From Marconi to the Moon

The history of the Radio Corporation of America is inseparable from the history of radio itself. RCA began as a strategically created American communications company, grew into a broadcasting and electronics empire, and employed generations of engineers whose professional work frequently overlapped with amateur radio.

Some were licensed radio amateurs, including Harold Beverage, W2BML; Clarence Tuska, 1WD; Walter Maxwell, W2DU; Wendell Morrison, W7LLX; Murray Crosby, W2CSY; and Edmund Laport, 1CBO. Other RCA engineers invented antennas and circuits that remain familiar to hams. The folded dipole, Beverage antenna, Lindenblad antenna, turnstile array, diversity reception and many transmission-line techniques all have RCA connections.

Historical note: amateur call signs changed as licensing systems and call districts evolved. Where useful, both an early and a later call are shown. People without a reliably documented amateur call are identified separately.

Before RCA: American Marconi

The story begins in November 1899, when articles of incorporation were filed in New Jersey for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, generally known as American Marconi. It was the American subsidiary of Guglielmo Marconi’s British company and controlled important Marconi patents in the United States.

American Marconi initially concentrated on ship-to-shore and transoceanic wireless telegraphy. Its stations communicated mainly in Morse code using spark transmitters, large aerials and relatively insensitive receivers. After acquiring United Wireless in 1912, the company possessed dozens of coastal stations and hundreds of ship installations. Wireless had become essential to maritime safety, commerce and naval operations. See the Library of Congress Marconi timeline and the Hagley American Marconi archive.

David Sarnoff joined American Marconi as an office boy in 1906. He learned telegraphy, became a radio operator and advanced into technical and commercial management. Sarnoff was a professional wireless operator rather than a typical amateur, but his early life at the key gave him an instinctive understanding of radio operators and their technology.

During the First World War, the United States Navy took control of American radio stations. After the war, naval officials were concerned that strategically important transatlantic communications would return to a company controlled from Britain.

The Alexanderson Alternator and the Creation of RCA

At the same time, General Electric had developed Ernst Alexanderson’s high-frequency alternator. Unlike a spark transmitter, the alternator generated a continuous radio-frequency wave and could deliver very high power at very-low frequencies.

British Marconi wanted to purchase GE’s alternators. On 8 April 1919, US Navy representatives asked GE not to sell the technology to the foreign-controlled Marconi companies. The Navy instead encouraged GE to acquire American Marconi and establish an American-controlled international communications company. This sequence is documented in the Sarnoff Collection’s RCA timeline.

The Radio Corporation of America was incorporated on 17 October 1919. On 20 November it acquired the assets of American Marconi and entered into a patent-sharing agreement with GE. AT&T, Westinghouse and United Fruit later joined the arrangement, creating a powerful pool of radio patents, manufacturing capacity and operating rights. See the Hagley RCA collection.

SAQ Grimeton: A Living Alexanderson Alternator

The best surviving connection to RCA’s founding story is radio station SAQ at Grimeton, Sweden.

Grimeton’s 200-kilowatt Alexanderson alternator entered commercial service on 1 December 1924. Its messages crossed the Atlantic to RCA’s receiving station at Riverhead, Long Island. Replies were transmitted from RCA Radio Central at Rocky Point. SAQ was therefore a European terminal of the communications network for which RCA had been created.

The original alternator at Grimeton is the only machine of its kind in the world that remains operational. It is preserved and periodically activated by the World Heritage organisation and the Alexander Association, assisted by dedicated technicians, radio amateurs and other volunteers.

On special occasions the alternator still transmits Morse code on 17.2 kHz. The associated amateur station, SK6SAQ, operates on amateur frequencies and introduces visitors to amateur radio and telegraphy. SAQ is thus a remarkable meeting point between industrial radio history and today’s amateur-radio community. See Grimeton’s Alexanderson Day information and the Swedish Amateur Radio Association’s account of the RCA circuit.

