The 19th edition of the Antarctic Activity Week launched by WAP (Worldwide Antarctic Program) in the year 2002, is almost ready to start. The official date this year will be 21 to 27 February 2022. So far, 21 Special Event Stations have confirmed their participation to the 2022 edition of the AAW .
Congrats to Phil Finkle K6EID from Marietta GA, USA for being one of the most present Ham into the Antarctica Activity Week with his special call K4A WAP-Ø73, since the beginning.
First licensed as KN6EID in October 1957 while residing in Burbank, California, Phil was upgraded to Extra Class in May 1984 (at Long Beach FCC Field Office before VECs started).
Here’s Phil AAW annual stats for K4A
2021, 696 QSOS all on digital FT4 and FT8
2020, 737 QSOs
2019, 952 QSOs
2018, 457 QSOs
2017, 776 QSOs
2016, 340 QSOs
2015, 338 QSOs
2014, 545 QSOs
2013, 473 QSOs
2012, 783 QSOs
2011, 916 QSOs
2010, 635 QSOs
2009, 699 QSOs
2008, 712 QSOs
2007, 1101 QSOs
The Worldwide Antarctic Program (sponsor of WAP Antarctic awards) assigned Phil the special WAP-Ø73 which is eligible for WAP awards during this operation. Phil has a special QSL available for those making a QSO with K4A during those AAW periods, which have to be requested via the bureau or direct to K6EID home address: Philip W. Finkle, 3353 Forest Creek Dr, Marietta, GA 30064 USA, with SASE, current IRC, or two green stamps for direct return.
Phil will shortly 82! WAP wish him a great happy Birthday
TNX Phil K6EID
The legend of El Dorado around the South Pole has fascinated many Europeans since Sir Francis Drake. On the first day of 1739, the looked at the cloudy, foggy and ice-bound coast – the one that would later be called Bouvet Island. Then he returned home with a description of majestic icebergs and black-and-white penguins that looked like «large ducks, but with fins instead of wings».
Sergiy Shutyayev UT9UX, is active (mostly 20 mts SSB) as EM1U from Ukrainian Antarctic Station Academic Vernadsky (
Almost at the end of their Antarctic seson, our friends Oleg ZS7ANF and Sebastian SQ1SGB meet at Wolf’s Fang Runway. (
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regarded as a well-established and reliable airbridge between Africa and Antarctica.
Sebastian VP8/SQ1SGB (
Several interesting features on February e-bulletin of Antarctic Heritage Trust : «our Antarctic season is underway at last. To be able to return a team to Port Lockroy has felt like a significant milestone for us. Despite the many challenges along the way, Lucy, Kit and Tank are finally there and getting stuck into the vital work, work which is proving all the more essential – two years away from the site means there is much maintenance to do….»
active from Concordia Station (
At Mario Zucchelli Station (WAP-Ø1) he is operating from the Radio Room of the Base when it is free of use by the Air traffic control personnel. (see picture on the right)
Dome C Summer camp (
unknown to science. Scientists say this is the furthest south the species has ever been seen in this part of Antarctica, and posit their presence here to the impacts of climate change.
Little Dome C, is an area of 10 square km, located at 75° 17’ 57” South, 122° 26’ 43” East, about 40 km from the Italian-French Concordia Station, on the East Antarctic plateau, one of the most extreme places on the Earth.
Inspired by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco Exploration, after he visited Antarctica in 2009, the very first EV’s (Electric Vehicles) it’s currently in service at Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station (
Valery Sushkov (
The award was presented to Valery Sushkov RMØL by the head of the organizing committee of the project 
Kit. The obverse of the medal exactly copies the original, made by order of Emperor Alexander I for the expedition teams of Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. On the reverse is a dedication to the circumnavigation of the sailing ships Kruzenshtern, Sedov and Pallada.
For the first time since the start of the pandemic, Coronavirus has reached an Argentine research base in Antarctica, causing the evacuation of nine unvaccinated staff who tested positive for Covid-19, an official said Thursday.
Following the operation by David Brunet F4FKT who did sign FT4YM/p (November & Dicember 2021 and January 2022), at Dome C-Summer Camp 75° 05’ 59” South, 123° 19’ 56” East, a new WAP reference has been issued.
Dome C Smmer camp was never dismantled and actually is used as a depot with housing and warehouse. All the scientific equipments are inside the towers of Concordia and inside the shelters scattered around the Base.
The 19th edition of the Antarctic Activity Week will start next February 21st and will last till February 28th 2022. Note that this is the date suggested, but everyone can get involved before or after this window.
An interesting view of the six landmarks have been published on Newstalk ZB, by Thomas Bywater, NZ Herald.
Good news is coming from Argentina: Base Naval Petrel 
They are very flat snow summits across the Antarctic High plateau. From what I know, they’ve been named more or less according to their altitude while being discovered by the first pilots to fly airplanes across the continent in the 50s.
Dome Argus at 80°22′ South, 77°22′ East, has a surface elevation of 4,093 m. It is the highest place in East Antarctica and also one of the least-known places on the globe. An automatic weather station provides data from this remote site.
Dome C is the site of the Concordia Research Station (75°06’06” South, 123°23’ 43” East) jointly operated by France and Italy.
The so called Dome C summer Camp (75°05’59” South, 123°19’ 56” East), about 700 mts from Concordia Station was never dismantled and actually is used as it was in 1996. This Dome C summer camp, pic aside, before the construction of the two towers of Concordia, was the support base of the first Epica project, then it was the support site for the workers who built Concordia Station. Actually, Dome C summer Camp is just a depot with housing and warehouse. All the scientific equipments are inside the towers of Concordia and inside the shelters scattered around the Base. “Dome C Summer Camp” will be add as WAP MNB-NEW to WAP-WADA Directory.
