INTRODUCTIONBefore the EMC Society existed, that is, inthe early 1950’s, there were yearly confer-ences in the United States on “RadioInterference Reduction.” These confer-ences were held in Chicago, Illinois andthey were called the “Armour Confer-ences” because they were administered bythe Armour Research Foundation of theIllinois Institute of Technology. Theseconferences were a follow-on of militaryactivities in radio interference in WorldWar II and, as a result, they were dividedinto classified and non-classified sections.The Armour Conferences were held from1954 to 1964; a total of ten conferenceswere successfully completed and proceed-ings were published containing the tech-nical papers presented at the conferences.

PURPOSEFollowing World War II, the three USMilitary Services (Army, Navy, and AirForce) focused many Research and Devel-opment programs on addressing radiointerference issues that evolved with theexpanded use of electronic devices in mil-itary operations. These programs rangedfrom preventing ignition noise from cou-pling to receivers and transmitters in mil-itary vehicles to shielding and bondingissues with high-powered radar signals.

The purpose of the Armour Conferenceswas to disseminate this R&D informationon Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)through formal presentations and to providean opportunity for engineers interested inRFI to exchange ideas on interference reduc-tion in an informal manner with associates.

The Armour Research Foundation ofthe Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)was one of several research organizationsthat was funded (through the Army SignalCorps Engineering Laboratories) to performstudies in support of the Military’s compre-hensive program on interference reduction.

FIRST ARMOUR CONFERENCEAs part of Armour’s support effort, thefirst “Conference on Radio Interference

Reduction” was held at the ArmourResearch Foundation’s campus in Chica-go, Illinois, on 7-8 December 1954. Theconference was sponsored by the SignalCorps Engineering Laboratories, WrightAir Development Center and NavyBureau of Aeronautics.

The Introductory Address was given byJ. W. Klotz, Office of the Assistant Secretaryof Defense (Research and Development). Hespoke about the importance of interferencereduction activities to military weaponsdevelopment efforts and gave a historicalsummary of the formation (in 1949) of aPanel on Interference Reduction reportingto the Committee on Electronics under theResearch and Development Board. Theobjective of the panel was to bring togethermilitary project engineers and administra-tive personnel to plan a coordinated R & Dinterference reduction program. Four con-sultants from industry and universities wereinvited to assist the Panel. The coordinatingfunction of that Panel was continued in the1953 reorganization of the Department ofDefense under the Assistant Secretary ofDefense for Research and Development.One policy of the new organization was toendorse sponsorship of symposia in the vari-ous fields of electronics. In a closing remark,Mr. Klotz stated, “I trust that one of the by-products of the symposium will be the vol-untary interchange of information withother engineers whom you will come toknow during these sessions.”

The first Conference on Radio Inter-

ference Reduction was attended by about300 people and contained 25 technicalpapers covering Practical SuppressionTechniques, Measurements, Design Tech-niques and Components. The Proceed-ings were over 300 pages in length andthe average paper length was 13 pages.

Examples of papers given were:1. “Research Investigations of Interfer-

ence Measuring Instruments” byRalph M. Showers and A. Eckersley

2. “Reduction of Corona Type Interfer-ence” by John Robb, M.M. Newman,and J. R. Stahman

SECOND ARMOUR CONFERENCEThe Second Conference was noteworthybecause it was funded solely by theArmour Research Foundation during atime of restricted budgets for the mili-tary. It was also important because thefirst discussions were held among inter-ested technical personnel, as reported inthe first newsletter from the ProfessionalGroup on Radio Frequency Interference(January 2, 1958), in “forming an orga-nization for people interested in RFI.”

The Conference was held at The Sher-aton Hotel in Chicago for two days;March 6-7, 1956. Thirty-one technicalpapers were given over the course of thetwo days in seven different sessions.

Examples of some of the papers givenincluded:1. “A Private Rogues’ Gallery of Radio

Interference Sources” by Richard B.Schulz

2. “The Federal Communications Com-mission and the Control of RadioInterference” by Herman Garlan andW.C. Boese

3. “Administration of the Bureau ofShips Interference Reduction Pro-gram” by Leonard W. Thomas

THIRD ARMOUR CONFERENCEBy the time the Third Conference on RFIReduction was held on February 26-27,

82

History of the Armour Conferences By Daniel Hoolihan, History and 50th Anniversary Chair of the EMCSociety, and Warren Kesselman, Founder of the EMC Society

Sample cover from an early ArmourConference.

emcsNL_0106_2ndhalf.qxd 3/14/06 2:57 PM Page 82

1957; a group of six men convinced FredJ. Nichols (father of the current EMCNewsletter editor, Janet Nichols O’Neil)to “plug” a proposed group on “peopleinterested in RFI.” In his after-luncheonspeech, Mr. Nichols did just that and aftera subsequent letter, a first organizingmeeting, and a formal petition (signed by326 RFI engineers) to the Institute ofRadio Engineers; the Professional Groupon RFI was formed on October 10, 1957.This “group” eventually evolved into thepresent-day EMC Society of the IEEE.

