ace today that have no roaming or long- distance restrictions. A Bit of History The road to the modern wireless communications network was fraught with technical, bureaucratic, and social speed bumps. In 1905, listeners in New York City, accustomed to the staccato beat of Morse Code broad- casts spewing from their radios, were astounded to hear music and voice as Reginald Fessenden, a local radio commentator, broadcast the results of the annual New York City yacht races. Listeners could hear the results immediately, instead of waiting for the late edition of the paper. Public perception of the possibilities of radio suddenly began to grow. Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. Access Technologies Chapter 6 At roughly the same time, the United States military, recognizing the potentially strategic value of radio communications in the armed forces, helped to create the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), ushering wire- less technology into the technological forefront. The first wireless applications were developed in 1915 and 1916 for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communications. In 1921, the Detroit Police Department inaugurated the first land-based mobile application for radio communications, when they installed one-way radios in patrol cars-the original "calling all cars" application. The system required police officers to stop at a phone box to place a call to their precinct when a call came in, but the ability to quickly and easily communicate with roving officers represented a giant step forward for the police and their ability to respond quickly to calls. Unfortunately, the system was not without its problems. Even though the transmitter was powerful, Detroit's deep concrete canyons pre- vented the signal from reaching many areas. Equally vexing was the problem of motion: The delicate vacuum tubes, subjected to the endless vi