Italy Mountaintops, Tour 1

I spent most of my summer in 1979 in Italy, Germany and Sweden, with brief visits to Austria and Denmark. Using the word "vacation" would be misleading, because I was working full time -- at least while I was in Italy.

Setting the Stage 

After I graduated from High School, I was hired by the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (Department of Commerce Office of Telecommunications, now NIST) as a Junior Fellow. My boss was Dave Wortendyke, and he had arranged the Junior Fellowship for me, but that's another story.

Our group had a contract with the US Army that involved performing received signal level tests on microwave radio links in Italy. This came about because the German government wanted to push base-to-base communication out of the 8GHz band. It was hoped that the study would prove that the next available band at 15GHz would be unsuitable due to atmospheric fading. For reasons that were not shared with me, it was decided to set up and run the tests on links between air bases in Italy rather than between army bases in Germany.

In the lab, Larry Hause designed and built the 15GHz transmitter and receiver modules. The design used aluminum pressure cookers as weatherproof enclosures. Each included a low-wattage incandescent light bulb as a heater, to provide some temperature stability. Each radio was to be connected to a 4' dish antenna by a short length of flexible waveguide. Dave and I worked together on coding the data-logging software that would monitor and record the received signal levels, and analyze the results.

Setting up the radios for the test would involve bolting the radios and dish antennas to the side of radio towers, and running power and data cables from these back to the nearby radio building. On mountaintop locations, we also needed to add a roof, to shield the radio equipment from falling ice. I was one of three people in the lab physically able to perform those tasks. The assignment also required people who were willing to spend most of the summer away from home. That left Dave and me.

It may be that Dave also did not fancy climbing up radio towers, so that would have left just me. But I was too young to rent a car in Europe, so I would still need a chauffeur. Anyway, having responsibility for setting up the three links and starting the tests would have been well above my pay grade. As it turned out, there was plenty enough work for Dave to do inside the various radio buildings while I was doing on-site machining or out working on the tower.

The logistics were all worked out before I was brought into the conversation. I arrived at work one day, and the guys in the group said, "How would you like to go to Italy for 6 weeks?" I said that was fine, and they said, "Great, you leave in two weeks." After their little joke, Dave explained the details. I also needed to obtain Secret clearance so I could visit the military bases and a tower-climber's certificate so I could scale the radio towers. These were obtained in short order.

Flights

Before leaving Boulder, I contacted my sister's former host family -- the Griems -- in Regensburg. I said that I might be able to stop there some time during the summer. I also wrote to Malin Alsen, a young lady I had met at a Sons of Norway dance that Spring. She was an exchange student at Boulder High and had returned to Stockholm. She was happy to have me visit with her family in Täby.

In anticipation for those side trips, I packed very lightly. Rather than taking a suitcase, I put all my clothes in a knapsack. I also took along a sleeping bag -- attached beneath the knapsack -- and packed my bike tools.

The outbound trip was to land in Milan, but when arranging my travel I requested that the return trip be from Stockholm. I was on my own for getting from Castiglione to Stockholm. But from what I had heard about the European rail system, I was pretty sure I could manage that easily.

The Alps NW of Milan

The flight from Denver to Milan had a connection at JFK airport. The international flight departed from the iconic TWA Flight Center, so I had an opportunity to walk through the famous Eero Saarinen terminal building to catch my connecting flight. The second leg flew right over Mont Blanc on our way to Milan. Once over the Po Valley, we turned a full circle while descending toward the airport.

I do not remember now whether Dave was on the same flight, but I think not. I recall finding my own way to my connection in JFK and I don't recall having to deal with the car rental. Whatever our arrangements had been, they all went like clockwork. As soon as I checked into my hotel room, I crashed for several hours. 

Radio Sites in Italy

Setting up the test involved installing microwave transmitters on 3 mountaintops (Mt. Cimone, Mt. Venda and Paganella) and 3 matching receivers at the central station on Mount Corna. The link with Mt. Venda had already been installed, since I did not have clearance to visit that site. I spent most of my time on top of the two taller peaks, or on the 50' platform on the tower at Mt. Corna setting up the other two links. There was a great deal of logistics involved, which somewhat explains why it took more than a month to install the two test links.

The initial plan was to install the transmitter radios at Mt. Corna and set up the stations at Paganella and Monte Cimone as receivers. Even a weak signal would allow us to align the antenna at the remote site, and this could be done even if the mountaintops were fogged-in. Then, we would swap a transmitter for a receiver at the remote site and return to Corna. The signal from the remote site would allow the antenna at the Mt. Corna end of the link to be aligned, and the link would be ready for testing. 

