Ham History

This is just a brief history, as there are many sites that does the history well, and there are many interpretations and “wordings” and several angles that you can come from.

But the basics start with Guglielmo Marconi in 1901, who is considered to be the first “amateur”, with his transatlantic communication. There there were many other organisations and universities that started experimental radio stations but it wasn’t in 1905 that the first experimental licence was issued.

In 1910, the Amateurs of Australia formed, now the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA). It is actually the first and oldest national Amateur Radio society in the world. There were other smaller clubs earlier, particularly linked to Universities or small collegiate, but they were not national.

The following site,  https://www.armag.vk6uu.id.au/ also deserves a mention with all the back issues of the Amateur Radio magazine from 1933 to 2012 (WIA went digital after 2012). The technical magazine articles are great as they are using more discrete components and explain more in detail. The rest of the articles are great as they provide a long history of amateur radio. Pick an important date in Amateur Radio (e.g. 2004 – dropping the morse requirement) and you will find the details in the magazine, how people felt about it, what issues with licence merging arose. It’s only understanding the past, that will allow us to move ahead.

For foundation members, I recommend joining the WIA if not only for the Amateur Radio Magazine, but also to access the back issues online, from 2012 onwards. The WIA is not 100% perfect, but it is our peak national body and it is important that we are represented.