UK, and in December 1922 a British amateur was heard in the US.
- **27 November 1923** — the first two-way transatlantic amateur contact, between Fred Schnell in
the US and Léon Deloy in France. Within a year, contacts spanned the Americas, New Zealand and
Britain.
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- **1927–28** — the first International Radiotelegraph Conference in Washington established the
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amateur bands at 80/75, 40, 20 and 10 meters and the call-sign prefix system still in use.
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- **1923** — WWV began broadcasting the time and frequency standards amateurs calibrated against,
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and the following year US amateurs received bands at 80, 40, 20 and 5 meters.
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- **1925** — national societies founded the International Amateur Radio Union in Paris, which still
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represents the service at the International Telecommunication Union. In 1926 Brandon Wentworth,
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6OI, confirmed contacts with every continent.
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- **1927–28** — the Radio Act created the Federal Radio Commission and 10 meters opened to amateurs,
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while the International Radiotelegraph Conference in Washington set the call-sign prefix system
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still in use.
- **1933** — Robert Moore, W6DEI, began single-sideband voice experiments on 75 meters.
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- **1941–45** — amateur operation was suspended again for the Second World War; the War Emergency
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Radio Service used amateur skills at home, and afterwards surplus military sets such as the ARC-5
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filled thousands of shacks.
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- **1934** — the Communications Act created the FCC, and amateur licenses were reorganized into
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Class A, B and C. By 1936 there were about 46,000 licensed amateurs. See
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[a history of US licensing](/wiki/radio-history/licensing-history).
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- **1941** — amateurs donated scarce components to the military by the crateful, joined a Civilian
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Technical Corps maintaining British radar, and received phone privileges on 40 meters for the
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first time when the Army needed 80.
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- **1941–45** — amateur operation was suspended again for the Second World War, with some 15,000 US
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amateurs in uniform by 1942; the War Emergency Radio Service used amateur skills at home, and
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afterwards surplus military sets such as the ARC-5 filled thousands of shacks.
## The modern service
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- **1950s** — amateurs pioneered single-sideband for HF voice, and kept US personnel in Antarctica
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in touch with home during the International Geophysical Year.
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- **1945** — *CQ* began publishing, giving the service a second national magazine alongside *QST*.
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- **1950s** — the US amateur population neared 90,000; amateurs pioneered single-sideband for HF
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voice, kept US personnel in Antarctica in touch with home during the International Geophysical
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Year, and in 1952 the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) was created for amateurs
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serving civil-defense authorities.
- **1961** — OSCAR 1, the first amateur satellite, launched four years after Sputnik and started a
worldwide series. See [satellites](/wiki/operating/satellites).
- **1979** — the World Administrative Radio Conference added 30, 17 and 12 meters, still called the
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WARC bands.
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WARC bands. Nine years later amateurs lost 220–222 MHz to land mobile — see
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[amateurs and the spectrum](/wiki/radio-history/spectrum-defense).
- **1970s–80s** — repeaters and FM handhelds made local operating routine, and packet radio put
automated digital messaging on the air before most people had internet.
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- **1977** — 327,000 US amateurs were licensed. In 1984 the ten-year license replaced the five-year
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term and the FCC began handing examining to Volunteer Examiners.
- **1990s** — PCs and sound cards brought PSK31, DSP and software-defined radio into ordinary
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stations.
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stations. The FCC created the no-code Technician in 1991, with Technician Plus for those who had
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passed the 5 wpm test; in 1999 the last North American coast stations working Morse closed down.
- **2003–07** — the WRC allowed member countries to drop Morse testing; the FCC removed it for all
US license classes effective 23 February 2007. Morse remains popular by choice — see
[CW and Morse](/wiki/operating/cw-and-morse).
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Through it all, amateurs have carried traffic when other systems failed: the September 11 attacks,
Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and Hurricane Maria, where the Red Cross requested
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50 amateur operators for Puerto Rico. See [emergency communications](/wiki/emergency).
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50 amateur operators for Puerto Rico. That habit has been organized since the Amateur Radio
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Emergency Corps of 1935 — see
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[a history of amateur emergency service](/wiki/radio-history/emergency-service-history).
## The bargain
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## Sources and further reading
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- [AC6V's amateur radio history](https://ac6v.com/history.php) — Rod Dinkins, AC6V (SK): a
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year-by-year chronology of the service, and the source for several license counts here.
- [History of amateur radio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_amateur_radio) — Wikipedia;
the general overview this page draws its chronology from.
- [Ham Radio History (W2PA)](https://w2pa.net/HRH/) — Chris Codella, W2PA: a century of amateur
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