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George E. Burghard New York, NY QCWA # 1000 |
The 1BCG shack and five of the six crew members (l-r): Amy, Grinan, Burghard, Armstrong and Cronkhite (Inman was not
present for the photo).
Sent the first CW on Shortwave from the USA to Europe (Scotland)
FROM THIS SPOT ON DECEMBER 11, 1921, RADIO STATION 1BCG SENT TO ARDROSSAN, SCOTLAND, THE FIRST MESSAGE TO SPAN THE ATLANTIC ON SHORT WAVES. 1BCG, AN AMATEUR STATION, WAS BUILT AND OPERATED BY MEMBERS OF THE RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA.
The Radio Club became the center of Armstrong's social activities in this period. To his earlier circle of Yonkers friends, Russell, Runyon and Styles-the latter forsaking wireless temporarily for a job with the Bankers Trust Company- he now added some of the club's founding members and leading spirits. These included George Burghard, John Grinan, Ernest Amy and John V. L. Hogan, the last a longtime associate of Fessenden's and a notable contributor to heterodyne reception. Burghard, in particular, became his closest friend and companion in this period and in the years thereafter. A New York boy of well-to-do parents, who had been one of the early wireless enthusiasts but who had graduated in law from Columbia University in 1918, Burghard was a gay, suave, outgoing young man with a large capacity for life, still intensely interested in radio. He was, in that time and place, the perfect foil for Armstrong, drawing him out of himself, helping him to know the world. Burghard had a flair for dress and conversation, a fast foreign car-a Delage-all of which Armstrong envied, and a devotion to Armstrong's genius that was to grow with the years. Together, as the decade quickened, they heard many a chime at midnight.