Thanks to Rupert Goodwins for this one. A fascniating list with explanations from Rupert of why he chose them.
1. GE/Zenith FM stereo system. Just about the only true worldwide wireless standard.
2. PAL. Nicer than NTSC and even more importantly not French, PAL is the best analogue TV standard. High quality, robust and flexible.
3. PSK31 - Extremely efficient, easy to implement and beautifully narrow band
4. Morse Code modulated continuous wave. You can set up a world-spanning link with about five quids' worth of components, and that's if you buy them new. Also the only communications standard that I can guarantee to implement after a nuclear attack.
5. CCSDS. The one that introduced Viterbi - and the one that's keeping the link alive with the Voyagers as they scoot into interstellar space
6. AMPS. Audacious. World-changing. Damn clever.
7. FSK RTTY. Before the Internet, HF RTTY held the world together.
8. Hellschreiber. Come on, a wireless fax system invented in 1929 and still in use today (albeit by weirdos), this may be the only system which is primarily decoded by eye - which confers its unique ability to cope with various fading and interference modes.
9. SSB. Cheap, effective and still very important for long distance voice comms. Your transatlantic flight depends on it (although nobody's quite sure why any more. Shanwick, Shanwick...).
10. FM. If you don't know the story of Edwin Armstrong and FM - a story of genius, struggle, big business, death and ultimate triumph - then you're missing out on a whole heap of how politics, business and technology interact.
I rest my case. From your original Digital list, only WLAN and GSM would come close to meriting inclusion alongside these in a top ten analog/digital wireless tech list. Especially if you included adoption levels as one of the criteria.
You were right all along. If you fancy doing your own list I'd be very happy to post it credited to you.
It would be interesting to see how your's compared to Rupert's.
Apart from agreeing with the comment last week about plain old AM, I think this is a fascinating list. Everything from near-outer-space to MTV. Thanks.