The CEO of Ramirez and Clark, a publishing firm in Florida, Scott Westerman was born and raised in Michigan. Former Michigan resident Scott Westerman still maintains a passion for his childhood interests and is the owner of RockAndRollRevisited.com and Keener13.com, the latter of which is a tribute to a popular Michigan radio station from the 1960s. He is also interested in amateur radio, also known as ham radio.

Ham radio’s creation is credited to Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio and the first amateur to be on the air. He completed the world’s first cross-Atlantic communication via a radio device in 1901. This radio device had huge antennas and used a lot of power.

Amateur radio grew rapidly after that, and thousands of amateurs were on the air by 1910. At this time, there was a lot of interference by unlicensed experimenters who had commercial and governmental operations. To curb this issue, Congress passed the Wireless Ship Act in 1910 that required ships to carry wireless equipment and operators. Approximately 2 years later, Congress also passed the Radio Act of 1912, restricting medium- and long-wave band experimentation.

The government later set up licensing procedures that were controlled by the Department of Navy and later the Department Commerce and Labor. This regulated the amateur radio industry more and reduced the number of issues relating to interference.

Amateur radio was banned during WWI, but it made a resurgence in 1916, which led to the creation of several acts from Congress that managed amateur radio responsibilities and licensing. Amateurs were again banned from operating during WWII, but the hobby steadily grew in popularity after resuming operations in 1946.