Mese: Ottobre 2018

This is a story of Luciano IK2QPO (aka OE3ZLL and II2ANT); it tells how the Antarctic passion can even involve the Mayor of a city!

I am Luciano IK2QPO (also OE3ZLL) and I live part in Milan, in the northern of Italy, and part in Pfaffstätten, a small town near Vienna, the capital city of Austria. Since I am interested in the Antarctic, every year in February I participate to the Antarctic Week as II2ANT WAP-Ø3Ø.

After many years, I succeeded in receiving the WADA and WACA awards, which I have hanged in my shack in Austria. One year ago, as it is custom in small towns in Austria, the Mayor of Pfaffstätten visited us to congratulate my wife for her 70^th birthday (see pic aside). In my dining room there was a bottle of champagne and in the corner of my shack,  the Antarctic awards hung on the wall. The mayor admired both, the champagne and my awards as well.

He asked me: “Are you an active radio amateur?  Because if you have done many contacts with the Antarctic, you must be a very good radio amateur.”

“Yes, I am an experienced radio amateur” , I replied

He told to me: “I am Disaster Manager for Lower Austria and we would need radio amateurs for emergency communication. Would you like to become responsible for emergency communication in my town?”

“Yes, of course”, I answered “But not with this dipole (a dipole for 20 and 40m). For the WADA and WACA award I have used a better one. In Italy, I have a Yagi antenna and a longer dipole.”

He replied to me: “Well, then send me a request for the authorisation to install a good antenna which is also suitable for emergency communication and I will promptly authorize it. Since your amateur radio station is a station for emergency communication nobody can forbid it and your neighboors have to accept it because emergecy is a prority for everyone”

So now I have a 40 ft. high tower with a 6 element Yagi and 3 long wires for low band and emergency use.

TNX WADA and WACA …  they really did help.
I hope to copy someone from Austria soon! 73 and good DX by OE3ZLL a.k.a IK2QPO & II2ANT

… and we congratulate Herr Christoph Kainz, the Mayor of the city of Pfaffstätten for his foresight; yes,  Radio join the people and surely helps in emergency communications!

Paddling kayaks around icebergs isn’t your typical school trip, but two Auckland teenagers, led by the explorer Olympic kayaker Mike Dawsonm are about to do just that. They’ll be joined by five other students and will head off in March 2019.
The expedition is the latest organized by the Antarctic Heritage Trust
They’re heading to Antarctica with an Olympian as a guide, following in the footsteps of some of history’s legendary polar explorers – Sir Edmund Hillary, Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton.

What it’s like to camp in Antarctica?
Four simple lessons you can learn from Antarctica about sustainability.  “You’re going to have icebergs, you’re going to have amazing scenery – whales, seals, penguins – you name it, it’s going to be there.” Mike said.
Read more at:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/10/auckland-teenagers-set-to-kayak-around-antarctic-peninsula.html
Enjoy a short video of Kayaking in Antarctica

On October 21, 1921, a qualified group of radio amateurs ( the first on the air) met, in an assembly held in the auditorium of the newspaper  “La Prensa”,  did found the  Radio Club Argentino, which historically became the third Radio Club in the world ,

Thus, the so called “Antarctics” keep gratitude and recognition to the Radio Amateurs, because they were a nexus with their loved ones, approaching them with affection in the distance and time.
At the beginning of the century, the Navy’s Ministry did regulate the Ham radio spectrum and was the one who granted the first Amateur Radio License to Teodoro Belloq, on October 15, 1913, who did set a radiotelegraphy station on Av. Callao to 1600 of the Federal Capital and another in a fifth in the San Isidro Party, Province of Buenos Aires.

The Radio Amateurs were a small group and known for doing weird things, something like the alchemists of 1900!

Read more at: http://www.marambio.aq/radioaficionado.html

Happy Amateur Radio Day’s celebration to all of the operator actually active from the Antarctc Bases in the Icy Continent as well as all of those involved in Ham radio communications.