Radio Central and RCA’s First Laboratory

RCA opened Radio Central at Rocky Point, Long Island, on 5 November 1921. The transmitting site was connected by telephone lines to the receiving station at Riverhead and to RCA’s traffic office in New York City.

Rocky Point employed two enormous Alexanderson alternators, extensive counterpoise systems and a flat-top antenna supported by six towers. President Warren Harding inaugurated the system with a radiogram that was acknowledged by stations in numerous countries.

Radio Central soon became much more than an operating station. It was also a laboratory for high-power vacuum-tube transmitters, shortwave propagation, directional antennas, diversity reception, facsimile and single-sideband communication. The facility and its accomplishments are described in IEEE Spectrum’s history of RCA Radio Central.

One of RCA’s earliest research facilities was remarkably informal: a tent in which Harold Beverage and Philip Carter performed antenna and propagation experiments. From these beginnings came work that is still discussed in amateur-radio antenna books.

Harold Beverage, W2BML, and the Beverage Antenna

Harold H. Beverage is best known today as the inventor and namesake of the Beverage antenna.

Beverage, whose amateur call was 2BML and later W2BML, began experimenting with radio as a teenager. After working with Alexanderson at GE, he became responsible for RCA’s transoceanic receiving development at Riverhead.

The problem was atmospheric noise. At long- and medium-wave frequencies, increasing receiver sensitivity was of little use when static and interference were much stronger than the desired signal. Beverage discovered that a long horizontal wire, installed relatively close to the ground and terminated at its far end with a resistance, could produce strongly directional reception.

His US Patent 1,381,089, “Radio Receiving System”, was filed on 10 April 1920 and granted on 7 June 1921. The patent described a horizontal travelling-wave receiving antenna with directive and selective properties.

Modern low-band DX stations often use several Beverages aimed in different directions, sometimes combined in phased arrays. More than a century after the patent was granted, the antenna is still constructed almost exactly according to Beverage’s principle. See the ARRL article “The Beverage Antenna, 100 Years Later”.

Beverage and Harold O. Peterson also developed diversity reception. They found that shortwave fading was not identical at antennas separated by several hundred metres. Signals from multiple receivers could therefore be selected or combined so that reception continued when one path faded.

Their RCA Patent 1,819,589 described methods of receiving the same signal with geographically separated antennas and combining the results while avoiding destructive phase cancellation. The same general principle survives in space, frequency and polarisation diversity used by modern radio links, mobile networks and Wi-Fi.

From Communications Company to Broadcasting Empire

RCA initially sold equipment manufactured by GE and Westinghouse while operating international radiotelegraph services. Broadcasting soon transformed its business.

RCA acquired New York station WJZ and, after purchasing WEAF from AT&T, formed the National Broadcasting Company in 1926. NBC began network broadcasting on 15 November of that year. Radio was no longer mainly a point-to-point service between trained operators. It had become a mass medium carrying news, music, drama and advertising into millions of homes. See the Library of Congress NBC history.

In 1929 RCA acquired the Victor Talking Machine Company. The combination created RCA Victor and gave RCA phonographs, recording studios, record production and the famous “His Master’s Voice” trademark.

RCA subsequently became a major force in:

• radio receivers and transmitting equipment;
• vacuum tubes;
• sound recording and motion-picture sound;
• national radio and television broadcasting;
• radar and military electronics;
• television cameras and picture tubes;
• semiconductor devices and computers;
• weather and communications satellites; and
• spacecraft communication and antenna systems.

In 1949 RCA Victor introduced the seven-inch 45-rpm record and compact record changers designed around it. The format remains in production, particularly for singles, jukeboxes and specialist releases. The Smithsonian preserves an RCA 45-rpm turntable from this period.

Why RCA Attracted Radio Amateurs

RCA’s affinity with amateur radio was practical rather than promotional. Early professional and amateur radio required almost the same skills: Morse code, receiver construction, transmitter adjustment, propagation observation, antenna experimentation and the ability to diagnose equipment with limited instruments.

Many young amateurs entered professional radio because their home-built stations had already taught them the fundamentals. Walter Maxwell later observed that every full-time position in his career resulted from an association with amateur radio.

