If I remember the exhibition in the Oslo Kon-Tiki museum correctly,
at least one of the transmitters was the British "suitcase set" that was known
as "Berit"
in the Norwegian resistance movement. It was a very simple CO-PA unit
that was either mains or battery operated, and had an extremely wide-range
output circuit that could match literally anything. (A picture can be found
on http://fykse.dnsalias.com/radio/nrhf/ at about the middle of the page).
Both Kon-Tiki radio operators, Knut Haugland (LA3KY) and Torstein Raaby,
had been clandestine radio operators during the war.
Knut Haugland was instrumental in blowing-up the Rjukan heavy-water plant
in 1943 and Torstein Raaby advised the RAF of the location of the battleship
Tirpitz.
After Kon-Tiki Torstein Raaby did not lose his appetite for adventures, and
finally
died of a heart condition in 1964 as radio operator in an expedition that
attempted to reach
the North Pole on ski.
73/
Karl-Arne
SM0AOM
----- Original Message -----
From: "W2RU - Bud Hippisley" <W2RU@frontiernet.net>
To: <Amps@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 3:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Amps] Kon-Tiki
> 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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