nofars.net

In the earliest radio years, no separation existed between those who pursued electronic communications for profit and hobbyist experimenters.  

Circa 1908, commercial operators began tagging hobbyists as "hams" --a disparaging term used among wireline telegraph operators.

Radio hams adopted it as a badge of honor!

According to ARRL's Two Hundred Meters and Down, a major shift in the development of radio communications began in 1908 as potential profits beckoned inventors, engineers and investors to capitalize and commercialize the new medium.

A trust, United Wireless, formed to promote the new deForest, Massie, Stone and Schumaker communications systems.

This shift also helped focus non-professionals toward becoming organized.   The dividing line between pros and amateurs was firmly established and magazines appeared, including Modern Electronics, launched by Hugo Gernsback.

1908 was the year of the tuner, a major breakthrough in equipment design. In January 1909, the first amateur radio organization formed, comprised mostly of teens and pre-teens.  It was the Junior Wireless Radio Club of New York City.

Nationwide, there were probably five or six hundred amateurs in 1908. Around 90 were compiled in the earliest surviving listing of amateur operators.

The First Annual Official Wireless Blue Book published in May 1909 by the Wireless Association of America included one Jacksonville amateur operator, teenager Cromwell Gibbons, Jr.

He operated station CR, usually on 72 meters, just above 4 mc., from 442 East Forsyth St. near the corner of Washington St. using a relatively weak transmitter with a one-inch spark to generate his wideband signal.

Today, a parking area in the Jacksonville Sheriff's complex occupies that space. 

He was 15 or 16 years old in 1909.  His father, Major Cromwell Gibbons, was a Jacksonville attorney who served as 1903 Florida House speaker and ran for governor in 1912 against incumbent Park Trammell, but lost.

After high school, Cromwell Gibbons, Jr. enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY in 1915 followed by service as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Corps during World War I.  He died in 1977 at age 83 and was buried in Iowa.

He apparently didn't remain active in ham radio after returning from the war. 

A second NE Florida ham in 1909 was Dr. Carroll H. Fink of Fernandina (Beach) who operated on 104 meters, a bit below 3 mc., as CP using a powerful 12-inch spark gap.

No other Florida hams were listed in the 1909 Blue Book. 

In 1909, operators chose their own callsigns, usually one, two or three letters.  To be listed in the Blue Book required operators to mail in details of their stations and undoubtedly, many did not bother.

Details were sketchy about a Jacksonville commercial operation included in the 1909 Blue Book.  No call or frequency/wavelength is shown....only that it used a DeForest system and was owned by United Wireless which also had a Tampa station.