After we arrived, we had to go the airbase at Vicenza to pick up the materiel that had been shipped there. While we were on the base, we visited the PX and I purchased a flat of canned orange juice and some other food items. 

I was warned against drinking the tap water, so I bought the orange juice for hydration. It didn't work very well. After a few days of drinking only beer, wine, mineral water and orange juice, I was quite dehydrated and couldn't hold out any longer. I drew a big glass of water in my hotel room and downed it. I had some gastric distress for two or three days, but the adjustment to my gut flora was well worth it. After that, I could drink the water from the tap in the hotel without a problem.

The tower on Mt. Corna

Leaving Vicenza, we carried the equipment back to the base at Mt. Corna, and set up a transmitter there. Mount Corna would not even qualify as a hill in Boulder, but the prominence still required switchbacks to reach the top. We drove through the center of Grole, turning right and left on streets barely wide enough to accommodate one car, then up the hill past vineyards to reach the gate of the air base. Sometimes we had to wait for chickens to move off the road so we could pass. It was all very Italian and picturesque -- the more so when viewed from the 50M platform on the radio tower.

One time, as I was working on the tower, the Master Sergeant on the base decided (or more likely, was ordered) to bring a 6WD truck up the hill and park it there. When he reached the hairpin turn below the gate, he had to pull forward and back up about a dozen times to negotiate the curve. I thought the whole performance  rather comical, particularly since there was no apparent reason to have such a huge truck up there.

The tower was a convenient landmark for US pilots on training runs from the nearby air base. They would come up from the east, pull a tight turn around the tower and head back to base. I remember distinctly hearing a sound like the air being torn apart, and looking down on the top of the pilot's helmet as he pulled an 85º banked turn around the tower.

Tower, Barracks and Vineyard

 

In the photo, our three 4' dishes (with green radomes) can be seen mounted outside the lowest platform, 50m above the ground. When working outside the tower, I wore a safety belt and ran the rope around any convenient cross-member. The safety rope was about 4' long with a carabiner at each end; these clipped onto a D-ring on each side of the safety belt.

I never lost my balance, but one time, I dropped a power supply that I was using to test one of the radios. The power supply hit one of the cross-members on the way down and spun end-over-end until it hit the grass. It turned out that the only damage was that the plastic case had split open. So we duct-taped it back together, and that was that. Hewlett-Packard made some pretty durable equipment, back in the day.

Town Boss

Dave had booked us rooms at the Lido Hotel in downtown Castiglione. It was convenient to drive from there to Mount Corna, and the price was reasonable. The Lido had a restaurant on the main floor, and we often ate there.

After a few nights dining in the Lido, I noticed that there was a certain man who sat at a neighboring table. He always sat at the same table, and was always in conversation with a few people. My Italian was too rudimentary to listen in, but I still gathered that people were bringing plans to him for approval, or asking him to resolve minor disputes. It didn't take me long to figure out that this guy was the Town Boss.

About a week after we arrived, I heard a crash and looked out the window. One of the airmen from the base had had a bit too much to drink. He was having trouble maneuvering his car out of his parking spot: He'd backed into the car behind. As I watched from the window in my room, he pulled forward and bashed the car ahead as well. Then (perhaps after another iteration of bashing and crashing) pulled out onto the street and drove away with screeching tires.

The very next evening, the airman was escorted to the boss's table by two locals. The boss explained (in English) that the serviceman was expected to pay for the damage to the other autos, and that was that. No trial, no evidence, no attempts to deny responsibility. The boss learned as much as he needed from the community, and justice was done.

I assumed that this was the extent of the local government at the time, and I admired its efficiency.  

Food

When working at Mount Corna, we usually ate in the hotel restaurant at the Lido. The restaurant there served typical Italian food: After taking our order for pasta and the meat dish, the server brought around the salad cart. You chose the vegetables to be included in your serving. Each table had two cruets containing balsamic vinegar and olive oil, as dressing. Each table also had a bottle of mineral water and a carafe of red wine. You served yourself, and were charged proportionally for what you drank. Regular water was conspicuously absent, but consistent with the warnings I had received against drinking the tap water. At that time (as I gathered) the water came unfiltered from the nearby river.

Occasionally, we would eat at the pizzeria in the downtown area -- a short walk to the west of the hotel. Each pizza was made to order and baked in a large gas-fired brick oven off to one side, placed and removed with a long-handled wooden peel. It might be seen as gimmicky today, but it seemed matter-of-fact to me. How else does one make pizza?

