The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast February 16, 1990

     Merrill Beam, K2BX, was well known in amateur radio and military organizations.  He was an electronic engineer at the Signal Corps Research and Development Laboratories in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
     In 1910, at the age of 11, Merrill Beam built and operated his "Spark Gap" wireless set, using the call letters "MB."  In those early years, licenses were not required and almost everyone used their initials for call letters.
     His daughter Virginia described him as a "gung-ho" patriot who gave his wrong age so that he could enlist in World War I, at the age of 16.  Merrill fought in the Mexican Border War as well as World Wars I and II.
     He was a very active radio amateur who had many interesting and rewarding experiences.  In 1923, he was the first radio amateur to establish radio communications with Admiral Byrd's early Antarctic expedition and handled many messages for Byrd.  By the late 1920s, aircraft were used by different countries in polar explorations.  General Umberto Nobile, the famous Italian explorer, was using the dirigible "Italia" with a crew of 16 when they crashed on the Arctic Ocean ice cap.
     General Nobile said later, "We had been over the pole and were returning to our base in Spitzbergen, Norway on the 28th of May, 1928.  With no reason we could explain, the airship suddenly dipped down and ten of us were thrown free through the bottom of the cabin as it hit the ice.  One man was killed and one of my arms and one of my legs were broken.  Then the airship did a strange thing.  She shot back up into the air and away, carrying six men with her.  No one ever saw them or the ship again."
     In the meantime, 3,000 miles away, Merrill Beam, K2BX, happened to be tuning around the frequencies and was surprised to hear their SOS.  He got their position reports and notified the rescue services.  It took another 25 days for a Russian icebreaker to cut through the ice and rescue the remaining nine survivors.
     For his vital role in the rescue of General Nobile and his remaining crew, radio amateur Merrill Beam, K2BX, was made a "Marquis under the order of San Marisa Allazzero" and was knighted by the King of Italy.
     Seventeen years later, during World War II, when Merrill was an officer in the armed forces liberating Italy, the Italian government still remembered what he had done in the rescue of their Arctic explorer and awarded Merrill with the Grand Cross of Italy.

February 16, 1990

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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