RF Engineering - Early RF Engineers

Early RF Engineers

Many notable individuals have contributed to the advancement of RF engineering theory and design, including the following:

• Guglielmo Marconi, who transmitted the first radio signal across the Atlantic.
• Nikola Tesla, known for his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs which included patented devices and theoretical work used in the invention of radio communication. Tesla's theories on the possibility of the transmission by radio waves go back as far as lectures and demonstrations in 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Electric Light Association. Tesla's demonstrations and principles were written about widely through various media outlets. Many devices such as the Tesla Coil were used in the further development of radio. Tesla's radio wave experiments in 1896 were conducted in Gerlach Hotel (later renamed The Radio Wave building), where he resided.
• Heinrich Hertz, who developed the unit of measure to describe frequency of a wave.
• Phillip H. Smith, who developed a graphical method of calculating impedances, admittances, reflection coefficients and scattering parameters.