Radio Broadcast (Nov 1926-Apr 1927)

Radio Broadcast Volume X Number 6 APRIL, 1927 =u<2* With MacMillam to the Arctic Pages from the Diary of of the MacMillan Arctic Radio Operator Aboard the S -A Triumph for Short M UCH progress in short-wave radio communication has been due to Commander Donald B. MacMillan who demonstrated from the arctic regions the merits of lowpower short-wave equipment before any similar or commercial application of the new science had been made. Every trip this noted explorer makes into the Arctic means added knowledge to the radio art as well as to many other sciences. The Bowdoin and Sachem were the two schooners to carry the members of the expedition made during the summer of 1926. The former is already famous in connection with the exploration work made under the command of MacMillan, while the Sachem is a new boat built and fitted especially for the 1926 trip by Commodore Rowe B. Metcalf, a Providence financier. Fitting for the trip included the installation of short-wave radio equipment and the selection of an operator, and Commodore Metcalf put these problems in the hands of Radio Broadcast. As the one chosen for the work, the writer had an interesting time trying to design the radio apparatus to fit the small space allowed by the builder of the vessel. The lack of room on the boat caused many other similar problems, especially in regard to the antenna, so it was necessary to go to the ship and build the radio equipment to fit it. A shortwave receiver for the Sachem had, however, already been constructed in the Laboratories of Radio Broadcast, and a honeycomb-coil receiver by Frank J. Curtin and Wade Marten, students at Columbia University. By AUSTIN C. COOLEY Three weeks before sailing date, 1 arrived at Thomaston, Maine, where the finishing touches were being applied to the Sachem before leaving the builder's yards. The radio work to be done included the building of the transmitter and a common amplifier for the two receiving sets mentioned above. In preparing for the trip, there were many diversions from the radio installation work, such as taking a few practical lessons in handling the ship at sea, and working on air compressors for starting the engine. 1 readily found that handling the sails in a stiff breeze was no ladies' job, especially at a time when we were running on a skeleton crew while the ship was run from Thomaston to Rockland, Maine, for a general cleaning up of the hull. From Rockland we went to Wiscasset, Maine, where we loaded stores and became acquainted with our shipmates, who kept arriving daily until the full crew of fourteen had reported. Included in the fourteen were three women, Mrs. Rowe B. Metcalf and One ninth of iceberg do not A NATIVE OF THE GREENLAND COAST a native, we should say, for it is well known that eight ninths of an show above the water. This particular one was photographed by the MacMillan Expedition at Godhaven, Disko Island two friends, the Misses Maude B. Fisher and Marion Smith. Dr. J. H. C. Martens, geologist, occupied one of the bunks in the forecastle and Novio Bertrand, taxidermist, occupied the bunk below his. Bertrand's was a very unhealthy place because Martens generally had his bunk loaded with rocks to the capacity limit. I had batteries stowed under my mattress, but it was a lower bunk so no one was endangered. The cabin boy, Henry Sewall, occupied the bunk above mine and the remaining two in the forecastle were selected by Robert Mazet, Jr., the ship's doctor, and Peter Surett, the cook, who had served many years at sea in Gloucester and Nova Scotia fishing schooners. Commodore Metcalf was anxious to get a cook who would not get seasick. Peter had the credentials, for he claimed he had wrung more salt water out of his whiskers than most of us had sailed in! Just aft of the forecastle is the galley, an unusually large one with a spacious pantry and ice box. Further aft is the saloon, and then a bath room and tv/o state rooms, one occupied by the Commodore and the other by the three ladies. A water-tight bulkhead separates these rooms from the engine room. A seventy-five horse power, six-cylinder Cummins Diesel engine supplied the driving power and two generators driven by gas engines supply the electrical power for charging a 32-volt bank of batteries. Each generator has a 2^-kw. capacity. Aft of the engine room were quarters to accommodate the remaining four in the crew: Paul B. Warren, Mate; Chas. C. Sewall, Botanist; Egbert Sewall, Chief Engineer; and Captain John