The 1921 Transatlantic Tests

Amateur radio's proof that a low-power station could be heard across an ocean. After an earlier attempt failed, the ARRL sent Paul Godley to Ardrossan, on the west coast of Scotland, to listen for American amateur signals during a second round of tests. On the night of 11-12 December 1921 Godley received the transmission of station 1BCG, in Greenwich, Connecticut, operated by six members of the Radio Club of America, among them Edwin Armstrong, the inventor later known for FM radio. The reception, confirmed by more than two dozen American stations heard in all, proved that amateur shortwave signals could cross the Atlantic and reshaped how governments allocated the radio spectrum to amateurs.