I1RV – Renato Torelli, Trento: A Post-War Card of 1947

Introduction

This card was long catalogued as 1927, but it belongs to 1947. The year on the front is written "1947" over the printed "19", the transmitter line-up "802 – 807 – 813" uses valves introduced by RCA in the late 1930s, the frequency is given in megacycles ("14 Mc/s") and the addressee, G8VR, holds a British call of the post-war series. Renato Torelli, "8 Malfatti str., Trento", confirms a CW contact with G8VR on 15 March 1947 at 19:30 GMT, QSA 5, QRK r7, and asks for a QSL "direct, or via A.R.I., Milano". The back carries the stamp "A.R.I. Servizio Q.S.L., Viale Bianca Maria 24, Milano", the bureau address the Associazione Radiotecnica Italiana used from before the war until it moved to Via S. Paolo 10 in 1948.

Italian amateur radio in 1947

Italian amateur transmitting was forbidden from 1939 to 1945. The ministry began issuing provisional licences again in 1946 (forty by lot, according to the ARI Palermo section's history), and the call books show the result: the 1946 editions contain almost no Italian stations, the Fall 1948 edition about 840. Licences remained provisional until the decree of 14 January 1954. The 802 (oscillator or buffer), 807 (driver) and 813 (final) were the standard surplus line-up of those years; 200 watts input is what a single 813 gives.

The 1948, 1949 and 1952 call books list "I1RV Renato Torelli, via Malfatti 8, Trento". He is absent from the 1955 and later editions, in which I1RV is held by someone else. Nothing else about him was found. No connection exists with the 1RV heard in Bizerte and Sweden in 1927–28, whose holder the pre-war magazine never named.

The card itself

• Printed: "A.R.I. – Italian Experimental Station"; "Per. ind.: Renato Torelli, 8 Malfatti str., Trento – Italy"; "Pse Tnx QSL direct, or via A.R.I., Milano – Italy"; "Cheerio, opr. Torelli"; "73".
• QSO: with radio G8VR on 14 Mc/s CW at 1930 GMT on 15-3-1947; QSA 5, QRK r7.
• Station: Tx 802 – 807 – 813; antenna Hertz, 20 m length; input 200 watt; Rx 9 tubes.
• G8VR: K. E. V. Willis, Pine Lodge, Westergate Road, Upper Abbey Wood, London S.E.2 (call books 1946–48).
• Back: A.R.I. QSL bureau stamp, Viale Bianca Maria 24, Milan.

Key Specifications of I1RV

Sources

• Radio Amateur Call Book, Summer and Fall 1946 (G8VR; Italian section), Fall 1948, Summer 1949, Fall 1952, Fall 1955 (I1RV, Renato Torelli, via Malfatti 8, Trento), Spring 1939 (A.R.I. bureau, Viale Bianca Maria 24); scans at archive.org.
• ARI Verona, "Storia della sezione" (ariverona.it); ARI Roma, history page (ariroma.it); ARI Palermo, history of the section (post-war licences).
• Il Radio Giornale, September 1927 and January 1928 (an unnamed 1RV heard abroad); scans at introni.it.
• The card itself (front and back), K1FM collection.