Background
Krenkel was born in Białystok, now Poland, to a German family.
Krenkel was born in Białystok, now Poland, to a German family.
Amateur radio callsigns: U3AA, UA3AA, RAEM. Ernst Krenkel was a radioman on polar stations
Matochkin Shar (1924–1925, 1927–1928),
Tikhaya Bay (1929–1930),
Cape Olovyanniy (1935–1936), and
Domashniy Island (1936). He took part in Arctic expeditions on the Graf Zeppelin airship (1931), icebreaker Sibiryakov, steamship Steamship Chelyuskin (1933–1934, callsign RAEM). He was also a radioman on the first drifting ice station North Pole-1 (1937-1938, callsign UPOL).
He is known to have set a world record by establishing a long-distance radio communication between Franz Josef Land and Antarctica.
In 1938, Krenkel went on to work for Glavsevmorput. Later in his life he was employed in the radio industry.
In 1951, he was hired by the scientific research institute of hydrometeorological instrument-making, becoming its director in 1969. Ernst Krenkel was deputy of Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1937—1946), chairman of Radio Sport Federation of the Soviet Union, chairman of Philately Society of the Soviet Union.
He wrote a book of memoirs entitled My Callsign is RAEM (Russian: RAEM - мои позывные).
Ernst died in 1971 and was interred at the Novodevichy Cemetery. Ernst Krenkel Observatory located on Heiss Island, Franz Josef Land is named after him. A street in Moscow bears Krenkel"s name.
Mikhail Veller wrote about him in collection of novels "Legendy Nevskogo Prospecta", 1994.