1AS – Dr. Silvio Pozzi, Novara: Fifteen Watts to New Zealand and Second Place in the 1925 Championship

Introduction

"Ur crd is vy necessary for me to win the Nazionale Contest here", Silvio Pozzi wrote at the bottom of this card for u2GP, after a contact of 13 February 1926 at 22:30 GMT on 40 metres. He did not quite win: in the R.C.N.I. "Concorso di radioemissione 1925" Pozzi's 1AS finished second to Marietti's 1NO, although with more confirmed two-way contacts (126 against 122), and received "grande medaglia d'argento e valvola di trasmissione Telefunken". Il Radio Giornale wrote that "la lotta tra 1AS e 1NO è stata accanita sino all'ultimo mese". The card is printed with the address the magazine gave for him in October 1925, Corso Torino 1, Novara.

Low power to the antipodes (1925)

1AS first appears in the reception lists in the spring of 1925. In August 1925 "i1AS (Pozzi, Novara) ha realizzato nel mese di agosto comunicazioni bilaterali con u1ER e u1AGB con soli 30 watt alimentazione", and on 27 September 1925 he worked New Zealand: "i1AS (Pozzi, Novara) ha comunicato bilateralmente il 27 settembre con nz2AC usando soli 15 watt alimentazione" (October 1925). A letter signed "Pozzi Silvio i1AS, Novara, Corso Torino 1" asked for the contact to be registered for the contest. On 8 November 1925 he worked Australia (a3BQ, M. Howden, Box Hill, Victoria) with the same 15 watts; his October list has z2AC, z2AE, z1AX, z1AO, z2BR and z4AR as well as Americans. In December 1925 he made 43 two-way contacts, in January 1926 48, including India (HBK) and Canada; "i segnali emessi dalla mia stazione su 23 metri, 15 watts alimentazione, erano uditi R5 in America nel mese di Luglio", he wrote in February 1926. The February 1926 list, which covers this card, includes u2GP among the Americans worked; the magazine also notes that 1AS had been heard by u6CHX in San Diego and by a listener in Tientsin, China.

His contest report, "Radio i1AS" (August–October 1926), describes a four-wire cage aerial strung between a pole on the roadside and a balcony, hemmed in by 3,000-volt power lines, and the power used: 15–30 W from August to December 1925, 50 W in December–February, 80 W in March 1926. "Nello spazio di un mese, la stazione 1AS ha eseguito 32 bilaterali con la Nuova Zelanda, usando da principio 15 Watts"; "Dagli Stati Uniti infinite volte mi è stato detto: «the best European Station hrd»". Marietti himself conceded that "1AS ha una raddrizzata perfetta, una perizia eccezionale". Pozzi fell ill in the summer of 1926 ("da molti giorni sono a letto … Il mare completerà la mia guarigione") and warned that any 1AS heard after 31 March was a pirate.

Councillor, telephony and rectifiers (1927–1928)

In January 1927 Pozzi was among the founding councillors of the A.R.I. ("Consiglieri: Bruno Brunacci, Giuseppe Fontana, Dr. Silvio Pozzi, Giovanni Colonnetti, Giulio Salom, Francesco P. Pagliari") and its delegate for the province of Novara, first at Via Michelangelo 2, from October 1927 at Corso della Vittoria 12. At the Como congress of September 1927 he lectured on "Rettificazione della corrente mediante tubi di mercurio", a subject he returned to in articles of February and April 1928; other amateurs built their electrolytic rectifier cells "secondo esatte indicazioni dell'egregio dott. Pozzi". By December 1927 he was "particolarmente attivo in telefonia" with about 60 watts, a pillar of the Saturday A.R.I. phone net; in June 1928 "ei1AS Valvola W 50 M Zenith. Alimentazione 80 watt. Trasmette quasi esclusivamente in fonia, generalmente su 41,8 m. e su 32,8 m.", and he reported hearing the Nobile expedition's ship Città di Milano at Novara. In December 1928 the council elected him traffic director of the A.R.I. in Marietti's place and re-elected him councillor for 1929–30. The magazine always calls him "Dott." but never gives his profession. Federico Paoletti's chronology places him later at Bugnate di Gozzano (Novara) and gives his subsequent call as I1IRA.

The card itself

• To: u2GP (by 1926 the call of Donald C. Sayer, 11407 St. Anns Avenue, Richmond Hill, New York, to whom five other cards in this collection are addressed). "Your sigs wrd hr at 2230 GMT 13/2/1926, calling CQ USA, working you"; CW, audibility r4, 40 m band, QSB vy gd, QRB 7,500 miles.
• Receiver: Reinartz 0-V-1. Transmitter: 150 watts, circuit R.F.B. (reversed feed-back), valve Mayor, wave 44 m; aerial cage, counterpoise not used; "DX trans: all over the world".
• Remarks: "Vy gld to QSO u dear OM – hope QSO often"; "ur crd is vy necessary for me to win the Nazionale Contest here"; printed A.D.R.I. – I.A.R.U. – Italian Radio 1AS, Pozzi Silvio, Corso Torino 1, Novara; back "Thru courtesy of the ARRL", "Forwarded by A.R.R.L., Hartford", printed Novara, Stab. Parzini.

The 150 watts on the card is above the 50–80 W he reported for the same months; it may be the rated power of the valve.

Key Specifications of 1AS

Sources

• Il Radio Giornale, May–July, September (p. 16), October (pp. 17–20), November and December 1925; January, February (pp. 14, 17), March (pp. 17–18), May (pp. 3, 22), June (pp. 1, 4–5, 21), July (p. 21), August, September and October 1926 ("Radio i1AS"); scans at introni.it.
• Il Radio Giornale, January, October (congress, list of transmitters) and December 1927; January (pp. 17, 21–22), February, April, June, July and December 1928; scans at introni.it.
• US Department of Commerce, Amateur Radio Stations of the United States, June 1926, and Radio Amateur Call Book, September 1928: 2GP, Donald C. Sayer, Richmond Hill, N.Y.
• Federico Paoletti, Storia della radiodiffusione in Italia (federicopaoletti.it), entry for 15 January 1925 ("1AS dott. Silvio Pozzi - Bugnate Gozzano (Novara), in seguito anche I1IRA").
• The card itself (front and back), K1FM collection.