Henryk Magnuski

Henryk Władysław Magnuski (January 30, 1909 – May 4, 1978) was a Polish telecommunications engineer who worked for Motorola in Chicago. He was a primary contributor to the development of one of the first Walkie-Talkie radios, the Motorola SCR-300, and influenced the company's success in the field of radio communication.

Early years Magnuski was born on January 30, 1909, in Warsaw. Having lost both parents at a relatively early age, he supported himself and his sister, Janina, by fixing and installing radios for the Polish military. He received his degree from Warsaw University of Technology in 1934 and started working for the State Tele- and Radiotechnical Works (Państwowe Zakłady Tele i Radiotechniczne) in Warsaw. As principal RF engineer on the project and named on three patents for the device, Magnuski is sometimes credited as having "invented the Walkie-Talkie in America".

On October 6, 2006, Henryk Magnuski was one of the first five inductees into the Illinois Engineering Hall of Fame.

Polish TVP aired a documentary on the life of Henryk Magnuski on January 27, 2021. It was the first in a series of documentaries on famous Polish scientists and inventors.

Personal life Magnuski's son is Hank Magnuski, pioneer of PC-to-fax technology.

Publications H. Magnuski. Cavity Resonators in Mobile Communications. Communications, August, 1949 H. Magnuski. Application of Microwave Relay to Commercial Communication Systems. 1949 Southwestern I.R.E. Conference - Dallas, Texas H. Magnuski. Private Line Microwave Systems. IRE Professional Group on Vehicular Communications National Meeting - Detroit, Michigan, November 3, 1950 H. Magnuski. Adjacent Channel Rejection Receiver. Electronics Magazine, January, 1951 H. Magnuski. The Microwave Relay Communication System - General Technical Philosophy & Specific Engineering Solution. Fourth Southwestern IRE Conference - Houston Texas, May 17, 1952 H. Magnuski, Theodore F. Koch. Passive Repeater Bends Microwave Beam. Electronics Magazine, February, 1953 H. Magnuski, Harold A. Jones. Packaged Microwave Relay Systems. Radio Electronic Engineering, March, 1953 H. Magnuski. The Microwave Relay and its Relationship to VHF Vehicular Communication. I.R.E. Convention - Washington, D.C., June 23, 1953 H. Magnuski, Dr. William L. Firestone, Angus MacDonald. Modulation Sideband Splatter of VHF and UHF Transmitters. Proceedings of the National Electronic Conference, Vol 10 February, 1955 H. Magnuski. An Explanation of Fading in Microwave Relay Systems. IRE National Convention, March 21, 1955 H. Magnuski. An Explanation of Microwave Fading and Its Correction by Frequency Diversity. Winter General Meeting of the AIEE, January 30, 1956 H. Magnuski. Comparison of SSB and FM for VHF Mobile Service. Proceedings of the I.R.E, Vol. 44 No. 12, December, 1956 H. Magnuski. Comparison of SSB and FM for VHF Mobile Service. IRE Transactions on Vehicular Communications, PGVC-9, June, 1957 Dr. William L. Firestone, H. Magnuski, Roy A. Richardson. Single Sideband for Mobile Applications. AIEE Fall General Meeting - Chicago, Illinois, October 11, 1957 Dr. William L. Firestone, H. Magnuski, A. A. MacDonald, R. A. Richardson. Synchronous SSB for Communications. Electronic Industries, April, 1958 Dr. William L. Firestone, H. Magnuski. Report on Single Sideband Communications. New York Section of AIEE, April 30, 1958 Dr. William L. Firestone, H. Magnuski. SSB for Spectrum Conservation. Globe Com II - St. Petersburg, Florida, December 3, 1958 H. Magnuski. Single Sideband for Communications. CMEC Communications Symposium, June 11, 1959 H. Magnuski. Jamming of Communications Systems Using FM, AM and SSB Modulation. IRE Transactions on Military Electronics, MIL-5 No. 1 8-11, January, 1961 H. Magnuski. Wideband Channel for Emergency Communications. IRE Transactions on Vehicular Communications, Vol. VC-10 No. 2, August, 1961 Willis DeHart, H. Magnuski. Analysis of Random Access Discrete Address System. IRE Eighth National Communications Symposium, October, 1962 H. Magnuski. RADA and Satellite Communications. 1962 National Symposium on Space Electronics and Telemetry - Miami Beach, October 2, 1962 H. Magnuski. RADAS - A New Concept in Communications Systems. Motorola Engineering Bulletin, Vol. 11, Issues 1 and 2, 1963 H. Magnuski. Anti-Jamming Characteristics of RADAS. IRE Winter Convention on Military Electronics - Los Angeles, February, 1963 H. Magnuski. RADAS and Satellite Communication. National Symposium on Space Electronics and Telemetry, October 2, 1962 H. Magnuski. Microwave Fading and its Correction by Diversity Reception. Wire and Radio Communications, November, 1964 H. Magnuski, W. Braun, L. Engelbrecht, F. R. Steel. Delta-Multiplex for Long Tropo Scatter Links. IEEE International Convention, 1965 H. Magnuski. Deltaplex - A Novel Solution to Troposcatter Communications Problems. Fourth Canadian Symposium on Communications, October 14, 1966 H. Magnuski, L. Engelbrecht, W. E. Yost, Jr. Digital Techniques Promise New Applications for Tropo. Signal Magazine, 1967 H. Magnuski. Upgrading the Tropo Span. Motorola Engineering Bulletin. April 4, 1967 H. Magnuski. The Principles of Vehicular Communication Systems Design. IEEE First Symposium on Vehicular Communications Systems, May 25, 1967 H. Magnuski. Chapter 18 - Address Communication Systems. Communication System Engineering Handbook - Donald. H. Hamsher, Ed., June, 1967, McGraw-Hill, NY. H. Magnuski. A Novel Solution to Troposcatter Communication Problems. Telecommunications, January, 1968

US Patents US2,398,793 Radio receiving system US2,408,791 Radio communications system US2,409,139 Radio receiving system US2,608,648 Highly selective radio receiver US2,608,649 Highly selective radio receiver US2,637,782 Resonant cavity filter US2,699,495 Automatic switchover system for radio relay US2,699,496 Microwave relay test system US2,713,664 Limiter for phase modulation US2,734,131 Communication system with carrier strength control US2,782,300 Modulation meter US2,803,802 Deviation Calibrator US2,813,198 Microwave system US2,852,730 Power supply US2,860,238 Diversity receiving system US2,892,930 Communication system US2,959,673 Radio receiver squelch control US3,235,768 Variable microwave phase shifter utilizing plasma electrode US3,292,086 System for converting a train of binary zeroes to a train of alternating ones and zeroes and vice versa US3,292,178 Communication system US3,361,970 Selection of frequencies for minimum depth of fading in a frequency diversity microwave line of sight relay link US3,380,023 Electronic alarm system US3,392,392 Bearing measurement system using statistical signal processing by analog techniques US3,406,775 Vehicular speed indicator, odometer and automatic speed control system US3,453,562 Delta modulator with uniform quantizing steps US3,467,783 Speech bandwidth reduction by sampling 1/n cycles storing the samples, and reading the samples out at 1/n the sampling rate US3,471,646 Time division multiplex system with prearranged carrier frequency shifts US3,506,966 Pulse coded, wide band radio communication system US3,532,988 Digital troposcatter multiplex communication system optimum frequency US3,646,441 Digital radio communication systems using repeaters operating at same frequency