By Dave Jensen, W7DGJ

One thing I haven't spoken much about on QRZ is the fact that I had a 30-year career as a headhunter, working for companies who do research (my fields were radio or biology -- and "biotech" always won, as there is very little money available for new radio businesses). It was my job to find key engineers or CEO's for these cool startups. Sometimes I would see awesome growth in those businesses after my work, as It often proved true that a good engineer with creative abilities could become the core of a business.

I sure learned a lot working with these very experienced inventors from different niches. These "lessons learned" are a part of my talks to the Ham Radio community at clubs and hamfests. The comments and advice that I spill in those sessions is drawn 100% from in-depth conversations I'd have with brilliant people in my headhunter duties. I call this process "gathering OPA." That simply means going after 'other people's advice.' There's nothing wrong with collecting and spreading OPA around a bit! 

Years later, I am still fascinated by the mindset and traits of creative people. I will seek them out at amateur radio events and ask them sincere questions that are geared to tell me more about their process. As long as you approach your contact with a genuine interest, that's just networking. And in my networking lie the seeds of many articles here on QRZ.com.

In this issue of T&E, I will lay out some of the fundamental traits of radio innovators -- mindsets that I've learned about as a recruiter. This information has helped me understand how new inventions move ahead. By knowing more about these unique people and their process, we might forecast how the next "big thing" in radio could come about.

Inventors and Innovators -- Two Different People

It's easy for a writer to start using these two terms interchangably, but that's not right as they are different kinds of people. When I think about inventors, Joe Taylor (K1JT) comes to mind. Joe is a pure inventor and researcher, and an emeritus distinguished Professor from Princeton University. He and his colleagues developed FT-8 out of an innate sense of curiosity; Joe applied work that he'd done with weak signals from pulsars in his astrophysics studies.

He's has been a ham operator for decades; FT-8 brought together Joe's passion for radio and his new understanding of weak signals. The result changed amateur radio as much or more than the development of the single sideband mode several decades earlier. Change is good as it inspires growth, like pruning a tree. I wonder, will something this big happen again, and are we ready for it?

But many inventors often care less about commercializing and selling large quantities of what they've discovered. Innovators do, however. Their mode of operation is to take some existing concept, or product, and change or improve it with the goal of expanding upon that idea to the point where it becomes a key part of our lives. David Sarnoff of RCA, an innovator himself, said it this way: "An inventor is someone who makes another man rich." 

Martin Jue of MFJ Enterprises (now retired) is another good example of the "innovator". He is the ultimate creative type -- a fellow who could take any interesting radio gadget, improve it, and then sell a zillion of them via his innovative direct marketing approach. (Yes, a business model can be an innovation as well). At the time that MFJ began that growth cycle, no one else was investing in this kind of advertising space, or 800 numbers with telephone sales staff. It was completely new to Amateur Radio. (Where we go now -- without MFJ -- is a future column).

The classic example of an innovator was Henry Ford, who didn't invent the auto but who sure found a way to improve, manufacture, and market them. And the classic example of an inventor was Guglielmo Marconi, right?

But (wait a minute) . . . was Marconi an innovator instead?

Self Promotion is Critical to Success

An American, Dr. Mahlon Loomis, actually had a successful transmission across 17 miles (from mountaintop to mountaintop in Virginia) 30 years before Marconi began his experimentation. While it wasn't really communication so-to-speak, that experiment was witnessed by many including congressmen and was indeed proof that radio waves exist. Loomis saw their probable utility and founded a company by the name of Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company afterwards -- still years before the birth of Mr. Marconi.

While the USA should be proud of its (very early) radio heritage, it was because Mr. Marconi showed his innovator roots that radio as a commercial product became introduced to the world. The man was a genius, not only at taking these concepts and expanding them further, but a genius in the way that he gathered support and resources to his cause.

The difference between Marconi and Loomis lies in their ability (or lack thereof) to promote their achievements. As a headhunter, I identified that trait in every single successful innovator that I've interviewed . . . that is, they are not afraid to stand up and call upon others for the resources they need to move ahead. Loomis appears to me to have been a mild-mannered fellow with an introvert's lack of promotional ability, suffering from what psychologists would label "the Fear of Self-Promotion." He failed to convince the US Congress to fund his work.

Marconi on the other hand went from success to success in funding and in gathering interest. He was out there, in front of his work, demanding attention and talking about the many benefits that radio could bring to society.

Persistence - Another Critical Trait of Successful Invention

I was raised in a family that often spoke about Thomas Edison around our dinner table. Dad was the Edison biographer for the General Electric company, and he would often use historical examples from Edison's life to illustrate some point. If I was ready to give up on a science project at school, I'd be sure to hear about Edison's experiences with the light bulb. 

I remember my father's words like it was yesterday: "Dave, do you remember the difficulty that Mr. Edison had with his light bulb filament before he found one that worked? What did he say to the reporter who asked him about his failure and the months that went by before he had a working prototype of the light bulb?" And of course, I knew the answer . . . it had been drummed into me dozens of times.

"He told the reporter that the light bulb filament experiments were not a failure," I said. "He told them that the light bulb was simply an invention with thousands of steps. He never stopped trying, Dad." 

--

Marconi was, again, a great example in the radio world for this trait of persistence. There was a time when his experiments with radio waves couldn't get further than one-half mile. At that point, an eminent British physicist, Sir Oliver Lodge, wrote in a prestigious scientific publication that it was physically impossible for RF to go beyond that point. While many would have been discouraged to the point of giving up, Marconi persisted and the rest is history. 

Every one of our modern day radio inventors or innovators has had this experience as well. I'm sure there were many times during Martin Jue's early days where he could have easily given up and gone back to work at the University. Instead, he rented a small motel room, hung the MFJ shingle on the wall and began packaging small kits of parts into sellable merchandise. 

The Law of Curiosity

Curiosity should come naturally to you; after all, we amateur radio operators thrive on experimentation that is based on our curious nature. I'm curious about this type of antenna or that one . . . you may be curious about building a next-generation solid state amplifier. My point is that, for us, curiosity is a part of what we do. That's why I am not concerned about the future of amateur radio innovation. There will always be operators out there developing something new on their basement workbench, as Gene Senti did for one of Collins' big innovations. Every inventor or innovator that I have ever interviewed or read about was inspired by this same law of curiosity.

Large companies used to be curious, as well. They set up huge centers of R&D such as Bell Laboratories, or Nela Park (Cleveland) where my father ran the Lighting Institute. Sadly, today these corporate research centers are few and far between, as they've long ago been downsized and/or sold to foreign companies. Will we see radio innovations come from big firms like these ever again? It's doubtful. 

What will drive the "next big thing" in amateur radio is the curiosity, drive and persistence of the community itself. It will be ham radio operators who combine their passion for RF with a curious nature; we'll count on those operators in order to see our Amateur Radio Services flourish with new technology and innovation in the future. What do you think we have coming down the road? I invite you to add your thoughts to the Forum Discussion at the link below.

Thanks and 73 for now,

Dave, W7DGJ

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