David Parmet Is A Ham … Radio Fanatic

David Parmet never ceases to surprise me.

Today, David has an interview with Allen Pitts,W1AGP, ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager at his blog, Marketing Begins at Home.

I, too, am a Ham Radio fan, but not an operator. No license or anything cool like that … unlike David.

If you’ve ever wondered where the term “Ham Radio” comes from, the ARRL has the answer. Essentially, it is the adoption of an unflattering reference to “hogging the airwaves” that was worn by ham operators with pride. Check out the link and scroll down to “Ham - “Ham: a poor operator. A ‘plug.’”

Thinking about it, the tie in to ham radio and PR makes more sense than any of us probably imagine. PR is about diffusion of information. “The spread of linguistic or cultural practices or innovations within a community or from one community to another.” (Source)

Ham Radio (spark gap transimission) at Auburn University, dates back to 1912. It even includes an initial broadcast from Auburn to Thomas Alva Edison. No kidding.

Pioneer Alabama amateur radio pivots around the electrical engineering department at what was then called Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API) in Auburn. In 1912 API alumnus, Miller Reese Hutchinson, an electrical engineer who served as assistant to Thomas A. Edison, gave a spark gap transmitter and crystal receiver to API. In that same year Congress approved the Radio Act, and universities throughout the nation applied for licenses.

For their station, API students erected a 150-foot steel pipe on the east end of Broun Hall and strung an antenna to the second floor where the set was located. Hutchinson arrived on June 2, 1913, for the dedication, reading the first message transmitted, a note to Edison at his New Jersey laboratory:

“This wireless formally christens the two-and-a-half kilowatt apparatus which I have this day presented to the Alabama Polytechnic Institute in commemoration of the first homecoming of the alumni. The president, the faculty, the alumni, and the student body join me in expressing love and esteem to the father of electrical development.”

Reading David’s interview made me think of other activities here at Auburn University, today. David asks, “How can amateur radio position itself as relevant when communicating with the rest of the world is as easy as signing up for an instant messenger account?” Well, at Auburn University, there are many examples of ham radio operation in education. The School of Forestry, for example, supports a program providing Remote Internet Access Using Radio and Satellite-based Communication Systems in Tachira and Apure, Venezuela. The program is located in Lineville, Alabama. Lineville is, um, well … a tiny town. The cool thing about technology is that it can free you to be “wired” anywhere.

Visit David’s blog and you’ll even learn that ARRL has a podcast, too.

I love history. Many thanks to David for reviving some historical memories from Auburn, for me, with his great interview.