Pioneer Short-Wave Station
Forest Hills, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On this site in 1923, Westinghouse opened a special radio facility to experiment with long-distance transmissions. Led by Frank Conrad, engineers here demonstrated the vital role of high-frequency short waves in sending broadcasts around the world.
The Story
In the early 1920s the airwaves were a frontier, and Pittsburgh's Westinghouse Electric was at its leading edge — home of KDKA, one of the nation's first commercial broadcasting stations. On this Forest Hills ground in 1923 the company opened a laboratory to push transmission farther than anyone thought practical, guided by engineer Frank Conrad, whose backyard tinkering had helped launch broadcasting itself. The work here proved that short waves, bouncing off the upper atmosphere, could carry a signal clear across oceans — a discovery that shrank the world.
Why it matters
The short-wave experiments run here helped turn radio from a local novelty into a global medium, laying groundwork for international broadcasting, transcontinental communication, and the connected age that followed.
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Related people
- · Frank Conrad
Related events
- · Westinghouse short-wave radio experiments
Themes & tags
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