[BC] AM Stereo

[Michael Patton]

I stand corrected and humbled.  What I knew of Mr. Kahn was mainly fed 
to me through my association with Motorola as an AM stereo installer, 
plus what I picked up in the industry press and from other engineers; I 
have never had a conversation with him other than at a trade show.

I knew he was a very smart guy, but did not know the extent of his 
accomplishments.  I broke my own first rule (never respond to anything 
professionally from an emotional standpoint) by reacting when someone 
called Kahn a "hero", which I still think, at least looking solely at 
the context of AM stereo, is inaccurate.  Given his many other 
accomplishments, perhaps that is no as inappropriate a moniker after all.

I apologize to anyone I offended, and to Leonard, if he is listening.

Mike Patton, owner, Michael Patton&  Assoc.
12231 Industriplex Blvd, Ste C, Baton Rouge, LA  70809
225-752-4189 ofc     225-266-9745 cell     www.michaelpatton.com

On 11/23/2010 5:12 PM, Bob Tarsio wrote:
> Message: 15
> From: Michael Patton<tech at michaelpatton.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed
> Hero my ass. He was a jerk of the first water, albeit a very smart
> one. He was so determined to preserve his place in history as the
> "father of AM stereo" he ended up helping to ensure the death of AM stereo.
> Mike Patton, owner, Michael Patton&  Assoc.
> 12231 Industriplex Blvd, Ste C, Baton Rouge, LA 70809
> 225-752-4189 ofc 225-266-9745 cellwww.michaelpatton.com
>
> Mike:
>
> I think your criticism is a little harsh about Leonard Kahn. I have known Leonard for nearly 30 years and worked for him for a short while in the early 1980's. Leonard's only fault if you call it that is that he was too damned good of an engineer and not pragmatic enough to understand the forces he was dealing with in the AM stereo debacle. Leonard was a gentleman and a mentor to me and to his customers. I am willing to bet that Leonard has more patents and contributed more to this industry than the combined number of people who post to this list. Give the guy a little respect.
>
> Here are a just a few of his accomplishments:
>
> 1. EER - allowed non linear amplifiers to amplify linear signals at a great operating cost savings - 1951 at the ripe old age of 25!
>
> 2. Compatible Single Side Band AM transmission - provided a reduction of adjacent channel noise to AM broadcasts
>
> 3. Independent Side Band AM Stereo transmission - Frankly, the only system that worked right under adverse operating conditions
>
> 4. Airphone - Yes, the first system to use telephones on airliners was a Kahn Communications, Inc. development in conjunction with MCI.
>
> 5. Dual and tri line telephone extension systems for remote broadcasting before the advent of digitial lines to do remote broadcasts
>
> By the way, many of his patents and contributions had little to do with broadcasting but were in the area of commercial communications. Leonard did work for companies like Press Wireless where his company developed technology to transmit and receive data, wire photos, and facsimile before the days of the Internet and satellite transmission. Broadcasting ended up being a distraction to him and frankly the communications industry was robbed of his expertise due to his preoccupation with AM stereo.
>
> Leonard is a registered professional engineer, a registered patent agent and holds a doctorate in electrical engineering. His first job in radio? He was a transmitter engineer at the ripe old age of 14 at WWRL AM in New York City. That's right 14 year old Leonard Kahn had a First Class Radiotelephone license. In his twenties he was a staff engineer at RCA in Riverhead which was one of RCA's prestigious research facilities.
>
> Leonard was a scientist first and everything else after that. The next time you call someone a jerk you ought to know something about the the man. If he is a jerk then I want to be a jerk just like him.
>
> Bob Tarsio
>
> www.broadcast-devices.com
>
>