Nizhny Novgorod radio laboratory and amateur radio communication on HF

The guide told the group of excursionists about how the collective of the Nizhny Novgorod Radio Laboratory named after IN AND. Lenin embodied the precepts of V.I. Lenin on the "newspaper without wires and distances." But I didn’t come there for that.



I stood in the memorial hall of the Nizhny Novgorod Radiolaboratory Science Museum of the Nizhny Novgorod State University opposite the shop window with a short-wave transmitter on two lamps and thought that this exhibit embodied two hobbies of my whole life: amateur short-wave radio communications and lamp electronics. Both that and another in the Soviet Union began within these walls. And with adventure!

Scam Ernst Krenkel

The southern coast of the Strait of Matochkin Shar. Autumn of 1927. The roar of the birds is blocked by a cry: “A boat carries away!” Everyone runs out of the premises of the polar station. A tall young man runs ahead, throws off his quilted jacket, takes off his boots and, without hesitation, throws himself into the icy water. In the boat is what this young man came to his second winter in the Arctic: a shortwave radio station.



The receiver and transmitter in the boat did not appear by themselves. A few months before swimming in the waters of the Matochkin Shar Strait, a tall young man appeared in the Moscow representative office of the NRL on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard and asked for equipment to be allocated to the Hydrographic Department for conducting short-wave communications in the Arctic. The next day, M.A. Bonch-Bruevich, who was in Moscow, agreed to provide equipment.



Then the tall young man went to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) to be recruited by the radio operator at the Matochkin Shar polar station. In the management of the expedition, he painted in paints how the Nizhny Novgorod radio lab “is simply eager” to conduct experiments on shortwave communications in the Arctic, and received a paper stating that “the hydrographic department is ready to deliver these experiments and provide them with everything they need ".



Next was a trip to Nizhny, assembly, inspection, packaging of equipment and sending it to Arkhangelsk. It was this equipment that Ernst Theodorovich Krenkel saved, risking his life.



In the autobiographical book "RAEM - My Callsigns" he evaluates these events as follows:

“Probably, this was not the best thing in my life, but I really wanted it to happen that way. I wanted to go to the Arctic with good equipment, I wanted to work on short waves where no one had worked for them yet. ”

However, the result of Ernst Krenkel’s scam was brilliant:

“The long months of the polar night passed, and spring came. My reports on the established long-distance communications were sent to the authorities, to Arkhangelsk and to the Nizhny Novgorod radio laboratory. Of particular appreciation and enthusiasm on the part of the bosses not every time you wait. I did not expect them either, mindful of the wary, and sometimes simply unfriendly attitude towards our undertaking.



My reports were read, discussed in Arkhangelsk, and, of course, there were sensible, initiative people who built a makeshift short-wave transmitter. A radiogram asking to listen to the work of the new station and establish a connection with it was the best reward for me. This radio station became my second regular correspondent, and from now on, all official correspondence, bypassing excessive processing at the Yugorsky Shar intermediate station, went directly through its head to Arkhangelsk.



Significant acceleration of reception and transmission, fuel economy in our country and on the Ugra Ball were the first tangible results of the application of the latest technology at that time. So forty-odd years ago, short waves appeared in the Arctic, and I am proud that I had something to do with it. ”

Russia, First, Fedor Lbov

January 15, 1925, Nizhny Novgorod, ul. Novaya, 60. A square fathom of a cell in the entrance hall is laden with radio-technical equipment. The stove-potbelly stove is heated, but practically does not give heat. Two people squeezed miraculously between the stove and the equipment. After a short heated discussion, one of them begins to beat out: “ CQ de R1FL QRK? QSL on the following address Russia Nijni Nowgorod Nowaja 60. "



The amateur radio transmitter had an estimated power of 12 ... 15 W and was assembled by the staff of the NRL F.A. Lbovom and V.M. Petrov on two lamps. The receiver was not ready at the time of the first broadcast. Petrov worked on the key. The call sign R1FL was chosen independently right before going on the air, about which there was a discussion.



R1FL created a legal incident. The formal permission for the construction and operation of the transmitter was the response of the Nizhny Novgorod Executive Committee that " ... there are no obstacles to the construction of a radiotelephone station with a transmitter with power up to 1/2 losh. strength and wavelength not exceeding 200 m for amateur purposes and experiments on radio transmission and reception . " This response to the application for permission to build a transmitter was received by Fedor Lbov as early as 1923. In fact, this permission had no legal force.



Let me remind you that the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on private receiving radio stations was published on July 28, 1924, and before this decision, private individuals were not allowed to even have radios. In addition, the use of transmitting and receiving and transmitting radio stations for private individuals for research and experimental purposes, became possible only after February 5, 1926, the date of adoption of the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on private use radio stations.