Talos Dome is an ice dome on the edge of the East Antarctic plateau; because accumulation is higher here than in other domes of East Antarctica, the ice preserves a good geochemical and palaeoclimatic record. A new map of the Talos Dome area locates the dome summit elevation (2318.5m) using the global positioning system (GPS) (72˚47’ 14’’South, 159˚04’ 2’’ East).
Dome Fuji also called Dome F or Valkyrie Dome is an ice dome rising to about 3,810 m (12,500 ft) above sea level in the eastern part of Queen Maud Land (77°30’South, 37°30’ East).
From the Homepage of 
A group of scientists have arrived at the only Polish research station on mainland Antarctica, which has been dormant since 1979 but will now be reactivated.
A.B. Dobrowolski Polar Station (
Nice pileup last night on 7189 where Sebastian Gleich SQ1SGB was testing the new antenna just installed at Halley VI-a Base (
The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (
Indian origin British Sikh army officer Harpreet Chandi, a 32 years old, has become the first woman of color to complete a solo expedition to the South Pole.
After having been active from Wolf’s Fang Runway (
According to a report, 16 of 25 workers at the Belgian Princess Elizabeth Station (
Another year has gone with poor propagation, just few DX on our Log and … too many troubles all around. Covid hit hard everywhere and we all went through a year of anxiety and fear.
José Vicente Jaramillo Valdivieso (HC3TAC) has been active as HD9A/CE8 on 8 & 9 February 2014 operating from the Sub Antarctic Punta Arenas, Magallanes Province, Chile 
“The Whalers’ Church” is a typical Norwegian timber church. It was commissioned, and largely financed, by Carl Anton Larsen and designed by his son inlaw , architect. The Church was prefabricated in Strømmen, Norway, and erected by the Station workers in their spare time. The two bells in the steeple rung out on 1913’ Christmas Eve. On the following day, Solveig Jacobsen, granddaughter of CA Larsen, was baptised by the pastor Kristen Løken.
Venner (Norway’s Friends of South Georgia) who arrived on the cruise ship Fram as part of a voyage to celebrate the Church’s anniversary.
The marathon dedicated to 6Ø ATS is coming to end. It was a wonderful six months activity, with many stations involved to give everybody a great chance and a nice mood in logging special callsigns.
Special wood or metal Plaques and Cerificates are available on request through Oleg, UA6GG/RG60ANT at 
WAP Antarctic Bulletin 291 is online with the most rececent information of activity by various Hams .
Within an Antarctic sea squirt, scientists discover a bacterial species with promising anti-melanoma properties. ScienceDaily has secently pubblish an interesting item about a study done by Desert Research Institute: New study brings important advances for Antarctic science and natural products chemistry
Brand new QSL for the italian special event station joining the 6Ø anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty Signature’s celebration
Thanks to the collaboration of many volunteers, including our friend Danilo Collino IZ1KHY, the first Igloo Bar of the Antarctic Plateau, has been created at Concordia Station (
This Igloo Bar just built, remind us another great “ice sculpture” made at Concordia Station by Daniele Karlicek an italian researcher. It was the Church of Daniele’s town, Muggia near Trieste in North West Italy. (
Few days ago the German Research Ship Polarstern set off from Bremerhaven for Antarctica. DPØPOL/MM 
Antarctica, the fifth-largest continent, is commonly known for penguins, massive calving ice shelves and failed exploratory expeditions.
Eugene Shelkanovtsev, RZ3EC informs the chasers that QSLs for the Russian activity at 60th Antarctic Treaty Signature’s Anniversary are now ready.
Gianfranco wrote: There is no church at MZS (
he was at the US Palmer Station for 5 months in 1970. Dr. Peter Becker sent us a brief comment of his experience down South: «A Ham could operate on a 
The Australian government has cancelled the proposed aerodrome near Davis Sation (
There are two kinds of ARGENTINA ANTARCTIC AWARD available in CW, SSB, DIGI, MIX (CW/SSB), ALL (CW / SSB / DIGI) for two-way QSO’s / SWL’s with various Argentine stations locatewd below 60° South, in Antarctica, in any period of time on any bands.
Also known as 78 Temporary Camp (other then Traverse Stop Point ), 
An Adélie penguin that washed up on a rocky New Zealand beach — nearly 2,000 miles (3,218 kilometers) from its home in Antarctica — last week, has been released back into the wild, experts say.
Captain Preet Chandi did embark November 7 on the long voyage to Antarctica. Once there, she hopes to become the first woman of color to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole. According to the latest 
The sun will never set but temperatures could dip as low as minus 50 Celsius (minus 58 Fahrenheit) with wind chill. Her only contact with the outside world will be a daily check-in with her support team.
In 2001 Travis McHenry laid claim to the largest contiguous portion of the nation by filing a claimant letter with the nine world governments that have also expressed legal claims of ownership to portions of the continent (though none to the sector claimed by McHenry). The territory consists mostly of Marie Byrd Land and a large proportion of Ellsworth Land. It has no year round residents, although seasonal Research Stations are located in the region. The nation of Westarctica was founded through a loophole in the Antarctic Treaty. (Source: 
François, F8DVD, will operate TM6ØANT to commemorate the 6Øth Anniversary of Antarctic Treaty Signature.
Located on the tiny island of Galindez in the Antarctic Circle, the Vernadsky Station (
China’s research icebreaker Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, set off from Shanghai on on Friday Nov 5, marking the start of the Country’s 38th Antarctic expedition.
A UC research project evaluating the feasibility of hydrogen production in Antarctica could help to reduce carbon emissions in the future by replacing fossil fuels with a zero-carbon alternative.