Fault-free digital radio communication and Hendrik C. A. van Duuren

The author looks at the life and work of Hendrik van Duuren who was born on November 24, 1903, in The Hague, the Netherlands and studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Delft. He had a very fruitful professional life. Among his many inventions, several were vital for the transmission of digital information without errors. Virtually all data transmission today uses the basic principle of automatic repetition. His discovery of the excellent properties of the constant ratio (CR) code for error detection on particularly high frequency (HF) circuits and his contributions to methods of distorted-signal detection made efficient fault-free long-distance digital (HF) communication feasible. In the late 1920s and 1930s, the use of high-power low-frequency transmission was gradually replaced by lower power high-frequency (HF) transmission. HF provided more bandwidth for more channels but also introduced a new source of transmission errors - fading by the multipath effect. Error prevention and error handling became two important focal points and van Duuren played an important role in both fields, resulting in more than 120 patents worldwide. The author goes on to detail van Duuren´s contributions to Forward Error Control (FEC) systems, Automatic Repetition Request (ARQ) systems, teleprinting and telegraphy