The part played by radio amateurs in the early days of broadcasting is well known, particularly their pioneering achievements in exploiting the wireless wastelands below 200 metres which gave rise to commercial short wave transmissions. Few people are aware, however, that television owes just as much, perhaps even more, to the efforts of the amateur fraternity. The first President of the RSGB (then the Wireless Society of London), A A Campbell Swinton, G2HK, accurately predicted in 1908 how a fully electronic television system would evolve, but the technology did not exist which would have enabled him to give a demonstration. Sydney Langley, G3ST, worked with him from 1919 to 1923, assisting with wireless experiments besides producing early cathode-ray tubes.
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