Sometimes we would drive way out into the country, to a little farmhouse restaurant that Dave somehow knew of. There was room in the parking lot for at most six cars, yet it was a going concern. It was there that I had my first taste of tortellini alla panna. After that, it became my favorite pasta dish.

We also drove up to Sirmione a time or two, and had dinner at the fancy lakeside restaurant there. When I ordered pork chops, I was surprised when they were brought to the table rare. At home, we always served pork well done, but I supposed that by then, trichinosis was not a problem in Italy. 

In the morning, we would typically have the continental breakfast in the hotel. Supplies from the local grocery would be carried up to the break room on Mount Corna for lunch. I bought the ingredients for cheese sandwiches and PB&J. If I could find pan dolce (baked with raisins and dried fruit), I would use that in preference to regular sandwich bread. From the habit of making many school lunches, I probably included some fresh fruit in my diet. But at this point I don't recall that detail. I do recall that I initially gained a few pounds, and then compensated by eating less for breakfast and lunch.

Mule 

After setting up the transmitters on Mount Corna, we set about installing a receiver on Paganella -- a rocky promontory which sits above the city of Trent. At the time, there was a cable car (funivia), which ran right up the face of Paganella. The original plan involved getting all of our tools and equipment up the mountain using the funicula, and making a cable car ride up and down part of our daily commute. 

The Cableway on Paganella

Dave wanted to visit the site and arrange work and storage space with the airmen stationed there. We rode the cable car up the face of Paganella, and it was spectacular. The cable had two segments because a ridge lay between the base on the east side of the Adige River and the summit house. Towers had been built on top of the ridge to carry the cable across. I remember feeling a bit uneasy as the gondola approached the ridge; it seemed to be heading toward the rocks rather than into the clear air above. But of course, the car climbs most steeply right before reaching the tower.

There was another unnerving moment as the gondola's wheels climbed over the curved support where the cable passed from one side of the tower to the other. But that also went without a hitch, and we soon arrived at the summit.

Our side-trip to Vicenza may have intervened, because a week passed before we were ready to haul our equipment up the mountain. When we returned, we were told that the funicular was closed to passenger traffic due to safety concerns. Some test authority had come through and used time-domain reflectometry to determine that too many of the wires making up the main cable had broken due to metal fatigue.

Up the Adige Valley

At that point, the cable car could still be used to haul freight. And I seem to recall that we sent one load up in that way. However, the next time we returned to the funivia, it was closed completely. We had to look for another way to get the rest of our equipment to the top. [Historical note: Recent photos show that the cableway has been removed. A channel which was blasted through the rocks below the summit house remains to show where the cableway once stood.]

The backup plan involved driving through Trent and Mezzolombardo, then around to Andalo on the backside of Paganella and into the ski area. From there, we rode the chairlifts to the summit. There were three separate chairlifts between the parking lot at the base and the top of the peak. The top of the peak is some distance from the edge of the bluff overlooking the Adige Valley. The radio and TV towers were advantageously sited at the top of the bluff, which lies about 500 yards east of the summit.

The equipment was packed into 3 large grey plywood boxes, each about the size of footlocker but half as tall. That was okay, but the boxes were filled with quick-rail, fittings, hardware and tools. Each one weighed at least 70 pounds. It took two people to handle them, because they were fitted with a cargo handle at each end: No person could reasonably grasp both handles at once, nor have the strength to lift the box if that position were possible. To get the boxes up the chairlift, one of us would go up on the first chair, the other would load the boxes with the help of the lift operator and then come up himself. The operator at the other end of the lift would help the lead person unload. We repeated this up the three lifts to the summit.

Dave and I carried the first box the quarter mile across the mountain top between us. But the handles cut into our hands so we had to make frequent stops. It was about all we could do to get the one box carried across, and two remained.

Then, I volunteered to fetch the other two by myself. The boxes had been secured with adjustable straps, to keep the contents from spilling out in case the latches failed in transit. I took two of these straps and fashioned a harness out of them, passing the strap through the handle on each end of the box. Then, I stood the box on end, put one strap on each shoulder and lifted it onto my back. The straps still cut into my shoulders, but I was able to carry both boxes across the mountain top in that way.

