StephenTetorka@cs.com wrote:
>Hi all:
>
>I just watched Thor's documentary movie on the Kon-Tiki expedtion.
>
>His receiver was an NC-173.
>
>Might anyone know what his " 7 watt" transmitter was?
>
>
Early in his book Heyerdahl writes about "...the transmission, which was
to be done partly with short-wave transmitters specially constructed for
our purpose and partly with secret sabotage sets used during the war."
In addition to at least two war surplus transmitters from the U.S. and
two from Britain, there were three transmitters built by National Radio
from modifications of ARRL designs published between 1941 and 1946, all
using a 2E30 and running 10 watts or less. One was for 20 and 40 (altho
I don't think they ever operated on 40, for lack of space for an
effective antenna), one for 10, and one for 6 meters. At some point,
the crystal for 20 meters failed and they wound up modifying the
10-meter transmitter operation to force it to work on 20, but could only
pull it as high as 13,990 kHz.
It's interesting to compare Thor Heyerdahl's book with the ARRL summary
in December 1947 QST. Heyerdahl was not radio-proficient; in fact, he
admits he was originally opposed to the idea of bringing radio equipment
along. As a result, the QST write-up sheds informative
behind-the-scenes light on some of Heyerdahl's narrative involving the
radio equipment.
As a former owner of an NC-173 (inspired in part by all the glowing ads
National Radio ran following the successful conclusion of the
expedition), I am hard pressed to believe the balsa raft could support
that much weight in one location!
Bud, W2RU
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