PERL Radio room
RTTY and Single-sideband HF Equipment

Dr. Martin J. Vitousek, PhD
 PERL Executive Director (deceased)

Introduction to Dr. Martin Vitousek and PERL

Dr. Martin (Marty) J. Vitousek, PhD, created the Pacific Equatorial Research Laboratory (PERL) as a Hawaiian non-profit organization for scientific research concerning meteorological data collection on the atolls of the equatorial Line Islands, and also to provide facilities for visiting scientists to engage in their own research; the main beneficiaries of this work were the people of the Republic of Kiribati.  Marty, photographed above with a Superman shirt, combined the physical and soft-spoken character of John Wayne with the altruistic attributes of Superman -  and for many he truly was a super man.  Photographed above is one of his favorite places, the PERL radio room, from which he managed PERL's operations using radio-telegraphic equipment and single-sideband HF (high frequency) transceivers.

Expeditions, and Meteorological and Scientific Research

Expeditions were at the heart of PERL, and in Marty's heart and all those who joined in with him.   Never before and never since then have the Line Islands benefited from such a scientific research base, and thus under his tutelage PERL managed to attract world-renowned scientists to the islands.   It is therefore hoped that in Marty's memory, and with PERL as as an example, the Atoll Institute will be able to renew and expand the meteorological and scientific research that he had initiated in the 1970s.  In the left margin are research report covers on research conducted at or in conjunction with PERL.  

The first (Fanning Island Expedition, January 1970) published 20 scientific papers and notes that resulted from a one month expedition to Tabuaeran (Fanning) in January 1970, organized and manned by various departments of the University of Hawaii, and the Bernice P. Bishop Museum of Honolulu.  Published were a wide range of studies concerning matters such as lagoon tide and current studies, oceanographic temperature, salinity and oxygen observations, plankton production in the lagoon, calcium carbonate flux in the lagoon, sedimentation and coral reef development in the lagoon, corals collected between 1968-70, littoral marine mollusks, estuarine environments, inshore fishes, shark observations, moray eel feeding behavior, bird observations, and phosphate rock data.

The second (Fanning Island Expedition, July and August, 1972) published 19 scientific papers that resulted from a two month expedition to Tabuaeran (Fanning) in July and August 1972, organized and manned by various departments of the University of Hawaii, the Bernice P. Bishop Museum of Honolulu, the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D.C., and the University of Guam.  Published were a wide range of studies concerning matters such as tidal characteristics of the lagoon, carbon dioxide flux in the lagoon, phytoplankton and nutrients in the water, coral reefs communities and organisms, environmental studies, distributions of fish and mollusks, vascular flora, ground water studies, and a preliminary archaeological investigation of prehistoric inhabitations of the atoll by Pacific Islanders.

The third (Meteorological Observations in the Line Islands) published a decade of weather data in the Lines Islands; Dr. Vitousek was principal investigator under National Science Foundation grants. Manual data were collected by Kiribatese staff on all the three inhabited atolls: Teraina (Washington), Tabuaeran (Fanning), and Kiritimati (Christmas).  Solar-powered unattended data collection stations, which were designed and built by Dr. Vitousek, were also installed on the inhabited atolls as well as on three uninhabited atolls: Palmyra, Jarvis, and Malden atolls.  These solar-powered unattended data collection stations saved and routinely transmitted their data to the PERL headquarters radio station.  The data collected and compiled included the following: wind speed and direction, rainfall, air and sea temperatures, humidity, barometric pressure, solar insolation, and, of course, the tides and sea level.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the above reports are not exhaustive of the research that was conducted at and as a result of PERL.  Visiting scientists came from many other institutions, such as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who normally published the results of their studies separately.

Electronic and Radio Equipment

The provision and maintenance of basic electronic and radio equipment was essential to the research and general operations of PERL, for without it the facility would have ceased to function.  Below are photographs of the electronic equipment design and repair bench that Dr. Vitousek used to build and repair the solar- powered automatic weather data collection stations, and some of the radio equipment that was used to collect data such as the linear amplifiers (driven by the HF transceivers photographed above), and marine and citizens band radios principally used to maintain communications with the Kiribatese staff on Teraina (Washington) and Kiritimati (Christmas) collecting weather data.  Additionally, the aviation non-directional beacons mentioned in the Aviation Services webpage were located nearby.  An assortment of antennas were used on the grounds of the Cable Station and on an antenna and observation platform that was built at the top of the Cable Station building by Dr. Vitousek.  Naturally, PERL had to generate its own electricity, which is described in the Infrastructure webpage.

Electronic Equipment Design and Repair Bench

Linear Amplifiers (3), plus Marine and Citizens Band Transceivers