Abstract
THE B.B.C. included in its programme on the evening of April 14, an interesting item which took the form of a short broadcast from Admiral Byrd's Antarctic expedition, the main base of which is at Little America, Bay of Whales, in latitude 78° S> The transmission was effected through the agency of the Columbia Broadcasting System of America, which has a representative with the expedition giving regular talks to listeners in the United States. The signals from the expedition's transmitting station at the Bay of Whales were received in South America, relayed to New York and thence to England and several other European countries. In addition to announcements by the representative mentioned above, members of the party gave a brief account of the prevailing meteorological conditions and of the scientific work being carried out by the expedition. The average daily temperature was stated to have been between -20° and -60° C., while a thirteen days' blizzard had been experienced recently. Admiral Byrd's advance party is located at about 123 miles nearer the South Pole than the main base at Little America. The brief programme included a musical item by members of the expedition and concluded with the singing of the British national anthem. Although reception was marred to some extent by distortion and a fairly high noise level, this broadcasting achievement showed in an interesting manner the possibilities of modern radio communication, and demonstrated that the isolation of polar expeditions is a thing of the past.
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A Broadcast from the Antarctic. Nature 133, 603–604 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133603e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133603e0