DAREDX

Reginald Fessenden, born and educated in Quebec, is the father of radio as most know it.  Yes, Marconi might have made the first wireless transatlantic communication, but this was using Morse code, and was one way.  In fact some argue whether it was possible at all, given the time of day and the transmission path, his equipment, and so on.  After all, Marconi was just looking for an “S” for a few hours, which in Morse code is simply 3 dots, and could easily be ‘heard’ in a sea of interference.  Anyway, Fessenden was the inventor of the heterodyne principle, where two waveforms are multiplied in order that a signal can be carried on another.  In this way, voice and data transmission became possible for the first time in 1906 at Brant Rock, Massachusetts.

At the time, no one foresaw the use of voice transmission, and Fessenden’s technique did not see widespread use until the 1920’s as vacuum tubes became powerful enough to be utilized in transmission. Interestingly, much of Fessenden’s work after inventing heterodyning was funded by the US Weather Bureau who believed that his technique could be useful for transmitting weather data.  Radio is still widely used by NOAA, and other bureaus around the world for voice, and data transmission.

Fessenden holds over 500 US patents, proving he is one of the worlds foremost fathers of radio.

Links:

Fessenden:100 Years of Radio

Heterodyne Principle