[DCboatanchors] More about the KON-TIKI

[Bry Carling]

More about the KON-TIKI expedition from Arnie:

THE KON TIKI EXPEDITION AND RADIO

Many of us in our youth were thrilled to read about the voyage of the Kon 
Tiki in 1947. Thor Heyerdahl and his band of adventurers built a balsa raft in 
Peru and set sail for Polynesia to prove the South Pacific Islands could have 
been populated from South America. How many of you remember the radio 
connection?

The group wanted to be able to communicate with the outside world and 
thus recruited a couple of seasoned radio operators. One crew member, 
Knut Hoagland, had been caught by the Gestapo in occupied Norway with a 
clandestine radio and barely escaped in a hail of bullets. Another, Torstein 
Raaby, had been smuggled into Norway and for ten months transmitted 
reports about battleship activities using a German officer's receiving aerial.

The ARRL  arranged to have amateurs listening for reports from the raft. 
The Kon Tiki's radios were built both from scratch and also from "secret 
sabotage" sets from World War Two.

An NC-173 receiver was also used. It appears only Morse was used as 
there is no reference to phone operations and only keys and "peculiar 
clickings" were mentioned by Heyerdahl, who apparently did not understand 
code.

The only references to power and frequency were to a maximum of 6 watts 
and the frequency as being 13,990 kc so this was definitely a QRP 
operation.

The expedition used call sign LI 2 B. Constant attention and tinkering was 
needed to keep their equipment operational. For instance, the batteries were 
kept charged with a hand-cranked generator.

The small craft's aerials also needed special care as they were raised by 
kite and balloon. No one anticipated the group's pet parrot would bite 
through and eat portions of the wire antenna. And water, water, everywhere, 
meant keeping their gear dry was no little task. The Kon Tiki's initial 
transmission when it completed its journey was delayed while they dried out 
their equipment. That first contact happened to be with an amateur in 
Colorado named Paul (whom I tried to identify further but unsuccessfully), 
who thought someone was trying to pull a fast one on him when Torstein 
told him they were with the Kon Tiki and stranded on a desert island in the 
Pacific! Nightly they sent out reports and weather observations which were 
picked up by random hams who relayed the messages to various 
destinations. Eventually skeds were developed by which fairly regular 
reports could be made, both officially and to friends and family.

One evening a contact was made with a Norwegian station which at that 
point was completely on the other side of the globe from the Kon Tiki. 
Congratulations on King Haakon's 75th birthday were relayed and the next 
day the King responded by wishing the crew good luck and success.

I first read Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl in the '50s  as a kid, and was 
delighted to read it again recently later in life and re-discover the radio 
connection!