The papers given in the ThirdArmour Conference were printed in the“Proceedings of the Third Conference onRadio Interference Reduction.”

The 3rd Armour Conference was spon-sored by the United States Army SignalEngineering Laboratories, Fort Mon-mouth, New Jersey. It was administered bythe Armour Research Foundation of theIllinois Institute of Technology in Chicago,Illinois and it was held at the Museum ofScience and Industry in Chicago.

The Foreword of the Proceedings stat-ed the following:

The third conference on Radio InterferenceReduction again brought together representativesfrom government agencies and laboratories, andindustrial organizations, to hear administrativeand technical papers dealing with advancementsin the field of interference suppression. Increasedawareness of the need for an exchange of infor-mation as a means for solving problems in thisarea was evidenced by the fact that attendance atthe conference soared to over 450 persons.

This year’s conference was under the spon-sorship of the Army Signal Engineering Lab-oratories, Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. Thirty-four talks were presented during the two-dayperiod, including two non-technical luncheonspeeches. The papers of the conference are repro-duced in this volume.

The conference committee extends its sincerestappreciation and thanks to all of the conferencespeakers; their informative presentations repre-sent a significant contribution toward a betterunderstanding of suppression problems and theirsolutions. Our appreciation also goes to the U. S.Army representatives, who were exceedinglyhelpful in coordinating various aspects of theconference, as well as to the other branches of thearmed forces, for their excellent cooperation.

S. I. Cohn, R. C. Goedeke, H. M. SachsMay 15, 1957, Chicago, Illinois

Examples of papers in the conferencewere:1. “Calculation and Measurement of Radar

Interference Signal Levels” by L. Valcik2. “A New Technique for Evaluating RF

Leakage and Susceptibility of Elec-tronic Equipment” by C. S. Vasaka

3. “The Control of Interference ThroughBasic Design” by Leonard W. Thomas

FOURTH ARMOUR CONFERENCEThe Fourth Conference on Radio Inter-ference Reduction and Electronic Com-patibility was sponsored by the ArmourResearch Foundation under agreementwith the U. S. Army Signal Research andDevelopment Laboratories, Fort Mon-mouth, New Jersey. It was held on Octo-ber 1-2, 1958, at the Museum of Scienceand Industry in Chicago, Illinois. Thenewly formed Professional Group onRadio Frequency Interference (PGRFI)cooperated for the first time on the pro-gram. The luncheon address was givenby Harold R. Schwenk, the first chair-man of the PGRFI who was working forthe Sperry Gyroscope Company in GreatNeck, New York at that time. The titleof his talk was “An Outlook into theFuture of the RF Interference Field andthe Part that the PGRFI will Play in theFuture of the Field of RF Interference.”

Thirty-six technical papers were pub-lished in the “Proceedings of the FourthConference on Radio Interference Reduc-tion and Electronic Compatibility.”

An added feature of the Fourth confer-ence was the accumulation of informationconcerning technical reports issued sinceJanuary 1, 1957, on radio interference. Alist of those reports, compiled from con-tributions of conferees, was reproduced inthe Conference Proceedings.

Some of the papers presented included:1. “Anechoic Chambers for Radio Inter-

ference Measurements above 50Megacycles” by D. J. Shamp

2. “Spectrum Signature” by Leonard W.Thomas

3. “Radio Interference Control of Semi-Conductor Circuitry” by Fred J. Nichols

4. “Ferrites in Radio Interference Fil-ters” by J. C. Senn

FIFTH ARMOUR CONFERENCEThe Fifth Armour Conference was held onOctober 6-8, 1959 in Chicago. There weretwo days of unclassified papers and one dayof classified papers. The keynote addresswas given by G. P. Sutton, the chief scien-tist of the Advanced Research ProjectsAgency in Washington, DC. He urgedmore general consideration of problems offrequency allocation, radiated powerrequirements, antenna directivity and otherfactors to minimize interference. Mr. Sut-ton indicated “a multi-fold increase inlaunched space vehicles for weather obser-vation, scientific exploration, biomedicalinvestigations and communication repeaterstations is scheduled for the near future.Unless spectrum allocation is determinedin advance and undesired emission elimi-nated, chaos will result. Telemetry datamay be rendered useless and valuable scien-tific programs voided.” He further warnedthat “failure to achieve a satisfactory andrelatively interference-free environmentmay seriously compromise the effectivenessof our defense system…..Radio interferencemay mean the loss of lives, expensive equip-ment or strategic advantage.”

