Graynella Packer
 | This article, Graynella Packer, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Inform author |
Graynella Packer was an American wireless radio operator. She became Florida's youngest woman to become a wireless operator “on board an ocean-going steamship" at age 22.[1] Her passion in the industry started as a hobby which then allowed her to serve on the steamship SS Mohawk (1908) from November 1910 to April 1911.[2]
Career
To kickstart her career, Packer went to the United Wireless Telegraph Company to inquire about opportunities. She was informed that although she could 'probably pass a telegraph test I would have to qualify as a radio operator'. She left discouraged after learning that in order for her to quality, she had to learn all about motor-generators, detectors, helices, transformers, and other technicalities.
Undeterred, she learned from Modern Electrics how others received messages from 500 miles distance on a homemade amateur setup using an electrolytic detector, two pairs of seventy-five ohm receivers, tuning coil, and a seventy-five foot aerial.
Encouraged by the possibility, she convinced her brother to assist her in an erecting a small antenna on a roof. In due time, she secured the required instruments which allowed her to connect the old "NY" (New York) station calling "DU" (Wilmington, Delaware). At that time, radio communications were done exclusively through American Morse codes.
There were no stringent assignments such as tuning or station licenses, or assignment of calls, or government supervision, which allowed her to operate without having to reveal her identity or gender.
To become a professional, however, she needed to secure a job. She secured an interview with the superintendent of United Wireless Telegraph Company. When she approached him about her interest to take an operator's test, the gentleman doubted her ability to perform the duties of a radio man in every detail including climbing of a ship's rigging every morning to grease the aerial wires. She was told that he would "take my name and bear me in mind" and inform her of the next lady-operator vacancy.
Packer wrote to the superintendent about his promise after she had not heard from him for a month. She informed her of the government decision decree, that it was unlawful for a woman to perform the duties of a radio operator on board a vessel.
She later wrote the Department of Commerce which then issued her the "Certificate of Skill".[3]
References
- ^ "The Feminine Wireless Amateur" (PDF). The San Diego DX Club.
- ^ "First Female Ham Radio Operators, and their Awesome Legacy". The Mary Sue. 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
- ^ "The Autobiography of a Girl Amateur (1920)". earlyradiohistory.us. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
| This article, Graynella Packer, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Inform author |