The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast January 24, 1989

     Tommy Thomas of Farmingdale, New Jersey, has been an active radio amateur since before World War I when he operated a spark gap radio set.  During the 20s and 30s, he was constantly improving his equipment and was recognized for his special ability in radio communications.
     Tommy said, "I wanted to try something new after World War II.  I started to explore the possibilities of increasing the communications distance range of the VHF and UHF spectrum."  At that time, not much was known of that region.  Most signals only went 30 miles or so.  But Tommy kept improving his circuits and antenna designs.  Soon he could consistently communicate over 500 miles into the Midwest.  Then his company transferred him to Hawaii.  Before he left, he vowed to his radio amateur friends that he would continue to experiment and that some day he would communicate to the west coast of the United States from Hawaii and possibly the east coast on VHF frequencies.
     While in Hawaii, he made radio schedules with another radio amateur, John Chambers, W6NLZ, in California.  Night after night they would talk on the 20-meter short-wave band and then switch to their VHF radio without success.  But finally, after nine months, the VHF radio came alive with solid signals that came across 2,500 miles of the Pacific Ocean to John Chambers, W6NLZ, in California.  Word of this great success was big news in the technical press for months.  Some thought that it was just some sort of a fluke and would never happen again.  But Tommy repeated this performance many times on the VHF and UHF frequencies.  The Defense Department became very interested since they wanted to extend their communication circuits to the Pacific Islands.
     For this outstanding technical achievement to the art of radio communications, radio amateur Tommy Ralph Thomas, W2UK, and John Chambers, W6NLZ, were presented with the prestigious Thomas Edison Award.
     Tommy continued to experiment developing new techniques in radio communications and two years later, in 1961, he bounced his VHF amateur radio signals off the moon, reflected them back to earth and talked from Hawaii to his friends on the east coast of the United States via the moon; a distance of 480,000 miles.
     Tommy Ralph Thomas, W2UK, is without a doubt a pioneer in the development of long-range VHF radio communications.

January 24, 1990

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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