Particular wishes to our friends living in Tierra del Fuego (WAP ARG-23)

Flights to Antarctica delayed by a fortnight due to storms are set to take off.
Antarctica New Zealand staff were scheduled to fly south on October 1 to set up Scott Base  (WAP NZL-ØØ1) for the summer science season ahead, but wild winds and snow closed the McMurdo Sound airfields, causing the longest delay in decades to the start of the season.
The first flight is scheduled to fly out at 8am Tuesday, followed by another at 11am. There will be two more flights on Wednesday, one on Thursday and two on Friday.
An Antarctica New Zealand spokeswoman said the first to fly south include mechanics, electricians, chefs, domestic staff, communications operators and logistics personnel. They will prepare Scott Base for the season, with scientists due to start flying south later this month.
She said US staff in Antarctica have been busy clearing Phoenix Airfield (WAP USA-NEW), which serves US research centre McMurdo Station (WAP USA-22) and New Zealand’s Scott Base (WAP NZL-Ø1), following the storms.

Antarctica New Zealand general manager of operations Simon Trotter said the New Zealand team was working hard to minimise impact on science planned for the beginning of the season.
 “The storms have also affected our US neighbours, who are due to fly south to McMurdo Station. Unlike us, they can’t send their employees home to wait it out – so many of them are getting to know Christchurch very well.”
Read more at:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/107846223/antarctica-nz-scientists-due-to-fly-south-after-weather-causes-twoweek-delay

The new science season at Antarctica is just a few days away from opening and NIWA researchers are busy packing containers and shipping them to the ice where they will be reunited with them in the coming months.

(NIWA stands for  National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and it’s   a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. Established in 1992. It conducts commercial and non-commercial research across a broad range of disciplines in the environmental sciences)..

The summer science season lasts for about five months, and 10 NIWA staff will be heading south over that time, with the first due there in early October to work at Arrival Heights, NIWA’s atmospheric research station (WAP NZL-NEW) about six kilometers from Scott Base (WAP NZL-Ø1),  Latitude 77° 49′ Ø1″ South , Longitude 166° 25′ ØØ” East  Elevation 184 m asl

Principal atmospheric technician Dan Smale will be carrying out specialized annual maintenance and calibration on the equipment which makes important measurements of greenhouse gases and trace gases such as ozone.
Mr Smale will also train two new technicians to run and maintain the instruments. One will be based on the ice for summer, while the other will remain for a full year. Later in the season atmospheric technicians Gordon Brailsford and Mike Kotkamp will also go to Arrival Heights for further maintenance and replacement of specialized parts.
Read more at:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1809/S00038/busy-season-for-niwa-scientists-in-antarctica.htm

Antarctica is emitting cosmic radiation?

In 2006, NASA launched a probe on Antarctica to measure the cosmic radiation that falls on our planet. The probe soon began to detect these particles, but there was something very rare in a percentage of them: they came from below, from the ice of Antarctica.

Last week, a team of physicists from the Pennsylvania State University did publish an interesting theory about the origin of that cosmic radiation that seems to be originated in our own planet. If that theory proves to be true, what emits the ice of Antarctica is a new type of particle that goes completely out of the current standard model of physics and would demonstrate the validity of the supersymmetry model.

The pic aside (Photo and credit to: NASA), show the ANITA Probe. Cosmic rays were observed shooting from Antarctica by the high-tech ANITA balloon

Sources:                                       

https://es.gizmodo.com/la-antartida-esta-emitiendo-radiacion-cosmica-y-eso-po-1829437531

Read also: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1027547/space-news-cosmic-rays-antarctica-supersymmetrical-particles-anita-nasa

Rothera Station (WAP GBR-12) 67° 34’ Ø3” South, 68° Ø7’ 47” East,  is the BAS logistics centre for theAntarctic and home to well-equipped biological laboratories and facilities for a wide range of research. The station is situated on a rock and raised beach promontory at the southern extremity of Wormald Ice Piedmont, South-Eastern Adelaide Island.

