3BP 1923 Canada

Operator: Ted Rogers

Ted Rogers first became interested in radio when he saw a receiver at age 11. By 1913 he was noted in local newspapers for his skill at operating a radio station, which at the time was an impressive technical accomplishment. Rogers worked as a radio officer on Great Lakes passenger ships during the summers of 1916-1919 inclusive. In 1921 Rogers operated the only Canadian (and only spark-gap ) station to successfully compete in the first amateur trans-Atlantic radio competition. Ted joined the Canadian chapter of the American Radio Relay League in 1921.In the early 1920's, radio transmitters and receivers ran on large and expensive batteries to provide the high voltages needed for the vacuum tubes used. Early attempts at producing a radio receiver to operate on household alternating current were unsuccessful, since tubes designed for the low current supply from batteries were unsatisfactory when operated on 25 or 60 hertz alternating current. The batteries were also extremely large and bulky. In April 1924 Rogers travelled to the United States and saw experimental AC receiving tubes at the laboratories of Westinghouse in Pittsburgh. He purchased the patent rights to the experimental alternating current tubes of Frederick S. McCullough. After further development Rogers produced a design of vacuum tube that would operate on alternating current. By 1925 Rogers had introduced not only a complete radio receiver using the new tubes, but had also produced a battery eliminator power supply that could be used with other manufacturers receivers to eliminate the expensive batteries. By August 1925 the Rogers Batteryless radio was in commercial sales, the first radio receiver in the world to operate from household current. At a time when a schoolteacher might earn $1000 per year, the top-of-the-line Rogers radio sold for $370. Rogers formed the company "Standard Radio Manufacturing" (later Rogers Vacuum Tube Company) to produce radio receivers using the new design of vacuum tubes. In 1927, he founded CFRB (Canada’s First Rogers Batteryless) radio station. The station is owned today by Astral Media. In 1930, he married Velma Melissa Taylor and three years later they had a son, Ted Rogers, Jr. who grew up to build Rogers Communications into a media conglomerate.Ted Rogers died suddenly in 1939 due to complications of a hemorrhage, and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.

From the estate of W5KC
Courtesy of W5KNE
Info courtesy of G4UZN