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| Admiral Byrd in Antarctica / Britannica |
Part 3 - Admiral Byrd’s Second Antarctic Expedition, 1933-35
Part 2 - March 23, 2026; Radio in Antarctica Part 2 – The Antarctic Landmass
Part 1 - March 17, 2026; Radio in Antarctica
Thank you to the staff of Wavescan for a fascinating three-part special on Radio in Antarctica.
Jeff: Once again, we are indebted to Dr. Martin van der Ven in Germany for the research he has done to bring us this item, mainly sourced from two 1934 radio magazines – ‘Short Wave Craft’ and ‘Radio News’, and a 1985 article in Popular Communications. We include it now to round out our comprehensive review of broadcasting in Antarctica. Here’s Ray Robinson in Los Angeles.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. When Admiral Richard E. Byrd set out on his Second Antarctic Expedition (1933–1935), he was not merely returning to the southernmost continent to extend the geographical discoveries of his first venture, three years earlier. This time, Antarctica itself would speak – regularly, audibly, and live – to the outside world. Radio transformed the expedition from an isolated polar enterprise into a global broadcasting event, and at the center of that achievement stood the expedition’s flagship, the S.S. Jacob Ruppert.
By 1933, long-distance shortwave radio had matured just enough to tempt engineers and broadcasters into attempting what had never been done before: sustained two-way communication and scheduled entertainment broadcasts from the Antarctic. Byrd’s second expedition carried more radio equipment than any exploration party in history up to that point. Engineers themselves admitted that, prior to departure, they couldn’t even say how many transmitters would ultimately be placed in operation “at the bottom of the world”.
Radio fulfilled several simultaneous roles. It was a safety link between the expedition and civilization; a command-and-control system for ships, aircraft, sled parties, and base stations; a scientific tool; and – most dramatically – a means of mass communication. Through both the CBS and NBC networks, Americans followed the expedition in near real time, listening to voices from a continent that was still largely terra incognita.
The expedition’s flagship began life as the 8,257-ton steel cargo vessel Pacific Fir, formerly engaged in the West Coast lumber trade and later laid up among surplus World War I ships at Staten Island. Leased from the U.S. Shipping Board for the symbolic sum of one dollar per year, she was completely reconditioned and rechristened Jacob Ruppert, honoring one of Byrd’s principal financial backers.
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| The S.S. Jacob Rupert |
On the outward voyage in 1933, the S.S. Jacob Ruppert carried 45 officers and crew, navigating from Boston via the Panama Canal, Easter Island, and Wellington, New Zealand, before pushing south toward the Ross Ice Barrier.
The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) was responsible for all radio installations, equipment and the entire communications operation of the expedition. CBS estimated the cost of this at 1 million US dollars. The expedition itself was financed through private funding and commercial companies such as CBS and its sponsors.
The Federal Radio Commission, predecessor of the Federal Communications Commission, assigned fifteen frequencies to the Byrd Expedition, between 6,650 and 21,625 kHz.
CBS technical adviser Edwin K. Cohan received extensive expert assistance during the planning phase. The science of long-distance radio communication, particularly through geomagnetically active polar regions, remained largely unexplored in 1934. One of the technical advisers was the “father of radio” himself, Guglielmo Marconi.
Once transmissions began, it soon became evident that direct communication across more than 10,000 miles was entirely feasible – not only for professional monitoring stations, but also for ordinary shortwave listeners in the United States, and at times on frequencies as low as 6 MHz.
For reliable reception of relay-quality signals, however, intermediate stations were utilized, including LSK in Argentina, KKW at Koko Head, Hawaii, and the RCA stations at Bolinas, California and Riverhead, Long Island.
The base station of the Byrd Expedition was KJTY, operating with a 1 kW AM transmitter installed aboard the S.S. Jacob Ruppert. The compact but comprehensively equipped radio room aboard the Jacob Ruppert was used for three specific functions:
1. Official Communications, for which Morse Code was used.
2. Broadcast Transmissions, which included entertainment and information programs transmitted using the dedicated 1 kW AM transmitter employing large vacuum tubes.
3. Reception and Monitoring
The ship’s radio stores alone comprised more than 2,000 individual components, weighing approximately three tons. The inventory included:
• 10 transmitters
• 14 receivers
• 143 transmitting tubes
• 440 receiving tubes
• 115 quartz crystals
• 23 microphones
• 2 complete recording machines
• 55 measuring instruments
Receivers for both broadcast-band and long-wave reception were also carried, reflecting the need to monitor stations worldwide.
The ship originated a series of Saturday-night broadcasts at 10pm Eastern during the three-month voyage south. These early programs, transmitted under the call sign KJTY, often came from an improvised cabin studio and were relayed via South America to RCA’s transoceanic receiving station at Riverhead, Long Island, before being fed into the CBS network.
Once the expedition reached the Bay of Whales and established a base camp that they dubbed ‘Little America’ in January 1934, the radio operation expanded dramatically. The 1 kW transmitter was moved ashore and reinstalled on the Ross Ice Shelf, where it operated under a new call sign, KFZ. Power was supplied by a 1,000-pound gasoline-driven generator – the heaviest single piece of radio equipment taken south and the only reliable power source at the base.
Antennas were to be supported on towers left standing from Byrd’s previous expedition, but the party prudently carried materials for new towers in case Antarctic storms had destroyed the originals.
From Little America, broadcasts were transmitted over distances exceeding 10,000 miles. Signals were often relayed via Buenos Aires and then forwarded northward through RCA facilities to New York, where CBS distributed them to 59 key stations across the United States. CBS’s own shortwave station W2XE also forwarded the broadcasts to Europe, Canada, the Pacific, and even Australia, where the 1 kW signals could sometimes be received directly.
Radio accompanied nearly every means of transport used by the expedition. Byrd’s Curtiss-Condor aircraft carried a 50-watt transmitter, enabling his historic South Pole flight to be reported almost immediately. Additional aircraft – including a Fokker and a Fairchild – were similarly equipped. Even dog sleds carried 1-watt VHF transmitters and receivers operating on 5 meters, allowing short-range communication between sled parties and base – an extraordinary level of integration for the early 1930’s.
The broadcasts themselves were informal, sometimes chaotic, and immensely popular. Programs mixed news, scientific commentary, music, and improvised entertainment. Sponsors such as General Foods underwrote the cost, with advertisements often delivered live from the Antarctic. One memorable sonic trademark was the barking of “Mike”, a sled dog whose voice opened many broadcasts.
CBS sent engineer John Newton Dyer to supervise operations on site, along with journalist and announcer Charles J.V. Murphy, who acted as producer, writer, director, and presenter. NBC and General Electric responded with their own broadcasts to the expedition via W2XAF, including a hugely popular “mailbag” service that allowed families to send short messages to Little America and receive replies.
By late 1934, as the Antarctic summer returned and scientific work intensified, broadcasting gradually receded in importance. Yet the achievement remained unparalleled. Never before had an expedition offered such extensive opportunities for broadcasters, shortwave listeners, and radio amateurs alike. The S.S. Jacob Ruppert, once a dormant cargo ship, had served as the first true Antarctic broadcast platform. Together with the transmitters, receivers, generators, and antennas hauled south across oceans and ice, she helped prove that radio could collapse distance itself – bringing the “bottom of the world” into living rooms thousands of miles away.
Back to you, Jeff.
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| Arrrow pointing to the location of 'Little America.' |
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