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Funk Station Tragbare 40 Watt Kurzwellen Sende-Empfangserät für Telegrapie und Telefonie model 1917" or "Portable Field Radio Receiver-Transmitter Station for Telephony and Telegraphy, model K.ST. M.17" (Kleinen Stationen Model 1917), produced by Siemens&Halske of Vienna (System Telefunken) in 1917 for the Army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In 1917 the Oberkommando der K.u.K., realizing that the war would soon enter a crucial phase for the fate of the Empire, decided to quickly modernize the military technological systems used for radio communications, between the High Command and the line departments, believing that it could be one of the fundamental keys to the favorable outcome of the conflict. Until then, in fact, the army had cumbersome means of communication or those dependent on interconnected telephone and telegraph lines which, very often, were damaged or interrupted by daily war events.
It was deemed appropriate to equip some important departments with an innovative means of communication, which was easy to transport, simple to use, but above all small in size, so that it could be transported and used in those places where they were not present or it was impossible to install lines suitable for transmissions, thus facilitating the Military Commands in rapid and safe communication with departments in outposts and Alpine fronts located even at great distances and altitudes.
Thus it was that the Oberkommando der K.u.K. commissioned Siemens&Halske of Vienna to build the first portable Military Radio Transmitter, Telegraph and Telephone Station in the world: The K. ST. M.17.
Thus was born the small radio station made up of three devices: Wave Generator, Antenna Tuner and Receiver-Transmitter, light, compact and equipped with shoulder straps to facilitate transport: for this evident reason it is believed that it was intended precisely for those departments operating on the front line who frequently travel repeatedly.
This radio transformed the way of communicating by making it faster, simpler and safer, thanks to the "Wireless" technological innovation which allowed this device, equipped with a power of 40 W, to transmit or receive at distances of over 20 km.
Its original handset is present, also marked Siemens&Halske, perfectly preserved and stored in a special pocket inside the Empfänger.
Following the unfavorable outcome of the war, which saw the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the cause of the very limited production of this Transceiver Radio Station followed: in fact this apparatus was produced for only one year in an irrelevant number of specimens.
Currently this transceiver radio station appears to be the only one known.
Object of exceptional historical and collectible value.
An identical, but largely incomplete, radio is published and described in "The Radio Bygones magazine June/July" in 1998.
