WA2XMN 90 Years of FM Broadcast!

From the QSL (response to a reception report) I received ...

... Dear Listener,

Thank you for your report of reception of the Armstrong 70th Anniversary
Broadcast from WA2XMN on 42.8 megacycles. The attached file contains an
electronic QSL card. If you print it out, it will be a good fit for a
5-by-7-inch frame. The second file contains all of the reports received.

Keep an eye on the website for information about possible future
transmissions.

Best regards,
Al ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-09-03 08:06 PM | Reply

Background ...

Edwin H. Armstrong
www.britannica.com

... Invention of FM broadcasting.

In 1933 Armstrong secured four patents on advanced circuits that were to solve this last basic problem. They revealed an entirely new radio system, from transmitter to receiver. Instead of varying the amplitude, or power, of radio waves to carry voice or music, as in all radio before then, the new system varied, or modulated, the waves' frequency (number of waves per second) over a wide band of frequencies.

This created a carrier wave that natural static -- an amplitude phenomenon created by electrical storms -- could not break into.

As a result, FM's wide frequency range made possible the first clear, practical method of high-fidelity broadcasting. ...

#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-09-03 08:09 PM | Reply

Major Armstrong's Tower
https://njpalisades.org/majorarmstrongstower/

... Tucked in the woods west of bustling Route 9W in Alpine is the Armstrong Tower, a three-armed steel structure rising 425 feet into the sky. While the tower is a prominently visible landmark within an area encompassing hundreds of square miles -- in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut -- few who see it are aware of the story behind the tower or the man who built it.

Edwin Armstrong was born in New York City in 1890. When he was twelve years old, his family moved to Yonkers. Throughout his childhood, Armstrong, who read up on inventions and experimented with radios, sought to make improvements on the quality of sound transmitted by radio signal. As a junior at Columbia University, Armstrong achieved this goal in part when he invented the regenerative-oscillating circuit, an innovation that helped pave the way for transatlantic radio telegraphy. ...

#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-09-03 08:20 PM | Reply

Along these lines ...

Plan to Make Radio Household Utility (2013)
infostory.com

... Today in 1915*, David Sarnoff, Chief Inspector for The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America wrote to his superiors: "I have in mind a plan of development which will make radio a household utility' in the same sense as the piano or phonograph...

The idea is to bring music into the home by wireless. The receiver can be designed in the form of a simple Radio Music Box,' placed on a table in the parlor or living room ... The same principle can be extended to numerous other fields as, for example, receiving lectures at home which be made perfectly audible; also events of national importance can be simultaneously announced and received.

Baseball scores can be transmitted in the air by the use of one set installed at the Polo Grounds. The same would be true of other cities. This proposition would be especially interesting to farmers and others living in outlying districts removed from cities.

By the purchase of a Radio Music Box' they could enjoy concerts, lectures, music, recitals, etc., which may be going on in the nearest city within their radius. While I have indicated a few of the most probable fields of usefulness for such a device, yet there are numerous other fields to which the principle can be extended ... ." ...

#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-09-03 09:54 PM | Reply