Ray

There is no doubt that Armstrong did the heavy lifting and spurred FM broadcasting but FM was known and patents were filled decades before Armstrong's efforts. See: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/oa_monograph/chapter/8763

The problem for military and civilian aviation is that FM has a capture effect in which the strongest signal overrides all others. Not a good thing if one is trying to communicate with a more distant aircraft on a common frequency. I am sure that you have noticed this happening when in the car as suddenly the FM station you are listening to is replaced by another.

A deep dive into matters concerning Armstrong can be found here: https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/13688804.2014.920207

This is a heavily documented thesis submitted for a masters of science degree in communications and media technology. Armstrong was pivotal in the development of many aspects of radio and even radar but as the above points out, he was also a self promoter. Nothing wrong with swaying public opinion as long as the basic points used remain as accepted facts on both sides of the argument.

Regards,

Jim

Logic: Method used to arrive at the wrong conclusion, with confidence. Murphy

On Saturday, April 19, 2025 at 11:58:49 AM CDT, Ray Fantini via Milsurplus <[email protected]> wrote:

Wow, pretty bold statement and I am not trying to be a dick or anything but the concept of FM was developed by maybe the greatest radio engineer ever Edwin Armstrong in 1933, the first commercial broadcasting station W2XMN went on the air in 1936 and Armstrong’s early test with the New Jersey State police and FM radios so impressed the Signal Corps that they were early adopters of FM in military communications.

The SCR-522 is about as AM as they come, FM is so much better in military mobile communications that the rest of the world followed post war. Civil and Military aviation somehow missed the boat and struggled with AM forever. Or at least now is being replaced by digital.

Googol Armstrong and do some studying!

Ray F/KA3EKH

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