The relationship continued inside RCA. Technical articles written by RCA engineers appeared in QST, the Proceedings of the IRE, RCA Review and later RCA Engineer. Employees formed radio clubs, exchanged construction ideas and participated in emergency communications.

The David Sarnoff Radio Club was organised in 1975 for employees of RCA Laboratories near Princeton. Its former station was WR2AJC. The club subsequently became a regional organisation and now operates as N2RE, but many members worked at RCA, Sarnoff Laboratories or SRI. See the David Sarnoff Radio Club’s history.

Notable Radio Amateurs Who Worked at RCA

Harold H. Beverage — W2BML

Beverage united professional communications research with the instincts of a radio amateur. His Beverage antenna remains one of the few century-old patented antenna systems still routinely built by hams.

He also contributed to propagation research, diversity reception and large international receiving systems. RCA eventually made him chief research engineer and later vice-president of research and development at RCA Communications.

Clarence D. Tuska — 1WD, Later 1AY

Clarence Tuska was one of the founders of the American Radio Relay League. Working with Hiram Percy Maxim, he helped organise the relay system that allowed amateur messages to travel beyond the range of an individual station.

Tuska was also the first editor and original owner of QST. He sold the magazine to the ARRL in 1919 as he moved towards a professional career in radio manufacturing, engineering and patent law.

He joined RCA in 1935 and eventually became Director of Patent Operations. His career is an unusually direct connection between the foundation of organised amateur radio and RCA’s enormous patent organisation. Tuska also interviewed Walter Maxwell for his position at RCA Laboratories, linking one generation of amateur-radio pioneers with another.

M. Walter Maxwell — W2DU

Walter Maxwell, W2DU, joined RCA Laboratories in 1949 and later became responsible for the antenna laboratory and test range of RCA’s Astro-Electronics Division.

More than 30 spacecraft used antennas designed solely by Maxwell. His work included:

• ECHO I;
• early TIROS, ESSA and NOAA weather satellites;
• RCA SATCOM communications satellites;
• search-and-rescue satellite antennas;
• Project SCORE ground and spacecraft systems;
• pre-launch antenna systems at Cape Canaveral; and
• assistance with the television antenna used on the Apollo lunar rover.

To amateurs, Maxwell is best known for his QST series “Another Look at Reflections” and the later book Reflections: Transmission Lines and Antennas. He challenged persistent myths about SWR, reflected power, antenna tuners and transmission-line loss.

His name also survives in the W2DU current balun: a coaxial choke made with ferrite beads placed over the transmission line. Maxwell’s professional spacecraft work and amateur writing were different expressions of the same interest in what RF currents actually do. See the ARRL biography of W2DU.

Wendell C. Morrison — W7LLX

Wendell Morrison, W7LLX, worked for RCA throughout his professional career. With George H. Brown, he developed the RCA Antennalyzer during the 1940s.

The Antennalyzer was an analogue computing instrument for designing multi-tower directional AM arrays. Engineers entered tower spacing, current, phase and orientation using controls, while the calculated radiation pattern appeared on an oscilloscope.

A desired pattern could be drawn on the screen with a grease pencil. The controls were then adjusted until the electronic trace matched it. Calculations that had previously taken weeks could be performed in minutes.

Modern antenna-modelling software performs the same task digitally, but the Antennalyzer was an important ancestor of computer-assisted antenna design. See the ARRL biography of W7LLX.

Murray G. Crosby — W2CSY

Murray Crosby, W2CSY, worked at RCA’s Riverhead laboratory from 1927 until 1944. His research concentrated on frequency and phase modulation, propagation, receiver noise and circuit design.

Crosby produced nearly 200 patents and published in RCA Review, the Proceedings of the IRE and amateur-radio literature. His work helped engineers understand the weak-signal threshold behaviour of FM receivers—phenomena familiar to anyone who has listened to an FM signal suddenly emerge from, or disappear into, noise.

