HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL TRAFFIC SYSTEM

Public service and amateur radio have gone hand-in-hand since the earliest days of radio. March of 1913 brought about one of the first instances of traffic or message handling, when amateurs successfully provided communications to a large area in the Middle West left isolated by a severe windstorm.

Message handling of all kinds, such as for pleasure or emergency, was quickly becoming an important part of amateur radio. By late 1914 the ARRL, the brainchild of Hiram Percy Maxim, was relaying messages. Dozens of stations, on the air continuously, did nothing but handle traffic.

Relay networks had been lined up, with fairly good success, for most of the Eastern United States.

The league was growing rapidly, but there remained the problem of organizing schedules for stations in distant states. The introduction of QST magazine in 1915 greatly helped with keeping stations informed and maintaining organization, and schedules.

With the threat of impending war the league offered its services to the military. By this time relay routes to every section of the country were in the process of being formed. By 1916 six trunk lines to cover the entire United States, three east and west and 3 north and south were established and drills were being performed on these trunk lines to keep operators well trained.

Great success was achieved. For example, on February 6th a message was started from the East Coast, relayed to the West coast, and an answer received in the record time of one hour and twenty minutes.

World War 1 brought about the cessation of amateur radio by order of the president of the United States. Amateurs, during this time gave their all to the war effort and greatly aided military communications. People from the military had nothing but praise for the radio amateurs.

By the end of 1919 amateur radio was back on the air after the cessation of hostilities. The first official postwar transcontinental relay was carried out in 1921 with a record time of 6 1/2 minutes round trip.

The following years brought about further improvements such as cw replacing spark, and the advent of new designs for vacuum tubes. Amateurs were becoming more efficient and in fact transoceanic relays were taking place. Shorter wavelengths made for greater distances.

Nineteen twenty five brought amateurs even more intimately involved with the military. The navy with the help of Fred Schnell, the ARRL traffic manager, installed a shortwave transceiver aboard the U.S.S Seattle and this setup showed tremendous performance during tests on an Australian cruise.

The army , in 1925, along with amateur radio, linked up to form the Army-Amateur Radio System. This system had several purposes: