Ernst Krenkel

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Stamp depicting Ernst Krenkel

RAEM QSL card

Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel, callsign RAEM (Эрнст Теодо́рович Кре́нкель) (1903-1971) was a Soviet Arctic explorer, doctor of geographical sciences (1938), Chairman of the USSR Central Radio Club and Hero of the Soviet Union (1938).

In 1924–1925 and 1927–1938, Ernst Krenkel was a radioman on polar stations Matochkin Shar (1924–1925, 1927–1928), Tikhaya Bay (1929–1930), Cape Olovyanniy (1935–1936), and Domashniy Island (1936). He took part in Arctic expeditions on the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin airship (1931), icebreaker Sibiryakov, steamship SS Chelyuskin (1933–1934). Ernst Krenkel was also a radioman on the first drifting ice station North Pole in 1937–1938. He is known to have set a world record by establishing a long-distance radio communication between Franz Josef Land and Antarctica.

In 1938, Ernst Krenkel went on to work for Glavsevmorput. Later in his life he was employed in the radio industry. In 1948 and until the end of the Stalinist period, Krenkel was persecuted by the Soviet regime, under the orders of G.M. Malenkov. In 1951 Krenkel was hired by the scientific research institute of hydrometeorological instrument-making, becoming its director in 1969.

Krenkel was a very active radio amateur. He was assigned the exceptional amateur radio callsign RAEM, which was previously the radio callsign of his former ship SS Chelyuskin, lost in the Arctic Ocean in 1934. He served as chairman of the Central Radio Club (P.O.Box 88, Moscow) for a number of years.

Ernst Krenkel was awarded two Orders of Lenin, three other orders and several medals. He authored memoirs named My Callsign is RAEM ("Мои позывные — RAEM"). Ernst Krenkel died in 1971 and was interred at the Novodevichy Cemetery. A street in Moscow bears Krenkel's name.

References

1. Alf Lindgren SM5IQ: Ernst Krenkel -- no ordinary radio amateur [1], 2002.
2. Ernst Krenkel: My Callsign is RAEM, 1939.

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