Highlights from the Archives: Early Radio, Innovators, and Personalities
Bob Rydzewski
California Historical Radio Society
February 15th, 2019 - 6:00PM

The Society of Wireless Pioneers was an organization of “professional brass pounders” (radiotelegraphers) founded by Bill Breniman in Santa Rosa in 1968. Its purposes were both fraternal and educational. Most members had been ship radio operators at one time, some of them as Marconi operators before the First World War. Most Society members began as amateurs and/or were active on the ham bands in their free time. Many members were ex-US Navy. Some had worked for DeForest and other early pioneers.

The organization at one point had over 5000 members with chapters in the US and abroad, but radio operator positions on commercial ships disappeared and aging demographics eventually took over. The Society had collected (literally) a ton of archival materials including one-of-a-kind historical photographs and documents. In 2011, through the efforts of Chairman Mike Adams, Director Philip Monego, and Archivist Bart Lee, the California Historical Radio Society acquired this archive and committed to preserving it and making it available online.

In this talk, Bob Rydzewski touches on some of the highlights so far found in the Society archive, including photos of early amateur stations, accounts of SOS calls, tales of California inventors/innovators and other fascinating individuals who left their mark on communications, US, and world history.

Speaker Bio

Bob Rydzewski, KJ6SBR, is a research scientist, author, and medical writer born in Chicago, where his parents had worked for Belmont Radio, Zenith, and Teletype.

His interest in electronics began in high school with the assembly of an Eico 460 oscilloscope. After fixing a few cold joints, it worked!) He began collecting antique radios around 2000 and became fascinated with the stories of the men and women who contributed to evolution of modern communications. This led to his own research into radio history, about which he has published articles in the Journal of the California Historical Radio Society (CHRS), the AWA Journal, and the AWA Review. Bob received his general class amateur license in 2011 and, as Deputy Archivist helps CHRS preserve and digitize the archives of the Society of Wireless Pioneers, the subject of his talk. The CHRS recently honored him as a History Fellow.

Photos from the 2019 Winter Banquet:

Photos courtesy Bob Bynum

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