Interesting Surprising Radio Fact

[N1API]

American Heroes Channel, (#103 on Cox) has a show called America: Facts vs. Fiction where they take some things that people may have heard about people, events, inventions or what ever and give the real facts about them.
Example: Everyone thinks of Patton as the tough General portrayed in the Movies but he was actually a short fellow with a high squeaky voice.

On a recent episode there was an interesting surprising fact related to ham radio. The 40's movie star Heady Lamarr along with another fellow invented Spread Spectrum Radio Transmission. It is based on the number 88 because a piano has 88 keys. It was the basis for secure ratio transmissions and without it there would be no Cell Phones, WiFi, GPS, or even Missile Systems.

From Wikipedia:
Lamarr's most significant contribution to technology was her co-invention, with composer George Antheil, of an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, which paved the way for today's wireless communications. The invention in 1941 was deemed so vital to national defense that government officials would not allow publication of its details. At the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Sixth Pioneer Awards in 1997, she and George Antheil were honored with special awards for their "trail-blazing development of a technology that has become a key component of wireless data systems".

You never know what you'll find out from these shows.