Shown here a hundred years ago this month, on the cover of the August 1919 issue of Radio Amateur News, is Alfred H. Grebe.  The magazine contains an article by the radio pioneer about his experiments with mobile radio.  He found that the radiotelephone set mounted in the car worked well, and that 150 meters gave the best results.  The transmitter was of the latest design, and the receiver was a regenerative set with a variometer.  While it was still at the experimental stage and no definitive measurements were made, he did note that both ship and land stations within a few hundred miles were heard.  Even with shielding, the spark plugs of his car limited the range, and the interference from other cars could be heard for quite some distance.

Grebe was involved in the beginnings of WCBS radio, and when he died in 1935 at the age of 40, his obituary appeared in the New York Times.