Establishing standards for measuring the performance of radio receivers

Regularly scheduled radio broadcasting began in the United States in 1920, and just ten years later the majority of U.S. homes contained a radio. Radio engineering made great advances in this decade, particularly in the design of radio receivers. The engineering profession, notably the Institute of Radio Engineers, a predecessor society of the IEEE, made a vital contribution by devising and standardizing means of measuring the performance of radio receivers. The IRE standards, published in 1928, defined three fundamental properties of receivers-sensitivity, selectivity, and fidelity—and specified procedures for measuring them. These standands made it easier for engineers to design a system as a whole and to optimize overall performance while keeping the projected cost of a receiver at a particular level; they served the engineering community by making possible unambiguous communication; they were valuable to manufacturers for quality control; and they made it easier for purchasers to evaluate and compare radios.