Gus Fallgren, Al Hankinson and Dick Wright Transistor Museum Historic Profile
Recognizing Significant Contributions to 20^th Century Semiconductor History and Technology
The First “Transistor Powered” Trans-Atlantic Amateur Radio Contact
	Shown above are both sides of one of the Raytheon transistors used in the first transatlantic contact.  Standard production transistors were typically stamped with a manufacturing date code.  This device is a pre-production Engineering Sample (ES) with no date code - it was likely produced in early 1955.
DOCUMENTING THE HISTORIC TRANSMISSION The exchange of QSL cards by the two communicating parties involved in an amateur radio contact is the standard method for documenting the contact.  The QSL cards are typically the size of a post card and are mailed using the postal system.  The cards contain the basic information relating to the actual radio contact.  Shown at top is a scan of one side of the QSL side mailed to Gus Fallgren by Bo Brondum-Nielson from Copenhagen confirming the first transistor transatlantic contact.  Amateur radio operators also maintain a formal log of their contacts, and shown above is a section of Gus’s log from September 1956.  The yellow highlighted section documents the first contact at 20:42 Eastern Time, on 9/18/56.   Note the QSL card has a Sept 19 date, which reflects the six hour time difference between Chelmsford and Copenhagen.  The contact was done on the 20 meter (14 MC) frequency band.
TransAtlantic Transistors, Page 4
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