Two luncheon addresses were given; onewas titled “The Role of CISPR (Internation-al Special Committee on Radio Interference)in Radio Interference Reduction and Con-trol” and was given by Leonard W. Thomas.

Over 400 people attended the Confer-ence and a total of 41 technical papers

83

The plane pictured is an example of the actual airplanes that were used for thepaper titled “Radio Interference Studies Conducted on Typical USAF Aircraftand Equipment” published in February 1957 by authors from Lockheed AircraftCorporation in Burbank, California. The testing was performed at Wright Pat-terson AFB, Dayton, Ohio.

emcsNL_0106_2ndhalf.qxd 3/14/06 2:57 PM Page 83

were given in nine different sessions.Examples of papers given were:

1. “Design of Electromagnetic Interfer-ence Reduction Using ComputerSimulation Techniques” by DonaldR. J. White and R. Marcus

2. “Low-Noise Devices as System Ele-ments” by James McNaul

3. “Planning Interference – Free Com-munications – Electronics Systems”by A. H. Sullivan, Jr.

4. “New Techniques for Evaluating thePerformance of Shielded Enclosures”by Richard B. Schulz, D. P. Kanel-lakos, L. C. Peach, and A. P. Massey

SIXTH ARMOUR CONFERENCEMr. S. I. Cohn was the conference chairand the conference was held October 4-6(1960) at the Museum of Science andIndustry in Chicago, Illinois. Over 500representatives of government and indus-try attended the conference and it wassponsored jointly by the three military ser-vices in cooperation with the ArmourResearch Foundation and the ProfessionalGroup on RFI of the Institute of RadioEngineers.

H. A. Leedy, Executive Vice-Presidentand Director of the Armour ResearchFoundation, gave the welcome addresswhile H. Randall gave the keynote speechfrom the Office of the Assistant Secretaryof Defense. Herman Garlan of the FCCgave the first day’s luncheon address andit was entitled “The FCC’s New ISM Cer-tification.” The second day’s luncheonaddress was titled “Interference Survey ofa Large Missile Manufacturing Plant” andit was given by A. R. Kall of Ark Elec-tronics Co. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Session titles included: Missile and SpaceConsiderations, Antenna MeasurementSeminar, Systems, Shielding, PredictionMethods, Instrumentation, Spurious Emis-sions, Susceptibility, and Classified Papers.

Forty-four technical papers were pub-lished in the “Unclassified Proceedings ofthe Sixth Conference on Radio Interfer-ence and Electronic Compatibility.”

Examples of papers given included:1. “Measurements of Effective Radiated

Power” by M. N. Lustgarten2. “An Instrument for Measurement of

High RF Power Density” by W. S.Lambdin and K. W. Knapp

3. “Measurement of Low-Frequency Elec-tromagnetic Interference” by M.Epstein, H. M. Sachs and L. E. Silverman

SEVENTH ARMOUR CONFERENCEThe cover page of the “Proceedings of theSeventh Conference on Radio InterferenceReduction and Electronic Compatibility”stated that it was “Sponsored jointly by U.S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force”and “Conducted by Armour ResearchFoundation of Illinois Institute of Technol-ogy” and “In Cooperation with the Profes-sional Group on Radio Frequency Interfer-ence of the Institute of Radio Engineers.”The cover page also included the fact thatit was “Held at the Grover M. HermannHall, Illinois Institute of Technology,Chicago, Illinois, November 7, 8, and 9 –1961.”

The Foreword of the Proceedings stated:The Seventh Conference on Radio Interference

Reduction and Electronic Compatibility has seenevidence of the increasing awareness of the need forincreased exchange of information in the area ofelectromagnetic interference analysis and control.More than 550 attendees were evidence to thisfact. The widespread interest was attested to bythe joint sponsorship of the three services; the U. S.Army, U. S. Navy, and the U. S. Air Force.

A total of forty-four technical papers werepresented during the three days of the confer-ence, together with an informal luncheonaddress, and forty-three of these papers areincluded in this volume.

