An early history of the IEEE Antennas & Propagation Society was completed by Ralph E. Hiatt in March 1983, the then AP-S Historian, in preparation for the IEEE Centennial. His work "The IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society 1949-82" can be viewed here (4.7 MB). The forerunner of AP-S was the Professional Group on Antennas and Propagation (PGAP).

According to an earlier history entitled a "History of the Professional Group on Antennas and Propagation" (1962), "From the beginning, publications have loomed large in PGAP. Before the familiar brown covered Transactions appeared in July 1953, four blue covered, multi-lithed issues were produced. PGAP-1, published in February 1952, contained papers from the August Western Convention at San Francisco. PGAP-2 appearing in March 1952, similarly contained papers of the URSI-IRE meeting at Cornell University in October of the previous year. PCAP-3 dated August 1952, contained the April 1952 URSI-IRE meeting at NBS, Washington. Finally, PGAP-4 in December 1952 contained Western Convention papers for 1952, this time from Los Angeles. Since 1953, 47 issues, including one special supplement, of the IRE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation have been published, with the yearly volumes numbered AP-1, AP-2, etc. This publication was issued quarterly until January 1960, when a bimonthly schedule was established. The aforementioned special supplement contained papers presented at the Symposium on Electromagnetic Wave Theory held June 15-20, 1959, in Toronto. The papers from the 1955 Electromagnetic Wave Theory Symposium, held at the University of Michigan, appeared in one regular issue of the Transactions. From the beginning, the Transactions Editor was John Smyth of Smyth Research Associates, San Diego. After many years of unstinting service, in 1959, John handed the task to Sidney Bowhill of Pennsylvania State University."