After RCA, Crosby founded his own laboratory and developed the Crosby FM stereo multiplex system. It was not selected as the final US broadcast standard, but it was a serious technical contender and part of the engineering debate that produced compatible FM stereo. See his IEEE/ETHW biography.

Edmund A. Laport — 1CBO

Edmund Laport was an amateur operator in his teens and is listed in Radio Club of America historical material with the call 1CBO. He later became an RCA engineer, manager and director of communications engineering.

Laport installed major transmitters in China and Italy, managed wartime RCA engineering in Canada and lectured on antenna engineering at McGill University. His 1952 book Radio Antenna Engineering became a classic practical treatment of long wires, V antennas, rhombics, arrays, transmission lines and high-power HF systems.

Although written for commercial engineers, much of the book remains useful to amateurs interested in large wire antennas and lower-frequency operation. See his contemporary IRE profile and the Edmund Laport fonds at Library and Archives Canada.

Other RCA Engineers with Major Amateur-Radio Relevance

The following RCA engineers do not have a securely verified amateur call in the sources used here. Their work nevertheless appears throughout amateur-radio practice.

Philip S. Carter and the Folded Dipole

Philip Staats Carter worked with Beverage during the early wave-antenna experiments and joined RCA in 1920. He helped design the VLF antennas at Rocky Point and later worked on high-frequency directive arrays.

Carter pioneered RCA’s rhombic-antenna work and patented the folded dipole. His US Patent 2,283,914 was filed in 1937 and granted in 1942.

The folded dipole remains common as a wide-band radiator and as the driven element in VHF and UHF Yagi antennas. Its approximately 300-ohm feed impedance also matched the twin-lead traditionally used for television and amateur installations.

Nils E. Lindenblad and the Satellite “Lindy”

Nils Lindenblad joined RCA in 1920 and became one of the company’s most prolific inventors, receiving more than 300 patents. His work included antennas, travelling-wave tubes, television transmission and thermoelectric cooling.

His name survives in the Lindenblad antenna. The array uses four inclined dipoles arranged around a vertical axis to produce an approximately omnidirectional pattern with useful circular-polarisation properties.

The design was developed for broadcasting, but modern versions are especially popular with amateur-satellite operators. A fixed Lindenblad can receive low-Earth-orbit satellites without azimuth and elevation rotators, making it attractive for portable and beginner satellite stations. See AMSAT’s Lindenblad construction article and Lindenblad’s RCA antenna patent.

George H. Brown and the Turnstile Antenna

George Brown joined RCA in 1933. His US Patent 2,086,976 described the turnstile antenna: crossed horizontal radiators energised in phase quadrature.

Turnstile and crossed-dipole antennas became important in FM, television and satellite communication. Similar configurations remain common for amateur satellites, weather satellites and circularly polarised VHF/UHF systems.

Brown also developed directional broadcast-array techniques, the vestigial-sideband filter used in analogue television and, with W7LLX, the RCA Antennalyzer. He held approximately 80 US patents. See his IEEE/ETHW biography.

Harold O. Peterson and Diversity Reception

Harold Peterson worked with Beverage at Riverhead. Their measurements showed that shortwave signals often faded independently at antennas separated by relatively short distances.

The resulting diversity systems used multiple antennas and receivers so that a strong path could replace or supplement a fading path. Radio amateurs now encounter the same idea in dual-receiver transceivers, phased receiving arrays, polarisation switching and multiple-antenna digital systems.

Clarence W. Hansell

Clarence Hansell tested Alexanderson alternators at GE before joining RCA in 1920. He founded RCA’s Radio Transmission Laboratory at Rocky Point in 1925 and received more than 300 US patents during his career.

His work covered transmitters, antennas, crystal control and radio-frequency systems. Hansell’s laboratory helped turn Radio Central from an operating station into one of the most productive communications-research sites of the interwar period. See the Clarence Hansell collection at Purdue University.

RCA Inventions and Patents Whose Descendants Remain in Use

No large technology was created by a single patent. RCA’s products usually combined inventions by numerous engineers, together with licensed patents from other organisations. Nevertheless, several representative patents have clear modern descendants.