The R1FL reception on a wavelength of 96 m was confirmed by telegrams from Mesopotamia and Paris, about which Fyodor Lbov sent a report to the editor of the Radio Amateur magazine, which served as an information occasion for the main topic of the second issue of Radio Amateur magazine for 1925.



“Malicious violators of Soviet legality” F.A. Lbov and V.M. Petrov did not suffer for his "amateur performance". It must be assumed that senior colleagues, including V.K. Lebedinsky, V.V. Tatarinova and M.A. Bonch-Bruevich. Prof. VK. In the same issue of the Radio Amateur journal, Lebedinsky even published an article, “A Coup in Radio Engineering,” on the prospects for using short waves.

The revolution in radio technology

Over the ten-year history of the NRL, there have been several “coups in radio engineering”. First M.A. Bonch-Bruevich developed a method for calculating the parameters of a vacuum triode. Then, in the process of radiotelephony experiments, the lamps “won a clear victory” over electric machine generators. Water cooling of powerful lamps was also invented, without which the stable operation of a 12 kW radio station named after The Comintern would be impossible.



But there was a problem that was not “solved”: providing radio communications between Moscow and Vladivostok.



Back in 1918, for direct radio communication between Moscow and Vladivostok, it was planned to use transmitters with a power of 500 kW at a wavelength of 12,000 m. The pessimistic scenario assumed the presence of a repeater in Krasnoyarsk and the use of transmitters with a capacity of 6450 kW at a wavelength of 15,000 m.



Prof. Lebedinsky in his article states:

“You can really be glad that the construction of the radio stations of this our radio route was not started at that time.”

Another prof. Lebedinsky in his publication indicates that the factors affecting the propagation of short waves in the atmosphere have not been studied much, and the mass development of short-wave communication by radio amateurs can significantly help in their study. So, in fact, the legalization of Soviet short-wavelengths was scientifically substantiated.



It is safe to say that neither Fedor Lbov nor Ernst Krenkel would have achieved their success without the work of M.A. Bonch-Bruevich, V.K. Lebedinsky and V.V. Tatarinova.



By the time R1FL first went on the air, lamps capable of operating in the meter wavelength range had already been developed by M.A. Bonch-Bruevich and were produced in the NRL.



M.A. Since the summer of 1925, Bonch-Bruevich has been conducting together with VV Tatarinov a series of bold experiments on radio communications on HF: on the lines Moscow - Tashkent and Vladivostok - Nizhny Novgorod determines the optimal wavelengths for stable communication, different for the "day" and "night" transmission; actively experimenting with directional antennas.



By the time of the visit, E.T. In 1927, Krenkel’s NRL already had the active construction of an HF radio station capable of withstanding wintering in the Arctic.



The movement of shortwaves, therefore, did not arise from scratch.

Instead of an epilogue

During the events described in the essay, Petrov Vladimir Mikhailovich (1902 - 1927) passed away from pulmonary tuberculosis. He was the first in the Soviet Union to conduct two-way radio communication with antipodes, New Zealand hams, from the NRL transmitter of the Nizhny Novgorod radio laboratory. He also took a direct part in the creation of the HF radio link Moscow - Tashkent.



Bonch-Bruevich Mikhail Alexandrovich (1888 - 1940) - from 01.10.1928 he will head the Central Radio Laboratory (TsRL), organized as a result of the merger of the NRL with the Leningrad Radio Laboratory of the Trust of low current plants. In 1932 he published the book "Short Waves". His name will be called the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute of Communications.



Krenkel Ernst Teodorovich (1903 - 1971) - will soon become a Chelyuskin, a Papanin, a Hero of the Soviet Union, twice a Knight of the Order of Lenin, a Knight of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and Knight of the Order of the Red Star. He will receive for personal use the call sign of the icebreaker Chelyuskin RAEM.



Lbov Fedor Alekseevich (1895 - 1976) - the first in the Soviet Union to receive the official amateur call sign 01RA. After the merger of the NRL with the TsRL will remain in Nizhny Novgorod. He will be arrested on March 8, 1938 on charges of relations with foreigners. The case will be dismissed on September 25, 1939.

From the author

The historical essay was created based on the following materials:



1. Krenkel E.T. RAEM - my callsign - M .: Soviet Russia, 1973

2. "Radio amateur", 1925, No. 2

3. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonch-Bruevich__Mikhail_Alexandrovich

4. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krenkel__Ernst_Theodorovich

5. Ostroumov B. A. Nizhny Novgorod pioneers of Soviet radio engineering - L .: Nauka, 1966

6.http : //www.museum.unn.ru/managfs/index.phtml? Id = 13



During the preparation of the essay for publication, a large amount of interesting facts was accumulated. What should I write further, you decide.