David FT4YM (FT4YM) will be QRV again from Antarctica during the next summer campaign (December 2022 to March 2023).
Pic aside show David FT4YM and Danilo IZ1KHY, last season at Concordia Station
Although it’s too early to know his exact calendar, David is on the list as driver-mechanic for one of the three convoys that will connect Cap Prud’homme (WAP MNB-NEW) to Little Dome C (WAP MNB-15) via Concordia (WAP MNB-Ø3) on both ways.
During the period, activity is forseen from the following bases:
FT4YM: Base Dumont d’Urville, Petrels island. (WAP FRA-Ø1)
FT4YM/P: Base Concordia.
FT4YM/P: Base Little Dome C.
FT4YM/P: Robert Guillard Station at Cap Prud’homme (aka Base Cape Prud’homme).
As soon as David FT4YM/P will be on air from this brand new Base, a new WAP reference will be issue.
The French radio amateur Polar Team, provides a complete station to take part in the Odyssey on the air. It comprises a Huttenberg HT2000 generator, a Yaesu FT891 transceiver, an Alinco DM330 power supplì. This year, an Icom IC2KL amplifier, a fibr glass mast, a 20/40m wire vertical antenna and other supplies, will be part of David’s set up in Antarctica.
TNX Mehdi, F5PFP
Cape Prud’homme (Cape Prud’Homme WAP MNB-NEW – W.A.P. (waponline.it)) is a French-Italian Station managed by the (French Polar Institute Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV) and the Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA). Cape Prud’homme is acually WAP MNB-NEW on WAP-WADA Directory. Located on the Antarctic coast, Cap Prud’Homme houses the small Robert Guillard Station, capable of accommodating up to a maximum of 18 people, the tunnels where the tractors and machinery necessary for the traverse are housed and, of course, the material destined for Concordia, which arrives in Antarctica with the Polar French ship Astrolabe, near the French station Dumont D’Urville, which is just 5 km away.
More about Cap Prud’homme
On the mainland, 5 km from the Island of Petrels, DDU (Dumont D’Urville) is articulated to a third place, Robert Guillard (Cap Prud’homme), the basic element of a system whose main objective is to organize, depending on the year, in addition to scientific expeditions, two or three raids to supply fuel and equipment to the Franco-Italian station Concordia.
Prud’homme is a small unit, from 10 to 20 people depending on the moment, and which is defined as “a village”, administered by an “elder”, named with a touch of humor, the “mayor”. An unelected mayor, without specific status, but simply considered, thanks to his experience, as responsible for the coordination of a team of men and women.
The village is composed mainly of mechanics in charge of preparing and accompanying the raid, a real physical feat, 20 days of crossing round trip across the icy continent, in tractors pulling containers mounted on skis, loaded with tanks of fuel and equipment. It is a real umbilical cord without which Concordia built at 3,200 meters above sea level and 1,200 km from the coast could not live.
Read more at: A human community in the heart of the Antarctic ice (theconversation.com)