Development	Representative patent or introduction	Inventor or team	Continuing relevance
Beverage receiving antenna	US 1,381,089, 1921	Harold H. Beverage	Still used for low-noise directional reception on 160, 80 and 40 metres
Diversity reception	US 1,819,589, 1931	Harold Beverage and Harold Peterson	Multiple-antenna and diversity principles used in radio, mobile networks and Wi-Fi
Turnstile antenna	US 2,086,976, 1937	George H. Brown	Crossed-dipole and circularly polarised antennas for broadcasting and satellites
Folded dipole	US 2,283,914, 1942	Philip S. Carter	Driven elements in Yagis and numerous VHF/UHF antennas
Electron microanalysis	US 2,418,228, 1947	James Hillier	Ancestor of electron-probe material analysis and related microscopy techniques
Compatible shadow-mask colour tube	US 2,595,548, 1952	Alfred C. Schroeder	Helped establish practical RGB colour television and compatible colour broadcasting
Thin-film transistor	US 3,191,061, 1965	Paul K. Weimer	TFT arrays control the pixels in modern LCD and OLED displays
Liquid-crystal display device	US 3,499,112, 1970	George Heilmeier, Louis Zanoni and Lucian Barton	Early practical LCD; modern displays use different liquid-crystal modes but descend from this work

The RCA Connector: Famous, but Not a Simple Patent Story

The familiar RCA connector is also called the phono connector, phono plug or, in parts of Europe, the cinch connector. RCA introduced the design in its consumer equipment during the 1930s.

RCA service documentation shows it in 1937 radio-phonograph equipment. It initially provided an inexpensive way to disconnect a phonograph or internal chassis during servicing. RCA subsequently placed phono inputs on the rear of radios so that customers could add an external record player or television sound source.

The connector eventually became almost universal for:

• left and right analogue audio;
• composite and component video;
• subwoofer connections;
• coaxial S/PDIF digital audio; and
• test and laboratory equipment.

Its survival is impressive. A connector devised for inexpensive 1930s radio and phonograph equipment can still be found on modern amplifiers, televisions, DJ equipment, test instruments and amateur-radio accessories.

Standards as Important as Patents

Several of RCA’s greatest legacies were systems or standards rather than single patented objects.

The 45-rpm record is one example. Compatible electronic colour television is another. RCA’s engineers helped create a colour system that allowed new colour broadcasts to be viewed in monochrome on existing black-and-white receivers. That backward-compatibility principle continues in modern communications standards.

RCA’s laboratories also contributed to:

• electronic television cameras and picture tubes;
• broadcast vestigial-sideband transmission;
• FM and television antennas;
• radar;
• single-sideband transoceanic communication;
• facsimile transmission;
• electron microscopy;
• semiconductor and integrated-circuit development;
• satellite weather imaging;
• spacecraft communications; and
• digital video processing.

The End of RCA and the Survival of Its Ideas

By the 1970s, RCA had diversified far beyond electronics. Some ventures succeeded, while others consumed resources without creating a coherent future for the company. Competition in consumer electronics increased, and much American television and radio manufacturing moved overseas.

General Electric acquired RCA in June 1986. GE retained NBC but sold or reorganised many of RCA’s other businesses. The RCA name survived as a licensed consumer brand, while RCA Records followed a separate path and eventually became part of Sony Music.

The corporation disappeared, but its engineering vocabulary did not.

A low-band operator listening on a Beverage, a satellite enthusiast building a Lindenblad, a VHF station using a folded dipole, an engineer applying diversity reception, or a listener connecting an amplifier with an RCA cable is still using part of RCA’s legacy.

From American Marconi’s spark stations to SAQ’s living Alexanderson alternator, from Beverage’s long wire at Riverhead to W2DU’s antennas on spacecraft and the Moon, RCA’s history repeatedly crosses the boundary between professional communications and amateur experimentation. In many cases, that boundary scarcely existed at all.

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