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"World Class Engineer"and Pioneer in Personal Communications Fondly Remembered by American Radio Relay League (ARRL) 1918-2000 |
The man who brought the world such indispensable wireless communications concepts and devices as the walkie-talkie, pager and cordless telephone has died. Al Gross, W8PAL SK (silent key), of Sun City, Arizona, passed away on December 21, 2000. He was 82.
Gross obtained his Amateur Radio license in 1934 at the age of 16. His early interest in Amateur Radio helped set his career choice while he was still a teenager.
Gross pioneered the development of devices that operated in the relatively unexplored VHF and UHF spectrum above 100 MHz. His first invention was a portable hand-held radio transmitter-receiver. Developed in 1938 while he was still in high school in Cleveland, he christened it the "walkie-talkie." The device caught the attention of the US Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. The OSS recruited Gross, and this led to the invention of a two-way air-to-ground communications system used by the military behind enemy lines during World War II. The system allowed OSS agents to communicate with high-flying aircraft.
"Al was my office mate for a year when I worked at Westinghouse. You don't meet too many people like Al in a lifetime. To a great extent, the reason why we're doing what we're doing is due to his inventions and effort. One person can make quite a bit of difference in this world!"–Harry Godlewski, Crown Castle USA, Inc. |
After World War II, Gross set up Gross Electronics, Inc. to design and build various communications products, some of them under government contracts. He also launched Citizens Radio Corporation to design, develop and manufacture personal wireless devices.
Cartoonist Chester Gould asked if he could use Gross' concept of a miniaturized two-way radio in his Dick Tracy comic strip. The result was the Dick Tracy two-way wrist radio.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Gross secured several patents for various portable and cordless telephone devices. In September 1958, Gross Electronics received FCC type approval for mobile and hand-held transceivers for use on the new Class D 27-MHz Citizens Band. "If you have a cordless telephone or a cellular telephone or a walkie-talkie or beeper, you've got one of my patents," Gross once said. He added that if his patents on those technologies hadn't run out in 1971, he'd have been a millionaire several times over.
Over the years, Gross worked as a communications specialist for several large companies. Since 1990 and until his death, he was a senior engineer for Orbital Sciences Corporation.
Gross received numerous awards and honors during his distinguished career, including the 1992 Fred B. Link Award from the Radio Club of America and the 1999 Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
As his IEEE biography put it: "It is clear that Mr. Gross was a true pioneer and helped lead the way to today's wireless personal communications revolution." Gross is survived by his wife, Ethel. A burial mass was held December 27 in Sun City.
Editor's Note: This material was reprinted from The ARRL Letter, Vol. 19, No. 50, December 29, 2000. The EMC Society is grateful to Harry Godlewski ( Harry.Godlewski@crowncastle.com ) and Bill Duff ( w.duff@ieee.org ) for providing this information for publication in the EMC Society Newsletter. Al Gross was an active member of the EMC Society. He was a past Chairman of the Phoenix EMC Chapter and was instrumental in its formation. EMC