Standby Power

The power on Paganella was notoriously unreliable. In order to keep the radio relay online, the Army had installed backup generators in a room designed for that purpose.  The backup power was triple-redundant, consisting of one modern Deutz diesel engine and two WWII-era diesel generators. The Deutz diesel was air-cooled, a feature that I found impressive for an engine of that size. The person showing me the backup power said that the Deutz diesel was on 3-second standby, with the older generators set to come online at 10 and 20 (or 30) seconds, respectively. All three engines were fitted with dipstick heaters, so they would be warm when needed.

I never got to witness the older generators start, but the primary backup worked reliably on multiple occasions. It was amazing to me to see the lights go out and hear the starter immediately crank up the Deutz diesel, hear it come up to speed and see the lights come back on in 3 seconds flat. Even behind a closed door, the engine was pretty noisy: nobody had to check to see if the generator was running.

Ice Protection

The design for our transmitters included included protection from falling ice. It was known that snow, rime and ice could form on the tower members and radomes above our units and then fall in chunks as the weather warmed. Larry added little ice sheds to the design -- to be constructed on-site. Much of the contents of the grey boxes was the tools and materials needed to create them -- including pieces of SpeedRail and the aluminum plate used as a roof, a hacksaw, drill, etc. Much of their construction was left to me. While I was working in the shop or outside on the tower, Dave worked on routing power out to the transmitter station.

The need for ice protection was made clear on one occasion. A storm moved over Paganella and deposited snow and ice on the radio towers. Noone was allowed outside until the weather had warmed and the ice had all fallen off. I'm sure that was protocol, and it only made sense: A person could be seriously injured if struck by a sheet of ice the size of an 8' radome.

Wonderland

The Brento Dolomites

The top of Paganella offered good views of the Dolomites to the north, Lago di Garda to the south and Trentino and the Adige River to the east. I used my free time there to roam around the alpine tundra and look for interesting views and flowers to photograph.

On a typical day, there was enough humidity and haze that it was impossible to see Sirmione at the other end of Lago di Garda. The next photo shows three lakes -- L. di Santa Messenza, L. di Toblino and L. di Cavedini, from north to south -- but haze obscures the north end of Lago di Garda which lies beyond.

S toward Lago di Garda

On the day that I aimed the receiver at Paganella, the top of the mountain was fogged in. I was unable to pick up any signal from Mt. Corna after getting the antenna installed, so I had to use my memory of the terrain to point it where I thought Lago d traffic pass.i Garda should be. That explains why the antenna on that end was initially aimed so poorly.

Since we were unable to use the antenna as a receiver at the Paganella end, Dave decided to install a transmitter there and see if we could get a signal at the Corna end. This also failed, and by then we were out of time.

Monte Cimone

To keep with the schedule, we left the link with Paganella in a non-functional state and turned our attention to the installation on Monte Cimone. It is likely that Dave had arranged in advance for our access to the various bases, and we had to fit our work into those time frames. Prior arrangement was particularly important on Mount Cimone, since we had to pass through the Italian radio building on the summit to get to the American one.

Smog in the Po Valley

To reach Monte Cimone, we drove for some distance on the autostrada, then turned off on a 2-lane road south toward Fannano. At the time, there were no  pollution controls on the diesel trucks in Italy. Traffic on the autostrada in the Po Valley had heavy trucks travelling almost bumper-to-bumper in the right lane, each truck belching out diesel smoke. That, plus the humid summer air filled the valley with a thick layer of smog.

The Road to Fannano

 At Fannano, we stopped for lunch. I seem to recall that we met some other Americans there -- possibly to arrange our access to the base on the mountaintop. We then headed up into the hills toward Pian del Falco, which in spite of the fancy name seemed to contain little more than our pensione. I was amused to observe that the road to Pian del Falco consisted of one paved lane with a stripe painted down the center and a broad gravel shoulder on either side. It strongly suggested driving astride the center line most of the time, and pulling off on the gravel as needed to get past oncoming -- of which there was fortunately very little.

Monte Cimone

The pensione seemed rather fancy to me, with linen tablecloths and napkins in rings. Dave explained that it was the custom to place your napkin in the ring after eating so it could be reused at breakfast. One night, dessert consisted of a bowl of fresh fruit set on the table. In keeping with the atmosphere, I selected a peach and proceeded to eat it using a knife and fork.

The Road up Monte Cimone

 

 

To reach the top of Monte Cimone, we drove several kilometers up and up a winding dirt road until we came to parking lot near a small building. This was the lower end of the carella -- a counterbalance railway that went into the heart of the mountain. Operating the lift consisted of raising the telephone receiver near the empty car, and asking the operator to bring us up. The carella went into the mountain through a rough-hewn mine shaft perhaps half a mile long and climbing at a 20 degree angle. At the top, we left the cable car and summoned the elevator. This carried us 10 stories upward into the radio building on the Italian side. 

