Frequency hopping and spread spectrum - who was first? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / rf-microwave

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2020, 01:27:22 pm
content: We often read that it was Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr that came up with the idea of frequency hopping in the 1940s, but check this short piece in April 17 1926 copy of Radio World.

author: kosine
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2020, 02:35:47 pm
content: Have you got the rest of the article?That was just getting interesting!

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2020, 02:40:25 pm
content: That’s all there was.

author: StillTrying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2020, 03:25:10 pm
content: I knew frequency hopping was very old, but I can't find any other mentions of Emil Marek & frequency hopping anywhere, just that same one.http://docplayer.net/145674097-A-new-method-of-power-boosting.html

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2020, 04:15:58 pm
content: Here's a detailed article on the history of frequency hopping - it ultimately credits Tesla with being first (at least to patent):https://www.americanscientist.org/article/random-paths-to-frequency-hopping

author: donmr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2020, 12:23:50 am
content: The first user was probably some secretive group that did not want anyone else to know what they were doing.

author: dropkick
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2020, 02:03:55 am
content: "It's Hedley..."

author: TheGuv
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 24, 2020, 03:25:32 pm
content: Quote from: Circlotron on June 21, 2020, 02:40:25 pmThe entire magazine is here:https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-World/20s/26/Radio-World-1926-Apr-17.pdfThat site has a bazilion old magazines. Be careful - you might lose a day or two there!

author: MarkMLl
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 24, 2020, 09:26:09 pm
content: Quote from: Circlotron on June 21, 2020, 01:27:22 pmMy understanding is that she didn't so much invent it, as reconstructed something that she'd heard discussed while being the "trophy wife" of an Austrian armaments manufacturer. And that article did say that the inventor was Viennese.MarkMLl

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2020, 08:08:35 am
content: There was an article on this in the Nov/Dec 2018Break-In(NZART) in which it is made clear that Hedy Lamaar's patent referred very specifically to torpedo guidance."... concocted a version of frequency-hopping that used a piano-roll to change among eighty-eight frequencies, and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. Looking back, it's a bizarre and surreal masterpiece of fantastic complexity for the day. A ship would launch a torpedo towards a target vessel. With an aircraft overhead observing its track and it would radio corrections to the ship. The ship would then flash the correctional radio pattern over its proper wavelength for that proper interval. Wow, given 1940s wireless technology, what could possibly go wrong?"I have read the patent and can confirm it makes no mention of communication other than for remote control.