Harris Salutes Swanson’s Work

We told you last week about the death of Hilmer Swanson. Services are set for Wednesday morning in Quincy, Ill.; memorial contributions may be made to St. James Radio Broadcast or to the Estonia AM Radio Project.
An obituary compiled by Harris Corp., from which Swanson had retired, described the scientist as a legendary broadcast innovator who had “invented every modulation technique used in modern AM broadcast transmitters” and credited him with cutting global AM transmitter power consumption costs by well over $100 million over 20 years.
During his career at Gates/Harris, the company stated, Swanson “was awarded 27 U.S. patents and numerous international patents. His pioneering work in broadcasting literally changed the face of contemporary radio broadcasting. Believed to have contributed more to AM transmission technology than anyone else, Hilmer invented every type of AM modulation – PDM (Pulse Duration Modulation); Progressive Series Modulation; Polyphase PDM, and Digital Amplitude Modulation, the world’s first digital radio modulation technique used in Harris DX Series transmitters.”