When Admiral Byrd started planning the 1933 expedition to Little America in the Antarctic, he remembered the communication problems of the MacMillan expedition.?Arthur Collins was just in the startup process for Collins Radio Company.?Contact was made with Arthur and an agreement made to build a transmitter for the Little America expedition.?The plan was to have voice transmissions that could be broadcast over commercial radio.?CBS was convinced to help sponsor such an endeavor.
4
The transmitter designed was a 20B unit the size of a refrigerator.?It and two exciter units would be built in Cedar Rapids and shipped to the Little American site.?This was a major undertaking as the units were large and heavy needing power generators and fuel to also be transported to the Little America site.
4
The adjacent photo shows Arthur with the units.?The interesting thing about the whole process is that it doesn't appear that the units were protected with crates or other protection in any way during shipping.?Most astounding is that the transmitters worked on arrival at the base camp.?The equipment was moved by dog-team on a sled from the boat to the base camp.?Needless to say, the whole process was a success.
4
1 Wikipedia
2 Providence Journal November 23, 1962
3 Providence Journal December 2, 1938
4 The Byrd Expedition and Collins' part in it
Born in Stamford, Connecticut on February 12, 1895. He left Stamford High School after one year, and apprenticed in a machine shop in 1908. After working as a repairman, salesman, and traveling repairman for his apprenticeship works, he signed in 1911, at age 16, to a berth as a steam engine engineer on a ferryboat that served Prudence Island in Narrangansett Bay in Rhode Island. This, in turn, gave him the credentials to be hired in 1911-1912 as a full-fledged machinist at 
