In February of 1919, The Washington Times chronicled an early demonstration of audio radio broadcasts and declared the wonders of “music through the air” when the NBS performed a public demonstration from the radio lab to an adjacent auditorium and a gathered audience.
In May 1920 the NBS began broadcasting experimental concerts on Friday evenings from 8:30 to 11:00 by the Radio Laboratory…using a wavelength of 500 meters (about 600kHz). These “concerts” are believed to be the first scheduled broadcasts to a wide audience from WWV, and were records being played on a Victrola with the output connected directly to the transmitter.
These broadcasts continued through the summer of 1920, and were limited to approximately 100 miles around Washington, D.C. The first commercial radio broadcasts began on November 2, 1920, with call sign 8ZZ, aka KDKA, in Pittsburgh, PA.
References:
Nelson GK (2019) A Century of WWV.
J Res Natl Inst Stan 124:124025. https://doi.org/10.6028/jres.124.025
Picking’ Tunes From The Air Nightly Pastime For Wireless Amateurs”, page 26, 8 August 1920, Washington Times, Washington, D.C.
To commemorate these broadcasts, WWVARC will activate the WW0WWV callsign through the month of May 2020.
We will be active across all bands, and all modes, and operating from various locations in, and near, Fort Collins, CO – the home of WWV since 1968.
We plan to focus our efforts on Fridays in the spirit of the original WWV / NBS Broadcasts, however operators will be active whenever they are able to get on the air.
Our designated frequencies are around the 38’s e.g. 14.038 CW, 14.238 SSB, FT8 will be standard frequency, NOT F/H
Current list of operators:
W0DAS – Dave – SSB, CW
WS7M – Mark – SSB, CW, DIGI
N0AW – Jeremy – SSB, CW, DIGI
N7GES – Kevin – SSB, CW
KK0ECT – Eric – SSB, CW, DIGI
We will be creating a new unique QSL card to commemorate QSO’s for this special event. See QSL info at the top of the page.