There are still a lot of DRTE/CRC persons who we have not been able to locate to add to our membership list. We would like to send them our Newsletter to keep them informed about Friends of CRC. Also we lose contact with members when they move or change their e-mail address and we would like to have their new address and e-mail.

If you know of any Friends who are not receiving the newsletter, or who could receive it by email, please let us know. Don Ross, 613-592-2539 or by email (see heading above).

Future Events:

Wednesday, April 18, 2007. Spring Luncheon at BYC. Guest speaker Mr Gerard Kenney on the topic of his latest book “Dangerous Passage - Issues in the North”. Friends will recall that Gerry was to speak to us at our January meeting which had to be cancelled due to the scheduling of his long awaited operation.

Thursday, April 26, 2007. AGM at 1:00 p.m. in the CRC Auditorium, Building 2C, followed by viewing of “Sparky the Electric Vehicle”.

Also still in mind when appropriate is a visit to view Radarsat 2 in the DFL prior to its departure to the launch site. Details to follow later.

Under planning for next season “A Genealogy Workshop” hosted by our President, Ross Fines.

Wedding Anniversary:

Burns, Douglas & Elsie. Douglas and Elsie Burns Golden Anniversary April 12, 2007. Congratulations from Friends of CRC.

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“SPARKY THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE”

And Friends of the Communications Research Centre

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2007,

COMMENCING AT 1 PM IN THE CRC AUDITORIUM

Following a brief Annual General Meeting, Sparky the Electric Vehicle, a local homegrown response to environmental concerns, will be on show adjacent to Building 2 where it will be described by its owner, Mr Alan Poulsen, a resident of Kanata, who was largely responsible for the design and implementation of the vehicle.

All local area Friends of CRC are urged to attend the short AGM at 1 pm in the CRC Auditorium where we shall vote upon the slate of Board members proposed for the year 2007-2008 and seek nominations from the floor which would be most welcome. Please bring your suggestions for new topics for our 2007-2008 seminars and for other events that might prove to be popular with the membership at large.

As usual, we shall meet for lunch in the CRC Cafeteria at 12 noon. Ms Julie Gourley, a representative of the Kanata Environmental Network, plans to join us there.

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Last Month’s Talk:

The talk last month, “Remembering the 100th Anniversary of the First Radio” by Jack Belrose was very interesting and informative. For those Friends who are not able to get to our monthly sessions we thought you might like to see a summary which Jack prepared for the talk. It follows:

REMEMBERING THE 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST RADIO BROADCAST

John S. Belrose
Radio Scientist Emeritus
Communications Research Centre Canada

I spoke to you, Friends of CRC, a long time ago about Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, the principal pioneer of radio as we know it today. I became interested in this Canadian born wireless pioneer in the mid 70s. In that time period I became interested in the history of wireless, since I was corresponding with Jack Ratcliffe, now deceased, Cavendish Laboratories, Cambridge University, about Marconi’s first transatlantic communication experiment in December 1901. Clearly Marconi is not a wireless pioneer of radio as we know it today, since even as late as 1912 he was still using spark-gap transmitters, and a curious magnetic detector to receive his wireless signals.

While I began reading in the mid-70s about Fessenden, a couple of decades passed before I gave my first talk on Fessenden: an invited 15th Annual Alexander Graham Bell Lecture, McMaster University, 12th November, 1992. That is why I emphasized in the introduction of that talk the comparison between Alexander Graham Bell and Fessenden. Bell’s technology was words over wires, Fessenden technology was words without wires. Follow on versions of that Lecture published in The Proceedings of the Radio Club of America, November 1993; and The URSI Radio Science Bulletin, September 1994, began with this comparison.

The year 2006 was the 100th anniversary of Reginald Aubrey Fessenden's greatest wireless communications experiments and successes (a culmination of his work which began a decade earlier):

After a brief overview of Fessenden’s wireless inventions/and accomplishments, I will describe in more detail what he did in 1906, leading up to his Christmas Eve broadcast, and what we (Peter Bouliane and I, with the encouragement and help of Wilf Lauber) did to simulate that broadcast.

Finally, to justify my claim that Fessenden is the principal pioneer of radio as we know it today, I will describe very briefly the technology/and type of apparatus Marconi was using in the time period of my overview.

For those of you interested in more detail, a number of papers I have written (some published in the open literature, others WEB-only postings) can be found on the WEB.
Open: http://www.fessenden.ca/, and select a topic of interest, see left side column:
[The Invention of Wireless] -- this will open Dave Riley’s super site on Fessenden, where one can read, more than you may wish to read, and a number of papers that I have written;
[Christmas Eve Broadcast Controversy Laid to Rest] -- my terse disagreement with three US authors that imply (papers published in the centennial year, in August and October 2006) that the broadcast may not have been made: a myth, imagined by Fessenden in his old age (Fessenden himself did not tell us what he did until January 1932), or a nice story thought-up by others; and

[BBC 20 Minutes Another Salute to Radio] -- Just before Christmas 2006, Sean Street marked the centenary of one of radio's greatest events, the very first radio programme - by R.A. Fessenden from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, USA on Christmas Eve, 1906. Let Distant Lands Converse recreates Fessenden's broadcast. The programme, produced by Julian May, was heard on BBC Radio 3 on the evening of Saturday, 23 December, 2006. The title is taken from the inscription on Canadian Reginald Fessenden's grave - "By his genius distant lands converse and men sail unafraid upon the deep." The BBC Program includes an interview with me, and others, and includes our simulation of Fessenden’s broadcast, made technically as Fessenden did, using a Laboratory version of Fessenden’s HF Alternator (a computer throw-out step-motor driven at 14,400 rpm to generate a frequency of 48 kHz) and a carbon microphone in series with our tuned equivalent antenna circuit. The recording was made perhaps just in time, since the brushes of our DC motor (we should have had a brushless motor) were starting to wear out - listen and note the couple of hick-ups in the speed of the motor - and one can hear the high frequency whine (a mechanical sound) of the motor/step-motor, even though the devices were in a separate room. But that is perhaps okay since it shows that indeed we were using a mechanical device.

[On-Line http://www.hammondmuseumofradio.org/fessenden-2006-recreation.html].

Reference
History of Wireless, Editors Sarkar, Mailloux, Oliner, Salazar-Palma, and Sengupta, John Wiley & Sons, 2006; see in particular, reference to my talk, Chapter 12, “The Development of Wireless Telephony, and Pioneering Attempts to Achieve Transatlantic Wireless Communications”, by John S. Belrose, pp. 349-420.

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Deaths:
ALTMAN, Francine D. Passed away peacefully on April 9, 2007 at The Hospice at May Court. Beloved wife of Samuel P. Altman, and mother of Ellen B. Altman of Boston MA and Dr. Sharon Altman of Pittsburgh PA. A memorial service will be held at Temple Israel, 1301 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa, ON K2C 1N7 on Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. At the family's request, donations may be made to The Hospice At May Court, 114 Cameron Avenue, Ottawa, ON K1S 0X1.

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Until next time, your Editor,

Jim Sawtell

iq4u@storm.ca

613-836-5795

Friends of CRC        Les Amis du CRC
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