| As an amateur radio operator, I find the historical Radio Regulations from the International Telecommunication Union are a fascinating read. The use of radio has been administered internationally for more than 100 years by the ITU, written in a document known as the Radio Regulations (ITU RR) today. A full archive of all Radio Regulations from 1906 to 2016 are all available at ITU's official website [0]. Remember, those regulations were parts of the international laws at that time, and reflected the most authoritative information on radio. But if you read through an old Radio Regulation, you can see a lot of unusual languages. * "Hertz" was not a unit of measurement before the mid-20th century. All frequencies are measured in cycles per second, 1 MHz is 1 Mc/s. * The definition of radio waves. > Radio Waves (or Hertzian Waves): Electromagnetic waves of frequencies lower than 3000 Gc/s, propagated in space without artificial guide. This definition, including the mention of "Hertzian Waves", are still preserved in today's RR. * Things that make use of radio are described as "radioelectric". A station that transmits radio was known as a "radioelectric sending station". An amateur radio operator is "a duly authorised person interested in radioelectric practice". * The medium of radio communication was not described as a "radio frequency", but as a "radio wave". The transmit/receive frequencies are called the "calling and listening waves", e.g. "all stations which are within the zone of the distress communications but which do not take part in them must refrain from using the “distress wave” until the distress working has ceased". e.g. "if the direction-finding stations do not keep watch on the same wave, whether it be the wave on which bearings are taken or another wave, a separate request for the bearings must be made to each station or group of stations using a given wave". --- It really shows how far we’ve come on the long way. [0] https://www.itu.int/en/history/Pages/RegulationsCollection.a... |