After exchanging the customary greetings with our Italian hosts, we made our way to the American side through a short passage -- like a breezeway except that it was entirely enclosed. Most of the space in the passage was taken up by an array of dish antennas, each about a meter square. Dave explained that it was important to walk behind the antennas rather than in front, if I had any plans regarding a future family. Whatever the carrier frequency, it was accepted as fact that it coupled strongly with one's gonads, and the transmitter power was high enough to do serious damage.

Our 4' Dish on Monte Cimone in Typical Weather

Within a few days, our RSL receiver was assembled and installed with its ice shield. Even better, we were able to detect a signal from Corna and aim the antenna, making the trip to that site a complete success. We replaced the receiver module with a transmitter, and left the site fully operational.

Looking NW toward Florence

Weather on Monte Cimone was changeable, and often we were completely fogged in. However, on a rare clear day, it was possible to see Florence to the south and Pisa down on the coast. 

One afternoon, when we were getting ready to go back down to Pian del Falco the fog was so thick that Dave could not see the roadway in front of him. We could see to the end of the sloping hood of our white Renault 18 and that was it: the rest of the world disappeared into whiteness. However, I noticed that I could see the roadway out of the passenger-side window. That gave me an idea.

I got out of the car and told Dave to follow me. I put on my bright red windbreaker and ran down the road in front of him, showing him where the road was. After descending for a kilometer or so, the fog started to thin out. I hopped back in the car and Dave drove us the rest of the way back to the pensione.

Corna Again

After finishing the setup at Monte Cimone, we returned to Castiglione and the base on Mount Corna. It happened that a small snowstorm passed through the Po valley on the 12th of June, and this event left the air unusually clear. 

Sirmione and Paganella from Mt. Corna

This was a stroke of luck in trying to aim our receiver antenna, since it allowed me to visually align the dish with the promontory to the north. The accompanying 210mm telephoto toward Sirmione, shows the peninsula at the south end of Lago di Garda and the view along the lake. The shape of Paganella can just barely be made out behind the nearer mountains on the eastern shore of the lake.

Venice

Dave thought that we should use our July 4 vacation to tour Venice. So, we rode the train to Venice in the morning and returned in the evening. 

On the train, I stood on the platform between cars for a clearer view of the countryside. At one point, we passed another train going in the opposite direction. The other train blew its horn just as it passed, and I noted that the tone went down by a major third due to the Doppler Effect. From this, I was able to estimate our relative speeds to be about 300kph -- each train travelling about 92mph.

We started out exploring the city together, riding a water bus for a short tour. But at some point decided to split and meet again later at a well-known spot -- underneath the clock tower in St. Mark's Square. 

What struck me right away was the brackish color of the water in the canals. It was barely possible to see a foot down. Even so, there were many gondoliers, each with an immaculately polished gondola in the traditional black.

I found my way to St. Mark's Square right away, and was impressed by the number of jewelers stashed into the alcoves along the square. The prices on gold jewelery were quite reasonable. Even so, I did not have enough cash to buy any of the pieces that caught my eye.

I went off on a walking tour along the quay, but I don't recall the extent of my wanderings. It was a hot day, so I returned to the clock tower early, and waited in the alcoves for Dave to reappear. I did not occur to me to go inside any of the large public buildings, as in taking a tour, mostly because I did not have a lot of money to spend.

Paganella Again

After our success visually aligning the dish on Mount Corna, we returned to Paganella with renewed confidence that we could establish the link. Clearer weather also helped in aligning the antenna on Paganella. My fog-bound estimate of where the centerline of Lago di Garda should have been turned out to be the center of the rock wall about halfway down the west side of the lake. No wonder we were not getting any signal at Corna. It was still too hazy for me to see the peninsula at Sirmione, but I knew from the map that our link should run fairly close to the eastern shore of the lake. I aimed the antenna in that direction. With that setup, we were finally able to detect a signal at the south end of the lake. However, another full cycle of swapping the transmitter and receiver radios would be required to get the antennas correctly aligned.

At that point, we were out of time: Dave had to return to Boulder to lead a High Adventure trip, and I had planned to take two weeks off to visit the Griems in Regensburg and Malin Alsen in Stockholm. I assumed I would be returning later in the summer to finish setting up the RSL tests.