The conference committee would like toextend its thanks to the authors and speakers, tothe various session chairman, and also to thosewho attended the technical sessions for their partin making this conference the most successful yet.

Conference CommitteeCommander B. D. Inman, U. S. Navy,Bureau of Ships; W. J. Magee, ArmourResearch Foundation; S. I. Cohn, ArmourResearch Foundation; B. Lindeman,RADC; H. M. Sachs, Armour ResearchFoundation; H. G. Tobin, ArmourResearch Foundation; S. Weitz, USAS-RDL

Examples of papers given included:1. “A Comparison of Two Methods of

Determining System Compatibility”by Eugene D. Knowles

2. “Existing Current Probes and Devel-opment of New Probes to 1 KMC”by Joseph F. Fischer, Jr. and HerbMertel

3. “New Methods of Insertion LossMeasurement of RF Filters UnderRated Load Conditions, Between 14KC to 1000 MC and Higher” byJames C. Klouda

EIGHTH ARMOUR CONFERENCEThe official title of the papers from the8th Armour Conference is “UnclassifiedProceedings of the Eighth Tri-ServiceConference on Electromagnetic Compati-bility.” The conference was held at theMuseum of Science and Industry inChicago, Illinois from October 30through November 1, 1962. The U. S.Army, the U. S. Navy, and the U. S. AirForce sponsored it jointly. It was admin-istered by the Armour Research Founda-tion of the Illinois Institute of Technology(IIT) in cooperation with The Profession-al Group on Radio Frequency Interferenceof the Institute of Radio Engineers.

Forty-two technical papers wereselected and presented out of an initialpopulation of nearly ninety submittedpapers. According to the Foreword in theProceedings, “attendance set a new record inspite of government travel restrictions due to theCuban crisis.”

J. E. McManus of the Armour ResearchFoundation gave the welcome address andhe noted the significant changes that hadoccurred in RFI and EMC since the start ofthe Armour Conferences. He also notedthat, “We have moved from the negativeaspect of radio interference reduction tothe positive approach of electromagneticcompatibility design.” James M. Bridges,the Director of the Office of Electronics inthe Office of Defense Research and Engi-neering, gave the keynote address. In hisspeech, he addressed the future of theEMC program and its probable impact onthe defense industry. A luncheon addresswas given by Oran W. Nicks who was theDirector of the Lunar and Planetary Pro-grams in the Office of Space Sciences inNASA. His talk was entitled “Explorationof Space with Scientific Probes” whichcovered scientific missions to the planetsincluding the Mariner spacecraft whichhad been launched towards Venus.

Session titles at the 8th Armour Con-ference included (1) General, (2) Analysisand Prediction I and II, (3) Instrumenta-tion and Techniques I and II, (4) Spec-trum Signature Measurements, (5)Antennas and Propagation, (6) Suppres-sion Devices, (7) Classified, (8) Shieldingand Bonding, and (9) RFI Control.

Typical papers in the proceedingsincluded (1) Management Responsibility inObtaining an Electrical/Electronic Com-patible Weapon System by Fred J. Nichols;(2) Preliminary Measurements Related toProcedures for Measuring Systems Suscep-

84

emcsNL_0106_2ndhalf.qxd 3/14/06 2:57 PM Page 84

tibility by G. Barker, E. Gray, and RalphM. Showers; (3) Trends in RFI MeasuringInstruments by Richard R. Stoddart; (4)Analysis of Receiver Spurious Response byGraphical Means by Warren A. Kesselman;(5) A New Family of Absorptive-ReactiveRFI Filters by Joseph F. Fischer, Jr. and J. C.Senn; and (6) Implementation of BondingPractices in Existing Structures by James C.Toler and D. R. Lightner.

NINTH ARMOUR CONFERENCEThe Ninth Tri-Service Conference on Elec-tromagnetic Compatibility was held at theMuseum of Science and Industry in Chica-go on October 15-17, 1963. The UnitedStates Army, Navy, and Air Force servicessponsored it jointly. It was administered bythe IIT Research Institute in cooperationwith the Professional Technical Group onElectromagnetic Compatibility of the Insti-tute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

Forty-seven papers were presented andattendance topped 500 people.

J. E. Bridges, the Manager of EMCfor the IIT Research Institute, gave thewelcome address. Brigadier GeneralAllen T. Stanwix-Hay, the Deputy ChiefSignal Officer of the U. S. Army, gavethe keynote address. A luncheon addresswas given by James D. O’Connell, theChairman of the Joint Technical Adviso-ry Committee and it was entitled “Team-work in Spectrum Conservation.”

