Hilmer Irvin Swanson (July 25, 1932 Davenport, Iowa – July 21, 2005 Quincy, Illinois)Hilmer Irvin Swanson 1932 - 2005
, Barry Mishkind – the Eclectic Engineer, theBDR.netHilmer Swanson Dies
RadioWorld, July 22, 2005, accessed April 18, 2012
radiolists.net, July 23, 2005, accessed April 18, 2012 was an American

radio engineer Broadcast engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting. Audio engineering and RF engineering are also essential ...

who developed several leading, patented techniques for

broadcast radio Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

Amplitude Modulation (AM) while working for Harris Corporation.

Early years and education

Swanson was educated in his home town of Davenport, Iowa, from a rural one room school house to high school. He was then drafted into the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

and served with the 10th Army Mountain Division at

Fort Riley, Kansas Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in North Central Kansas, on the Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 101,733 acres (41,170 ha) in Gea ...

. The Army Signal Corps sent him to its school at Fort Gordon, where he graduated with honors. Hilmer was assigned to Fort Huachuca where he was involved with AM transmitters with the US Army Electronic Proving Ground (EPG), and began his career in

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

. Upon demobilization with an honorable discharge on June 25, 1953, he went to Indiana and worked briefly with Bendix, then attended Valparaiso's

Technical Institute An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...

(closed 1991), and was awarded the degree of

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an Academic degree, academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In ...

. He then was awarded the degree of Master of Science In Electrical Engineering from

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

on February 4, 1959.

Working life

Swanson worked for

Collins Radio Rockwell Collins was a multinational corporation headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, providing avionics and information technology systems and services to government agencies and aircraft manufacturers. It was formed when the Collins Radio Compa ...

in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

before joining Gates Radio in Quincy Illinois, which was later bought by Harris Corporation. Swanson worked for Harris for 35 years until retirement in 1999, primarily on the design of high efficiency amplitude modulation (AM)

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

s. His work led to a series of

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

s on various types of high efficiency modulation, and led to the first commercial implementation of pulse duration modulation (PDM) system,Digital AM Transmitter Page
Jim Hawkins' Radio 77 WABC, date unknown and later progressive series modulation (PSM), polyphase PDM, and digital amplitude modulation. Swanson's patents led to almost all AM broadcast transmitters being designed using digital modulation techniques, and made AM

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as ...

transmitters obsolete. Swanson designed and developed a 2 Million Watt transmitter for the Voice of America. It still stands as the world's most powerful AM Broadcast transmitter ever made. One of his last works was a paper, "Performance of Modern AM Modulation Methods for Linear Digital Broadcast Applications," co-authored with John DeLay.

Honors

Swanson was a made a Harris Fellow, the highest honor given to an employee of that company. After retirement, Harris created a scholarship in Swanson's name at the

John Wood Community College John Wood Community College (JWCC) is a public community college in Quincy, Illinois. It is one of 48, two-year, open-admission colleges of the Illinois Community College System organized under the Illinois Public Community College Act. History ...

in Quincy, Illinois for the study of radio broadcast technology. Phillip W. Farmer, former Harris Chairman, President and CEO, said, "Mr. Swanson, a Senior Scientist at the Broadcast Communications Division has become a radio engineering legend in his own time. It is believed that no one has contributed more to the advancement of AM broadcast radio transmitters than Hilmer Swanson. Most famous are his PDM and PSM modulation techniques, and his "Crown Jewel"—the digital AM generation technology for Harris' DX series AM broadcast product Line." In 1990, Swanson received the National Association of Broadcasters Engineering Achievement Award. He was an honorary member of

Society of Broadcast Engineers The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) is a professional organization for engineers in broadcast radio and television. The SBE also offers certification in various radio frequency and video and audio technology areas for its members. Backgr ...

(SBE), and a life member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

Science Honor Fraternity. Swanson was awarded at least 28 patents in at least six countriesSwanson Hilmer I - Inventor
patentmaps.com, accessed 18 April 2012

Later life

In his retirement, Swanson and his wife, Carolyn, performed

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

work in

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

working to establish Christian AM broadcast radio stations. He was survived by three sons, a daughter, and their families.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swanson, Hilmer 1932 births 2005 deaths United States Army personnel of the Korean War Iowa State University alumni American electronics engineers American Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in Palau Protestant missionaries in Chile American expatriates in Palau American expatriates in Chile American expatriates in Estonia Protestant missionaries in Estonia 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors John Wood Community College people Bendix Corporation people