National Radio Company wireless radio station antenna installation, Mount Hood, August 1919

Two men, identified only as "Maloney & Coleman," set up an early wireless radio station antenna on the top of Mount Hood, Oregon, August 1919, with National Radio Wireless Company equipment. Telephone engineer C. M. Allen of the U.S. Forest Service and W. W. Hanscom oversaw installation of the National Radio Wireless sets on the mountain top that summer. The first wireless information regarding forest fires was transmitted from the mountain (Fire District 6) on August 9, 1919, a week earlier than similar messages sent in Montana. The equipment was dismantled and moved from the peak to the Mount Hood post office with the onset of winter. A series of installation photographs and Hanscom's journals documenting these tests are part of the Perham Collection of Early Electronics.