[BC] need a NON-technical explanation

[James Snyder]

Having spent a great deal of time trolling the Dept. of Commerce 
records at the National Archives, I think I can give you a quick 
answer: as the technology became more sophisticated and the tuning 
more precise in the 1920s, a more precise way of measuring and 
assigning radio frequencies was needed since expressing them as 
meters was generally considered confusing to the common person (IE 
the non-ham) who didn't understand the difference between meters as 
radio waves vs. meters as a form of distance measurement.

Additionally, decimal point assignments in meters were not as precise 
as kilocycles which could be measured and assigned down to the cycle. 
I've never found the document that announced the change, but 
generally the move to frequencies from meters happened when the DOC 
Radio Division started assigning stations other than the original 
300, 450, and 600 meters, which was around 1921.  All of the Dept. of 
Commerce licenses I've ever seen used meters (expressed in decimal 
points after frequencies started being used as well), and they 
started consistently using frequency numbers next to the meter 
assignments with the first "Commercial Broadcasting Land Station" 
license issued to WBZ Springfield, MA in 1921.  With the creation of 
the Federal Radio Commission in 1927 I stopped seeing meter 
assignments on the license forms.

kc (kilocycles) was changed to kHz (kiloHertz) when it was decided to 
name frequencies in honor of Heinrich Hertz, the scientist who made 
great contributions to the documentation of electromagnetism. 
Wikipedia (that bastion of accuracy) states that the IEC 
(International Electrotechnical Commission) adopted Hertz in his 
honor in 1930, and the General Conference on Weights and Measures 
adopted it in 1960:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertz

Hope this helps.

James
------
James Snyder
Senior Systems Administrator
Library of Congress -
   National Audio Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC)
Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation

>This may be an old-radio query, but I know some of you are hams so 
>perhaps you can help me explain something.  I am finishing up my 
>dissertation for my PhD after all these years (I always wanted a 
>Doctorate, and you're never too old to study something new) and am 
>struggling with how to explain in non-technical terms why radio 
>stations of the 1920s moved away from using meters and embraced the 
>term "kilocycles".  (I know they did it beginning in 1923, and it 
>basically seems to have become fait accompli by around 1927.)  I 
>believe hams still use meters, do they not?
>
>But to further confuse the neo-Luddites like me, today's radio 
>receivers are in kilohertz-- I grew up with using "kc" and it all 
>changed further at some point to "kHz", but I never understood that 
>change either.  Soooo, if somebody could explain these changes and 
>the reasons for them, in English that the average non-techie could 
>understand, I'd be grateful.