GB> Re: [QRP-L] RE: [CW] Slightly OT: 60 Years Ago Today

[N2EY at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/8/07 5:26:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
rohre at arlut.utexas.edu writes:


> major expeditions had custom built radios such as the Admiral Byrd polar 
> expeditions. 

If you haven't read "Alone", Byrd's account of his solo winter at an advanced 
Antartic base im 1933, the entire book is here..

http://www.ast.leeds.ac.uk/haverah/spaseman/bookalone.shtml

Will give you chills on a hot summer day.

 10m and 15 m were new bands, and thus, likely they would have to build gear 
to 
> cover those higher frequencies, as war surplus radios often only went to 12 
> MHz if that.  (For AM and CW radios). 

10 meters was a ham band as of the late 1920s. 15 meters did not become a ham 
band until after the 1947 World Radio Conference in Atlantic City, and was 
not released to ham use until the early 1950s.

WW2 surplus HF equipment typically went up to 18 MHz but no higher.

> Propagation was good enough on the higher bands, and radio noise floor low 
> enough, that 15 watts input would literally work the world using CW.

Not just the higher bands but 80 and 40 too. The Ancient Ones worked the 
antipodes on 40 meters with a few watts and wire antennas, way back in the 1930s.

The main reason Kon-Tiki used 20 and 10 was antenna limitations.

73 de Jim, N2EY


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