Rothera Station was established in 1975 to replace Adelaide station (1961-1977) where the skiway had deteriorated.

October 2018: The Runway at Rothera Station (Lat: 67° 34’ 3” South, Lon: 68° 7’ 39” East)   has finally been cleared of snow in readiness for the first aircraft of the season. The view west towards the mountains of Adelaide Island, and Ryder Bay covered with sea ice.
Photo: Jess Walkup

The link below, will lead the readers  through the Airfields in Antarctica:

https://www.aeroinside.com/airports/antarctica/antarctica/AQ

Eating outside can be one of life’s great joys,  but it’s a whole different story when you live in Antarctica.The scientists working at Concordia Station (aka Dome C-WAP MNB-Ø3), one of the most remote places on Earth at around 1,000 miles from the Geographical South Pole, rarely get that pleasure with temperatures dipping as low as -80°C in winter.

But with spring coming on in the region and the temperature rising close to a positively balmy -60°C, station leader Dr Cyprien Verseux and his colleagues decided a spot of al fresco dining was in order.
Concordia, which is currently home to 13 people, is extremely isolated with no other human beings within around 370 miles.
It is an inhospitable place beyond even the cold temperatures,  it is an incredibly dry area and the sun did not peak over the horizon for three months over the winter until it made a reappearance in August.

Dr Verseux explained: “Concordia is highly attractive to researchers from different fields such as astronomy, human physiology, glaciology, atmospheric sciences, and geophysics.”

It is used by the European Space Agency to study how humans adapt to what are likely very similar conditions to a future moon or Mars base.

Read more at:
http://home.bt.com/news/science-news/this-is-what-happens-if-you-eat-spaghetti-al-fresco-in-antarctica-11364299753880

Construction is progressing on the RRS Sir David Attenborough  one of the most advanced polar research vessels in the world. From 2019 onwards scientists researching oceans, ice and atmosphere will have access to state-of-the-art facilities on this floating multidisciplinary research platform.

The new polar ship is commissioned by NERC, built by Cammell Laird to a Rolls-Royce design and operated by British Antarctic Survey. This new research platform will transform how ship-borne science is conducted in the Polar Regions. The commissioning of the RRS Sir David Attenborough is part of a major Government polar infrastructure investment programme designed to keep Britain at the forefront of world-leading research in Antarctica and the Arctic.

This £200m commitment represents the UK Government‘s largest investment in polar science since the 1980s.

Read more at: https://www.bas.ac.uk/polar-operations/sites-and-facilities/facility/rrs-sir-david-attenborough/

TNX  and credit: British Antarctic Survey

The XXXIV Italian Antarctic Campaign (2018-2019) has just begun  few days ago. Mario Zucchelli Station (WAP ITA-Ø1) has been open and  personnel is working on the outside to rebuild the air strip, waiting for the first airplane and then, the start of the summer campaign. The helicopters make a stop on one of the 3 equipped platforms, the light aircraft equipped with skis land on any flat snow-covered surface, the Hercules C-130 instead (with wheels) on a 3000 meter long seasonal track that is set on sea ice.

The site of the Italian Base, initially called Stazione Baia Terra Nova and now Mario Zucchelli (MZS), is located along the coast of Northern Terra Vittoria,  between Campbell and Drygalski glaciers. The coordinates of the station are: latitude 74° 41′ 42″ South, longitude 164° 07′ 23″ East.

It is built on a small rocky peninsula. The area where the buildings and facilities are located has access to the sea.

Small inlets lend themselves to the loading/unloading of materials according to the season. At the beginning of the summer season, when the surrounding sea is covered by ice, the ship unloads the materials on the ice pack and then, by means of convoys of sleds everything is moved to the base. At the end of the summer, when the ice gives way to water, a small pier and a barge are used for connections between land and ship.

So far, we don’t know if, among the personnel involved in this 34^th Antarctic Campaign, there is some Radio operators who can work HF on the Ham radio bands.