In the spring of 1922, as an outgrowth of the activities of the then existing Radio Club of Queen's University, Prof. D. M. Jemmett, Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering, decided to investigate the possibilities of radio broadcasting. At that time the art of broadcasting was in its infancy (K.D.K.A. of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. being less than a year old) and offered vast opportunities for investigation.

   Douglas Geiger

Mr. R. L. Davis, assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering, who was acquainted with some of the work that had been done at K.D.K.A. and who later joined the engineering -staff there, drew up circuits and plans for an experimental station. From the Radio Branch at Ottawa an experimental license was secured authorizing transmission of spark on 175 metres and continuous waves on 275 and 1050 metres, and assigning call letters "9BT." During the summer of 1922 the required equipment was gathered together.

Prof. Hughes, Research Professor in the Physics Department, made two 125-watt, 2,000-volt rectifier tubes for a 60-cycle, single-phase, double-wave rectifier. Prof. Jemmett designed, and had built in the machine shop of the University, a three-section filter to smooth the output wave of the rectifier and also a large tuning-coil for coupling the set to the antennae. A number of vacuum tubes, ranging in size from the smallest up to those rated at 125 watts plate dissipation and 2,000 to 3,000 plate volts, were obtained from the MulIard Wireless Co., London, England. A cage aerial was erected between masts mounted on the roofs of Fleming and Ontario halls.

During the session of 1922-23 the set was connected up and a very considerable amount of experimenting carried out. Two final-year electrical students, S. V.Perry, BSc'23, and P. H. McAuley, BSc'23, acting under the direction of Prof. Jemmett, did a great deal of the work. The experiments showed that with the addition of some pieces of equipment and a few meters, particularly a 3,000-range voltmeter, very good results might be expected. Also, in view of the results obtained, it was decided to attempt regular broadcasting during the following session and to have one of the staff of the Electrical Engineering Department engineer and operate the station

Shortly after this decision had been made Dr. W. R. Jaffrey, MD'1913, of Hamilton, who was and still is very much interested in radio, presented Prof. Jemmett with a very considerable sum of money to be used for the improvement of the broadcasting equipment. This was used to purchase a 3,000-volt, 1,200-watt motor-generator set to replace the rectifier tubes which had been made by Prof. Hughes. This machine delivers a much smoother and more even voltage wave,and is more easily controllable than the rectified apparatus.

At the opening of the fall session of 1923 the writer, then instructor in electrical engineering, accepted the offer to engineer and operate the station, for which a broadcasting license to transmit on 450 metres with call letters C.F.R.C. had been obtained from the Radio Branch. During the summer the experimental connections had been dismantled, so that the entire set had to be rebuilt. In doing this a few changes were made, the main one being in the antennae coupling coil.

Prof. Harold Stewart, 1929

On October 27, 1923, the first broadcast, a play-by-play account of the Queen's-McGill senior rugby game direct from the Stadium, was transmitted., Prof. R. O. Jolliffe, sitting at a table in front of the grandstand, spoke into an ordinary telephone. The voice currents from the telephone travelled over a telephonecircuit from the Stadium through the telephone exchange to the station at Fleming Hal1, where, instead of going to a telephone set, they were applied to the first of the amplifier tubes of the transmitter. Thus Prof. Jolliffe's voice was put directly on the air.

The day before this broadcast an interesting test had been made. Through the co-operation of Mr. O. Donnelly, one of the amateur radio operators in the City, contact was made with another radio amateur near Rochester. The Rochester amateur listened to announcements from C.F.R.C., each one consisting of a series of numbers of which each number corresponded to a different setting of some piece of the equipment. He then reported in code to Mr. Donnelly which numbers had sounded best to him, and Mr. Donnelly passed the information to the writer, who was making the adjustments. In this manner it was possible to determine the best adjustments of the apparatus, and in practically every case these were found to agree with those previously determined from the known characteristics of the vacuum tubes.

During the fall duplicate telephone lines were run to Grant Hall, Convocation Hall, the Gymnasium and the Arena, so that it was possible to broadcast hockey, basketball and lecture programs. Also a weekly broadcast of University news was given from the station by the staff of Queen' s Journal.

For the session of 1924-25 Mr. J. W. Bain, Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering, undertook the operation of the station, and Mr. H. J. D. Minter, Demonstrator of Electrical Engineering, the announcing. All interesting sports and University news were again broadcast, and in addition, studio programs and extension lectures were added to the list of programmes. During the early part of the session the studio was very much improved by the hanging of draperies on the walls. Tests were continually made in order to improve the transmission, and as a result of these tests slight changes were made in the apparatus. In May, 1925, the station wave length was changed to 267.7 metres by the Radio Branch.

For the session 1925-26 Mr. Bain and Mr. Minter were again engineer-operator and announcer, and continued the excellent programs of the preceding year. During this session a considerable amount of transmitting was done with a seven-watt oscillator, which covered a range of about three miles radius.

In the fall of 1926 the writer returned to the department, to fill the position left vacant by the resignation of Mr. Bain, and was asked to continue the broadcasting. Due to difficulties in the operation of the station it was found impossible to transmit studio programmes, and so the broadcasts were confined to the sports, extension lectures, Fall Convocation and some dance music from Grant Hall.

In view of contemplated changes in the laboratories in the basement of the building, it was seen that the broadcasting set would have to be moved from the room in the basement, in which it had been housed since the inception of the station, to a room on the first floor, half of which could be used as a studio. At the same time it was decided that it would be well to re-design and rebuild the set, in order to incorporate in it the advances made in the science since the construction of the original set. New and larger tubes were ordered from Mullard's in England; a new filter, capable of completely smoothing acurrent of one-half ampere at 3,000 volts, was designed; and the necessary wire for the winding and iron for the core ordered. Upon the receipt of the new tubes their characteristic curves were checked against those supplied by the manufacturers, and the design of the set was proceeded with.

The new set was ready for the first of the 1927 rugby contests, the Queen's--Toronto Argonauts exhibition game on October 8. Since then, there have been broadcast the four main rugby games of the season direct from the Stadium, and the Fall Convocation from Grant Hall. Reports received from listeners•in indicate that the quality of the transmission has been very much improved upon that of previous seasons and also that the range of thestation has been increased.

It is hoped that after the New Year it will be possible to give studio programs regularly on Wednesday evenings. A list of the known programs is given below.

CFRC                                        267.7 metres                              1120 kilocycles
Sat., Jan 7 – Hockey                  Int. O.H.A.                                  Queen’s at R.M.C.
Wed., Jan. 11 – Hockey             Int. O.H.A.                                   Queen’s at Kingston
Fri., Jan. 20 – Hockey                Int. O.H.A.                                   Brockville at Queen’s
Sat., Jan. 28 – Basketball           Intercollegiate                              McGill at Queen’s
Sat., Jan. 28 – Hockey               Int. O.H.A.                                   R.M.C. at Queen’s
Fri., Feb. 3 – Hockey                  Int. O.H.A.                                  Cornwall at Kingston
Mon., Feb. 6 – Hockey               Int. O.H.A.                                   Kingston at Queen’s
Fri., Feb. 10 – Hockey                Int. O.H.A.                                   Belleville at Queen’s
Sat., Feb 11 – Basketball           Intercollegiate                               Western at Queen’s
Fri., March 2 – Basketball           Intercollegiate                              Toronto at Queen’s