This publication documents the development of radio communications and the Amateur Radio Operators who designed and implemented these radios for their use in fireline and lookout tower communications. The publication is posted by chapter in .PDF format. Some documents are rather large and may be slow to load.
Amateur Radio Fire Lookout Tower Association Home Page
| INTRODUCTION / TABLE OF CONTENTS | CHAPTER VII: Improved Designs: Standards for the Future | CHAPTER XIV: Communications Leadership: Toward Consensus and Standardization |
| CHAPTER I:Telephones, Pigeons, Mirrors, Airplanes, and Balloons: Filling a Need for Communications | CHAPTER VIII: Eat, Sleep, and Drink Radio: Administration, Cooperation, and Special Tasks | CHAPTER XV: The Electronics Center: CommunicationsPrograms After 1951 |
| CHAPTER II: "Ring Bell" Adams: Using Radio Before its Time | CHAPTER IX: Radio in the Regions: Reasons for wide Variation of Use | APPENDIX I: Forest Service Radio Models--Photos, Schematic Diagrams, and Data |
| CHAPTER III: Dwight Beatty: Selling the Forest Service on Radio | CHAPTER X: A Dissenting Opinion: Communications Plans and Practices in Region 1 | APPENDIX II: GLOSSARY |
| CHAPTER IV: Tacoma and Vancouver: First Radio Laboratories | CHAPTER XI: Good Fences: Regional Networks, Portable Radios, and Interference | APPENDIX's III & IV: Source Materials / Clearwater National Forest Anecdotal History |
| CHAPTER V: Simple, Rugged, and Reliable: Radio Policies and Practices Take Shape | CHAPTER XII: Communications Bridges: World War II and the Aircraft Warning System | |
| CHAPTER VI: Beyond 100 Meters: VHF and HF Development | CHAPTER XIII: Putting the Pieces Back Together: Postwar Adjustments and FM Radio |