Alfred Traeger

Alfred Hermann Traeger (August 2, 1895 – July 31, 1980) was an Australian inventor, chiefly known for the development of the pedal radio.

Traeger was born in Victoria, and raised near Adelaide, South Australia.

He was instrumental in the establishment and early success of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. Traeger had had an interest in radio for much of his life. During the 1920s, he was contacted by Rev John Flynn to assist in experiments which were to enable remote families access to medical treatment by using radio equipment. Since much of remote Australia had no access to electricity, the initial problem was how to provide reliable power to a radio. Traeger consequently developed a pedal generator to power a morse code wireless set.

He made subsequent refinements to this system. A keyboard was developed which enabled unskilled operators to type their message in plain language and have it transmitted in morse. He later developed a voice-capable transceiver.

Due to the success of these inventions, the Traeger Transceivers company was founded, and radios were exported to a number of countries. Traeger was awarded an OBE in 1944.