Arthur Collins: Amateur Radio Enthusiast

Radio has played in integral role in many expeditions

, and the success of these expeditions has often been attributed to the radio. In some cases the radio was used to get out a cry for help, in other cases it was simply used as a way to keep in touch, and of course it has been extremely useful in transmitting scientific and other information which might well be lost if the expedition failed.

In 1924, John Reinartz was assigned the task of radio operator on an expedition to do a hydrographic survey of the area between Alaska and the North Pole. Reinartz had published a series of articles and papers for radio magazines and holds the record for long distance communication by radio.

The leader of the expedition, McMillan, was convinced that having a radio along was a good idea, so he hired on Reinartz to design the equipment and operate it on the expedition. Very little was know about the area around the Pole, and the reason behind the expedition was to discover if the Pole included a land mass or if it was just frozen water.Reinartz in conjunction with E.F MacDonald, the president of the radio Broadcasters League of America in Chicago, were to stay in constant communication.

The expedition attracted the attention of Arthur Collins, a 14 year old radio enthusiast from Iowa. Reinhardt and Collins had experimented together in the past, however when the MacMillan expedition set off, and tried to maintain contact with the station in Washington DC, the signal was not consistently received. However, in Iowa, Arthur Collins was able to send and receive these transmissions with ease, using equipment that he had built himself.

Every night he got the messages from Reinhart in code on the twenty meter band. He then took that information to the local telegraph office and then sent it off to the station in Washington. Arthur Collins became something of a celebrity overnight. He was asked by many other radio operators just what equipment he was using in order to get the transmissions from the McMillan expedition.

A few years later, using only 10 watts of power, Collins along with a few friends began experimenting extensively using short wave transmissions with the US Naval Observatory. After his successes, Collins went on to found the Collins Radio Company in the basement of his parents home.

The Collins Radio Company was an instant hit. It was their radio equipment that Admiral Byrd'sAntarctic expeditions used in 1934. They also went on to create the first airborne radio, and were even the first to observe a lunar eclipse by Radio Astronomy in 1949. The Collins Radio Company even provided the communications equipment for the Mercury and Apollo space crafts.

by:Tom Thors

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