Raymond A. Litke (1920-1986) was an American

electronic engineer Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current ...

, the inventor of a practical

wireless microphone A wireless microphone, or cordless microphone, is a microphone without a physical cable connecting it directly to the sound recording or amplifying equipment with which it is associated. Also known as a radio microphone, it has a small, battery- ...

, and the first to patent the wireless microphone. He was born and raised on a farm near

Alma, Kansas Alma is a city in and the county seat of Wabaunsee County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 802. History 19th century For millennia, the land now known as Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans ...

, but spent most of his adult life in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

Wireless microphone

Litke invented a

in 1957 while employed as an electronics expert at

San Jose State College San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

. His supervisor challenged him to invent a microphone to use in educational presentations which would be free of wires. Litke’s wireless mike resembled a silver tube with “a microphone at the top, a transmitter in the middle and its battery power supply at the bottom.” It was 6 inches long, 1 inch in diameter, and weighed 7 ounces; the device had a broadcast range of up to a half-mile. Two types of mikes were available: lavalier and hand-held. A companion receiver, weighing 17 pounds, completed the portable sound system.Alma Signal-Enterprise. November 10, 1960. Although Litke prototyped the wireless microphone in 1957, he did not file for a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclo ...

until May 8, 1961. U.S. Patent No. 3,134,074 was officially granted on May 19, 1964. His microphone is sometimes also called the “Vega-Mike” after the Vega Electronics Corporation which first manufactured it as a product. Vega sold other electronics items and tapes developed by Litke.Alma Signal-Enterprise. February 26, 1981. Litke's wireless microphone was first tested at the

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

trials held at Stanford University in 1959. Next, the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an Television in the United States, American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the Disney General Entertainment Content#Current assets, ...

(ABC television) tested the microphone at the

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

and

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or again ...

Conventions in 1960.San Jose Mercury News. September 10, 1960. Candidates

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

and

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

were among the first celebrities to use the Vega-Mike. TV anchor John Daly praised Litke's invention on the ABC television news broadcast in July 1960. Daly introduced it to Americans with the words: "This is a Vega-Mike" and went on to explain it "is a wireless microphone, six inches long... without any wires of any kind...." Daly pointed out it could be used to broadcast "within the (convention) hall or outside... without the inconvenience of interconnecting microphone cables...." Even the Federal Communication Commission was impressed with it. The FCC gave him 12 frequencies instead of the one he was seeking.

Other accomplishments

In the 1960s Litke worked at the

University of California, San Francisco Medical Center The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center is a research and teaching hospital in San Francisco, California and is the medical center of the University of California, San Francisco. It is affiliated with the UCSF School of Med ...

as the chief engineer of Educational Television and as an electronics expert. By 1961 he had worked for the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Fran ...

system for ten years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Litke, Raymond A. 1920 births 1986 deaths People from Wabaunsee County, Kansas People from San Jose, California 20th-century American inventors