‰ NOW 35 WPM ‰ TEXT IS FROM JANUARY 2014 QST PAGE 69‰ THE BEGINNING AMIDST TURN OF THE CENTURY EXCITEMENT SURROUNDING NEW WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY, AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP LED TO THE FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE. MICHAEL MARINARO, WN1M AT THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, THERE WERE NO RADIO SIGNALS ONLY THE HISS OF ATMOSPHERIC NOISE AND THE OCCASIONAL CRASHES OF ELECTRICAL STORMS. THE EQUIPMENT FOR TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING SIGNALS HAD NOT YET BEEN INVENTED. AS THE CENTURY WORE ON, HOWEVER, THERE WAS A GROWING INTEREST IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION. THE SCIENTISTS AND INVENTORS OF THE DAY EXPERIMENTED IN SENDING AND RECEIVING SIGNALS AT GREATER AND GREATER DISTANCES. BY THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, OPERATORS BEGAN COMMUNICATING WITH EACH OTHER USING THE ROUGH, RASPY NOTES GENERATED BY SPARK GAP TRANSMITTERS. RADIO WAS BORN. THE USE OF THESE EARLY AIRWAVES WAS THE INTEREST OF NUMEROUS GROUPS FOREMOST WAS THE NAVY AND MARINE INDUSTRY, FOLLOWED BY THE COMMERCIAL WIRELESS SERVICES, EAGER AS THEY WERE TO COMPETE WITH THE TELEGRAPH SERVICES. IN THE EYES OF THESE GROUPS, THE EMERGENCE OF AMATEURS THE NEIGHBORHOOD SHORT RANGE OPERATORS WHO BUILT THEIR OWN STATIONS AND COMMUNICATED WITH EACH OTHER OVER SHORT DISTANCES WAS INSIGNIFICANT. YET THESE AMATEURS WERE ENTHUSIASTIC AND RESOURCEFUL. THEY MONITORED THE COMMERCIAL AND NAVAL STATIONS TO LEARN THE CODE, AND THEN ASSEMBLED MODEST ‰ END OF 35 WPM TEXT ‰ QST DE W1AW ƒ