1928: QRP SOS from the Arctic
On 23 May 1928, the Italian airship Italia departed Svalbard en route to the North Pole. The Italia was commanded by Umberto Nobile and had a crew of 19 men, some of whom were scientists sent to study meteorology and other phenomena of the region.
Staying behind in Svalbard was the Citta di Milano – support ship for the Italia. Radio operators on Italia and Citta di Milano were to maintain contact with each other throughout the journey. Radio contact was maintained and Italia reached the North Pole 19 hours after leaving Svalbard.
Things then took a drastic turn for the worse.
Headwinds on the return journey prevented much forward progress and worsening weather conditions caused ice to form on the propellers which would then shoot off into the airship, puncturing one of the gas cells. The airship was soon descending despite having a 21-degree up-angle with the engines running at full power.
Giuseppe Biagi with radio
Seconds later, Italia’s cabin hit the ice, smashing it open. Now relieved of this weight, Italia began ascending, having deposited 10 crewmembers onto a drifting ice floe. The rest of the crew remained in the airship’s cabin and were never seen again.
Of the 10 now on the ice, one died almost immediately from injuries suffered in the crash. Most of the supplies went aloft with the airship leaving the survivors with a tent, a small-caliber revolver (with which they would kill a polar bear and add 400 pounds of meat to their dwindling rations), chocolate, pemmican and a flare gun. Some of these items were thrown down to the men by Chief Engineer Ettore Arduino in an act of selfless heroism as he and the others drifted away in the airship.
One of the items deposited onto the ice during the crash was the Italia’s back-up radio and batteries. The other essential item was Giuseppe Biagi, the airship’s one and only radioman. With either of these two commodities missing, the rescue of the surviving crew would probably not have occurred.
Nikolai Schmidt
The radio was designed by Dr. Giulio Salom who held the ham callsign I1MT. It was housed in a wooden box and produced a 5-watt output from 5.4-10 MHz.
Using remnants of aluminum tubing and torn wiring from the crash, Biagi assembled a ¼-wave vertical antenna and ground radials. Once this and the tent were erected he began sending distress messages on the 33m band every 55 minutes fully expecting a response from the Citta di Milano 200km away.
That response never came and it was later learned that radio operators onboard Citta di Milano weren’t even listening. Months later, Guglielmo Marconi himself would publically chastise the ship’s captain for his lack of professionalism for failing to maintain a radio watch.
Fortunately for Biagi and company, his SOS was copied on June 3rd by Russian radio amateur Nikolai Schmidt in Vokhma. Schmidt was 22 years old at the time and had been experimenting with “telegraphy without wires” for eight years, having built his first spark gap transmitter at the age of 14.
Schmidt and fellow Russian ham Mikhail Smirnov heard subsequent SOS calls from Biagi and sent a telegram reporting this news to officials in Moscow. Moscow in turn notified Rome who got word to Citta di Milano to listen on the correct frequencies. Smirnov, later, “Nikolai and I again received “SOS” signals. They were heard well. We decided to send a telegram to Moscow, to the Society of Radio Friends”.
Tent & antenna
Schmidt and Smirnov were not able to reply to Biagi’s distress calls but Biagi learned of their reception and follow-up efforts as they were reported on the 31m shortwave band by Italian SW station IDO.
On June 8th, Citta di Milano was finally able to make contact with Biagi but Captain Romagna of the Citta di Milano was reluctant to take his ship into the pack ice to attempt a rescue. Eight other countries did step up to the plate – among them were Roald Amundsen of Norway, who was lost and never heard from again.
On 12 July the Russian icebreaker Krasin accomplished what others could not – rescuing the men after 49 days on drifting ice.
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A dramatized movie of these events was made in 1969. It can be seen here:
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Themocracy
And what became of Biagi & Schmidt?
The brave radio operator who made possible the rescue of his fellow explorers served as commander of a radiotelegraph station during WW2 in Somalia. He was captured by British forces in 1941 and transferred to a prison camp in India. Using scrounged parts, Biagi was able to build radio receivers that allowed him and his fellow prisoners to hear SW broadcasts from Italy and other news sources during the war.
Giuseppe Biagi died Nov 2, 1965.
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And of Schmidt (thanks to Natalia Grigoreva of Moscow):
“Some time later we received a telegram from provincial centre – Great Ustyg, – Smirnov told me. – We were invited to work by operators of the radio station “Fellow Comintern”. We arrived in Great Ustyg. In one room of the provincial Party committee was set out something like a reception centre, this radio station. We came to live and work there. In the transmission schedules were the broadcasts of foreign and other town radio stations. At these times I or Schmidt sat down at the receiver, we caught the transmission of some stations, for example Vienna, and administered it on the air. So we worked for three months, until they sent for us in Moscow. We left and set out to the capital. At first we sailed along the river Vologda on a steamer, then changed to a train. I was seeing the railway to the first time. We arrived here from such a remote place. You can imagine how Moscow stunned us!
Having arrived in the capital, we immediately presented ourselves to the chairman of ODR Mukoml. He looked at us attentively, pressed a button and a man came into the study.
– Give these rogues money, – said Mukoml and, turning to us, added: – And you go to Mostorg, which is near the Bolshoi theatre, buy yourself a suit, shirt, necktie and shoes without fail. Then come back to me for “smotriny” (Russian folk-rite of inspection of prospective bride).
We did everything as he ordered. In addition we called on the barber’s, had a shave and a trim. Our appearance was transformed. Mukoml examined us and said:
– Now, perhaps, one may show you to the Italians. Here are two tickets for you to the Bolshoi theatre at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the homecoming of our rescue expedition on the “Krasin”".
On a huge stage, at the table of the presidium, sat famous polar scientists, seamen, fliers, public figures. And among them, probably not feeling very comfortable, were modest young people, who came from a remote part of the world. The Society of Radio Friends awarded them with certificates but to Nikolai was further handed an engraved gold watch.
All these events completely changed the life of both radio amateurs. They spent several months in Moscow. They worked in the laboratory managed by P.V. Shmakov, subsequently a prominent specialist in provincial television. Then they were sent for a meeting with I.E. Goron, who also became a well-known radio engineer, a manager working on the restoration of records with copies of the speeches of V.I. Lenin. Goron gave the wireless enthusiasts a thorough examination, and then announced:
– You will set off to work in Tashkent. People are needed there who can help in the setting up of the first branches of short-wave communications. You will be at the disposal of a special plenipotentiary of the People’s Commissariat of Communications in Central Asia.
“So we started work at the scientific-test station in Tashkent, I assembled hundred-watt short-wave transmitters, drove out with them to the regions, installed them, tuned and adjusted communications.
Nikolai was an enthusiastic, spontaneous man. He laughed loudly, he loved as a little child to romp, to jump, to play tricks. But in moments of work at radio circuits he became concentrated, neither saw nor heard anything around.
He wrote and bought many technical radio books and magazines. And although he had no special education, he understood technical articles fluently. It seems to me, he possessed intuition”. This is almost everything that I managed to find out about Nikolai Schmidt.
He died in 1942, most likely in the war.
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John – a remarkable, remarkable story. Thank you. Jim W1PID
Glad you liked it, Jim. A (sort of) sequel will be posted in a day or two.
Another very fine historical story John. Really enjoy reading this. Can’t wait for the next story….73, Bas
Thanks, Bas – and I hope you stay in the hobby!