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The decades from the late 1920s through the early 1960s are often called the golden age of amateur radio. During this period the hobby grew from tens of thousands of operators to hundreds of thousands worldwide, amateur technology advanced from simple crystal-controlled transmitters to sophisticated superheterodyne receivers and single-sideband transceivers, and ham operators served with distinction in the largest conflict in human history. By the time the first amateur satellite reached orbit in 1961, amateur radio had established itself as a permanent and valued part of the global communications landscape.
The 1930s saw steady growth in amateur radio despite the economic hardships of the Great Depression. Radio parts were inexpensive, and building your own equipment was not only a point of pride but a financial necessity for many operators. The decade was characterised by hands-on experimentation, homebrew construction, and a strong community spirit fostered by radio clubs, field days, and the pages of QST, the RSGB Bulletin, and other national publications.
Technical progress was rapid. Superheterodyne receivers, which convert incoming signals to a fixed intermediate frequency for easier amplification and filtering, replaced simpler regenerative and tuned radio-frequency (TRF) designs and gave operators much better selectivity and sensitivity. Crystal-controlled transmitters replaced self-excited oscillators, producing more stable and accurate signals. The widespread adoption of these technologies transformed the amateur bands from a crowded tangle of drifting signals into something approaching orderly communication.
Amateurs also pushed into new territory during this period. The 10-metre band (28 MHz) was opened and found to provide spectacular long-distance propagation during the peak of the sunspot cycle. Experiments with very high frequencies above 30 MHz — then considered exotic — laid the groundwork for VHF and UHF amateur radio. The first amateur television transmissions took place in the 1930s, and amateurs experimented with frequency modulation (FM) and other new modulation techniques.
When World War II engulfed the globe, amateur radio stations were once again ordered off the air. In the United States, the shutdown came on 8 December 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Similar orders were issued in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and other Allied nations. Axis powers had generally restricted or prohibited amateur radio even before the war.
As in World War I, the shutdown sent a generation of skilled radio operators into military service — but on a vastly larger scale. Amateur radio operators filled critical roles in every branch of the military. They served as radio operators, technicians, instructors, and intelligence specialists. The US Army's Signal Corps, the Royal Corps of Signals, and their equivalents in other nations drew heavily on the amateur community.
Amateur skills proved particularly valuable in several areas. Experienced CW operators could copy Morse code at high speed under difficult conditions. Hams who had built and repaired their own equipment could troubleshoot and maintain military radio gear in the field. The ability to improvise with limited parts — a skill honed by years of homebrew construction — was invaluable in combat zones where replacement equipment was scarce.
Some of the most notable wartime contributions by amateurs included service in the War Emergency Radio Service (WERS) in the United States, where civilian amateurs provided local communication for civil defence on VHF frequencies, and participation in clandestine radio operations in occupied Europe, where the ability to build a transmitter from scrounged parts could be a matter of life and death.
When amateur radio resumed after the war — in the United States, the bands reopened on 15 November 1945 — the hobby experienced explosive growth. Thousands of war veterans had learned radio skills in the military and were eager to get on the air as civilians. Surplus military radio equipment flooded the market at bargain prices, making it possible to assemble a capable station for very little money.
The post-war years brought a surge in amateur licensing. In the United States alone, the number of licensed amateurs grew from roughly 60,000 before the war to over 100,000 by the late 1940s and continued climbing steadily. Similar growth occurred in the United Kingdom, Germany (where amateur radio was re-authorised in the late 1940s), Japan, and other countries.
The availability of surplus equipment — transmitters, receivers, test gear, components, and even complete station setups — democratised the hobby. Operators who might not have been able to afford new commercial equipment could buy surplus gear for pennies on the dollar and modify it for amateur use. The conversion of military surplus became a cottage industry, and magazines published detailed articles on adapting specific models for amateur bands.
The late 1940s and 1950s saw a wave of technical innovation that modernised amateur radio.
Single-sideband (SSB) voice transmission was the most transformative development. Conventional AM voice occupied twice the necessary bandwidth and wasted most of its power on the carrier signal. SSB eliminated the carrier and one sideband, using power and bandwidth far more efficiently. Amateur experimenters, building on wartime research, were among the first to develop and popularise SSB equipment for practical use. By the late 1950s, SSB was rapidly replacing AM as the dominant voice mode on the HF bands — a transition that is essentially complete today.
VHF and UHF operation expanded dramatically. Wartime radar and communications technology had produced a wealth of knowledge and equipment for frequencies above 30 MHz. Amateurs put this to use, establishing regular communication on the 50 MHz (6-metre), 144 MHz (2-metre), and 430 MHz (70-centimetre) bands. VHF/UHF contesting became popular, and amateurs explored tropospheric ducting, meteor scatter, and other propagation modes unique to these frequencies. See Propagation for more on these phenomena.
Commercial amateur equipment began to appear. Companies like Collins Radio, Hallicrafters, National, Hammarlund, Heathkit, and Drake started producing purpose-built amateur transceivers and receivers. The Heathkit brand deserves special mention — its line of build-it-yourself radio kits made high-quality equipment affordable and educational, and building a Heathkit became a rite of passage for a generation of hams. In the UK, companies like KW Electronics and Eddystone served the amateur market, while in Japan, manufacturers like Trio (later Kenwood), Yaesu, and ICOM began producing equipment that would eventually dominate the worldwide amateur market.
The golden age was also a period of significant antenna development. Amateurs designed, tested, and refined antenna types that remain standard today. The Yagi-Uda antenna (commonly called a Yagi or beam), originally invented in Japan in the 1920s, was adopted enthusiastically by amateurs for directional communication on HF and VHF. Multi-element Yagi arrays on rotatable towers became the hallmark of a serious DX or contest station.
Other antenna designs that were developed or popularised by amateurs during this period include the cubical quad, the log-periodic dipole array, various forms of vertical antenna, and numerous wire antenna configurations optimised for specific bands and situations. The practical study of antennas — designing them, building them, measuring their performance, and improving them — became one of the most active areas of amateur experimentation. See Antennas.
The golden age culminated in a milestone that demonstrated just how far amateur radio had come. On 12 December 1961, OSCAR 1 (Orbiting Satellites Carrying Amateur Radio) was launched as a secondary payload aboard a US Air Force rocket. Built by a group of amateurs in California, OSCAR 1 was a simple beacon transmitter weighing less than 5 kilograms. It transmitted the Morse code letters "HI" (the telegraphic equivalent of laughter) on 144.983 MHz for 22 days before its batteries expired.
OSCAR 1 was the first non-governmental satellite ever launched, and it inaugurated a tradition of amateur satellite construction and operation that continues today. See Satellites and Space for the full story of amateur satellites.
By the early 1960s, the golden age was giving way to the modern era. Transistors were beginning to replace vacuum tubes, making equipment smaller, lighter, and more reliable. The first integrated circuits appeared. FM repeaters started to appear on VHF, changing the character of local amateur communication. The hobby was about to be transformed again — but the foundations laid during the golden age, from SSB and VHF operating to antenna design and amateur satellites, remain the bedrock of amateur radio as it is practised today.