I1RE – Ing. Mario Castellani, Milan: Twenty-Metre Telephony to Rhode Island, October 1939

Introduction

A month after the outbreak of the war in Europe, on 2 October 1939 at 23:10 Italian time, I1RE in Milan worked W1JFG, Willard D. Cook of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, in telephony on 14 MHz, and received him R8, QSA W5. Italy was still neutral, and Italian amateurs stayed on the air until the following spring. The card, typed and hand-drawn, gives the station: "Ricevitore: super 9 tubes. Trasmettitore: O. 76 – D. 6L6 – P.A.D. 4 x 6L6, plate mod. 2 x 6L6 cl. AB2", a crystal-controlled 76 oscillator, a 6L6 doubler and four 6L6 in the final, plate-modulated by a pair of 6L6 in class AB2. On the back the operator writes in English: "I will be very glad to receive your QSL card to confirm our QSO. Please send in close envelope at this address: Ing. Mario Castellani, Settembrini 56, Milano, Italia. I hope to QSO another time with you OM. 73's and good DX's."

What is known

Very little beyond the card. The American call books of 1939–41 print no list of Italian stations, only the A.R.I. QSL address, so I1RE cannot be checked there, and no Italian call book of the period was found. Mario Castellani does not appear in the Italian lists of 1948–1965; the I1RU of 1948 was Edoardo Carmagnola, and the only later trace of the name is an "I5RU (M. Castellani)" who translated an antenna article in Radio Rivista in 1974, which may or may not be the same man. Earlier versions of this page identified him as a son of a photographer, a designer at Irradio and an author on antennas in a journal called Revista Telegrafica; none of this could be verified and it has been removed.

The card itself

• To: W1JFG (Willard D. Cook, RFD 1, Woonsocket, R.I., per the Spring 1939 and 1940 call books).
• "Confermando il ns. QSO del 2-10-39 ora it. 23.10 in fonia, QRK R8, QSA W5, QRG 14 MHz."
• Receiver: superheterodyne, 9 valves. Transmitter: 76 oscillator, 6L6 doubler, 4 x 6L6 final, plate modulation by 2 x 6L6 class AB2.
• "Cordiali 73"; the back as quoted above, signed Castellani.

Key Specifications of I1RE

Sources

• Radio Amateur Call Book, Spring 1939 and Spring 1940, District 1: W1JFG, Willard D. Cook, Woonsocket, R.I.; Spring 1939 and Winter 1941, foreign section (A.R.I. address only); Fall 1948 – Summer 1965 Italian lists; scans at archive.org.
• qsl.net/is0iek (reference to I5RU, M. Castellani, Radio Rivista, November 1974).
• The card itself (front and back), K1FM collection.