Henryk Magnuski

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.

In June 1939 he was sent by his company to New York in order to study the latest American projects of radio transmitters. Soon after his arrival to the United States, Poland was invaded by Germany and World War II broke out. His return home became impossible.

In 1940 he started working for the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in Chicago (the company changed the name in 1947 to Motorola) and assigned to a team that developed the SCR-300, the first radio used by American forces in Europe to be called a "Walkie-Talkie".{{cite book|title=Signal. Journal of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IEEbAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA7-PA21|date=January 1957|publisher=Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association|pages=7–}} 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".{{cite book|author=Harry Mark Petrakis|title=The founder's touch: the life of Paul Galvin of Motorola|url=https://archive.org/details/founderstouchlif0000petr_a8r0|url-access=registration|date=1 January 1991|publisher=Motorola University Press, J.G Ferguson Pub. Co.|isbn=978-0-89434-119-9}} He later received a U. S. Navy Certificate of Commendation for Outstanding Service for development of the AN/CPN-6 Radar Beacon, a microwave device which aided carrier pilots to find their ship during low visibility conditions.

After the war he did not return to the communist People's Republic of Poland and stayed in the USA. He helped in the development of VHF cavity resonators that allowed adjacent channel operation, was a key designer for the Motorola Sensicon receiver which used a selective filter in front of the IF amplifier and created microwave relay equipment for use in transmitting multi-channel telephone, data and TV. In Motorola's Government Electronics Division he developed the SSB Radio Central Concept AN/USC-3, Motorola’s RADEM system (RADAS), the Deltaplex I digital troposcatter system and lightweight tropo equipment AN/TRC-105.

At retirement after 30 years of cooperation with the company, he was the Associate Director of Research for Motorola's Government Electronics Division, had 30 patents related to VHF and microwave communications, was an IEEE Fellow and author of numerous technical papers and a chapter in the "Communication System Engineering Handbook".

He succumbed to cancer at his home in Glenview, Illinois on May 4, 1978.

The Henry Magnuski Electrical and Computer Engineering professorship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is named in his honor.{{cite web|title=Professorship: Henry Magnuski Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering|url=https://www.ece.illinois.edu/directory/chairs/magnuski-professor-blahut.html|website=ECE|publisher=University of Illinois|accessdate=19 January 2017|archive-date=11 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511224129/https://ece.illinois.edu/directory/chairs/magnuski-professor-blahut.html|url-status=dead}}

On October 6, 2006, Henryk Magnuski was one of the first five inductees into the Illinois Engineering Hall of Fame.{{cite web|title=Henryk Magnuski|url=http://iehof.com/Magnuski.aspx|website=Illinois Engineering Hall of Fame|publisher=IEHOF.com|accessdate=19 January 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713003221/http://iehof.com/Magnuski.aspx|archive-date=July 13, 2011}}

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.{{cite web|title=Geniusze i marzyciele|url=https://vod.tvp.pl/website/geniusze-i-marzyciele,51871329}}

Magnuski's son is Hank Magnuski, pioneer of PC-to-fax technology.{{Cite web|url=https://ece.illinois.edu/directory/chairs/magnuski-professor-blahut.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705204059/http://www.ece.illinois.edu/directory/chairs/magnuski-professor-blahut.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 5, 2010|title=Magnuski Professor Blahut :: ECE ILLINOIS|last=Services|first=Engineering IT Shared|website=ece.illinois.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-08-25}}

• 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. {{ISBN|0-07-025960-7}}
• H. Magnuski. A Novel Solution to Troposcatter Communication Problems. Telecommunications, January, 1968

• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2398793 US2,398,793] Radio receiving system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2408791 US2,408,791] Radio communications system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2409139 US2,409,139] Radio receiving system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2608648 US2,608,648] Highly selective radio receiver
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2608649 US2,608,649] Highly selective radio receiver
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2637782 US2,637,782] Resonant cavity filter
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2699495 US2,699,495] Automatic switchover system for radio relay
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2699496 US2,699,496] Microwave relay test system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2713664 US2,713,664] Limiter for phase modulation
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2734131 US2,734,131] Communication system with carrier strength control
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2782300 US2,782,300] Modulation meter
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2803802 US2,803,802] Deviation Calibrator
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2813198 US2,813,198] Microwave system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2852730 US2,852,730] Power supply
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2860238 US2,860,238] Diversity receiving system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2892930 US2,892,930] Communication system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2959673 US2,959,673] Radio receiver squelch control
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3235768 US3,235,768] Variable microwave phase shifter utilizing plasma electrode
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3292086 US3,292,086] System for converting a train of binary zeroes to a train of alternating ones and zeroes and vice versa
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3292178 US3,292,178] Communication system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3361970 US3,361,970] Selection of frequencies for minimum depth of fading in a frequency diversity microwave line of sight relay link
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3380023 US3,380,023] Electronic alarm system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3392392 US3,392,392] Bearing measurement system using statistical signal processing by analog techniques
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3406775 US3,406,775] Vehicular speed indicator, odometer and automatic speed control system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3453562 US3,453,562] Delta modulator with uniform quantizing steps
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3467783 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
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3471646 US3,471,646] Time division multiplex system with prearranged carrier frequency shifts
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3506966 US3,506,966] Pulse coded, wide band radio communication system
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3532988 US3,532,988] Digital troposcatter multiplex communication system optimum frequency
• [https://patents.google.com/patent/US3646441 US3,646,441] Digital radio communication systems using repeaters operating at same frequency

• Timeline of Polish science and technology
• List of Poles

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magnuski, Henryk}}

Category:1909 births

Category:1978 deaths

Category:Engineers from Warsaw

Category:Motorola employees

Category:People from Glenview, Illinois

Category:Deaths from cancer in Illinois

Category:20th-century Polish inventors

Category:Fellows of the IEEE

Category:20th-century American inventors

Category:Polish emigrants to the United States