Typical papers included (1) RFI/EMIat the Crossroads by Fred J. Nichols; (2)Shielding Theory and Practice byRichard B. Schulz, V. C. Plantz and D. R.Brush; (3) Electromagnetic Compatibili-ty Program for the McDonnell RF-4C,Phantom II Aircraft by Walt D. McKer-char, and (4) MIL-E-6051 Electromag-netic Compatibility Testing Conceptsand Techniques by W. A. Taylor.

TENTH ARMOUR CONFERENCEThe Conferences on Radio InterferenceReduction continued until the 10th andfinal conference was held on November 17-19, 1964 at the Museum of Science andIndustry in Chicago. Attendance exceeded500 and 38 papers were presented coveringElectromagnetic Compatibility, Instrumen-tation, Prediction, Measurement Tech-niques, Cable Coupling and Shielding,Reduction Techniques, Antennas and, Spec-ifications and Specifications Testing. The

conference name (at that time) was “TheTenth Tri-Service Conference on Electro-magnetic Compatibility” and Armour wasnow the “IIT Research Institute.” It wassponsored in cooperation with the IEEEElectromagnetic Compatibility Group.

Admiral Joseph E. Rice gave the keynoteaddress. He noted “Historically, the interfer-ence work in the 1940s, one might say, wasmainly concerned with defining the problem,that is, getting a better picture of it and “cutand try” corrective measures….The nextperiod, in the early 1950s, I would character-ize as “learning the phenomena.” A lot of the-oretical studies were sponsored; test equip-ment was developed; and experimental workin grounding, shielding, and filtering wascarried out……Then, we entered into thethird phase when we began to realize that wehad to do something before we installed ourelectronic systems if we were going to lick thecompatibility problem……Finally, I thinkwe’re in agreement that electromagneticcompatibility has sneaked up on us…..cer-tainly sneaked up on us in the Navy, and Idare say, the other Services and everyone else.It’s a problem that is now and will continueto affect to an increasing extent the entireelectrical and electronic industry and itsusers. As the electronic age grows, with theincreasing usage of TV, radio, electronicgarage doors, microwave ovens, electronicallycontrolled machinery, etc.; the compatibilityproblem will grow correspondingly. There-fore, I feel that we are definitely at a turningpoint. After 10 years of getting ready, weshould have the tools available to “turn” toproducing and getting more things done.And, I think it has to be a national effort,since it is a national problem.”

Typical papers included:1. “A National Policy for Electromagnet-

ic Compatibility” by Fred J. Nichols2. “Evaluation of System Electrocom-

patibility” by R. Goldman, J. E.Maynard, Richard B. Schulz, EugeneD. Knowles, and B. E.Rosenberry

3. “Considerations in theDesign of a Radio Fre-quency Compatibility(RFC) Test Set byHugh W. Denny

4. “The ElectromagneticEnvironment of Trans-port Airplanes” by L.Jorgenson, R. Goldman,and Richard B. Schulz

5. “The Effect of Sites uponthe Radiation Character-istics of Antennas” by

W. G. Duff and K. G. Heisler6. “IEEE Standards to Advance Receiver

Interference Prediction” by N. H.Shepherd

SUMMARYThe entire conference series was hosted bythe Armour Research Foundation andjointly sponsored by the U. S. Army, theU. S. Navy, and the U. S. Air Force(except for the 2nd conference whichArmour hosted and sponsored). The IREProfessional Group on Radio FrequencyInterference (PGRFI) became a cooperat-ing member in the conference in 1958(the 4th conference). The conferencename, in that year, changed to include“and Electronic Compatibility”. ThePGRFI (which later became the IEEEEMCS) continued to be a cooperatingmember of the remaining Tri-Servicesponsored conferences.

The Armour Conferences were theforerunner of the IEEE InternationalSymposiums on EMC and will beremembered for setting a high-qualityexample for technical papers and well-run symposiums.

One of the authors, Warren Kessel-man, attended many of the ArmourConferences and participated in theadministration (as the Army representa-tive) of several of the conferences. Hisremembrance of the conference series isnot of the fine technical papers, butrather the personal relationships withthe pioneers who transitioned the 1940’sconcept of “hands-on black art engineer-ing” into EMC design engineeringbased on scientific principles. He sus-pects that the EMC Society may nothave been founded if it were not forthose pioneers who attended the ThirdConference on Radio InterferenceReduction. EMC

85

emcsNL_0106_2ndhalf.qxd 3/14/06 2:57 PM Page 85