R6ØANT, WAP-324 dedicated to the signing of the Antarctic Treaty by Russia in 1961.

Antarctic Treaty entered into force on June 23rd, 1961, covering demilitarization of the Antarctic region, its use for exclusively peaceful purposes and transformation into a zone free of nuclear weapons.

Initially, the Treaty was signed by 12 countries: Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway, USSR (Russia), USA, France, Chile, South Africa, Japan.

In honour of the 60th anniversary of the event, from October 1st to December 31st, 2021 Russian Robinson Club together with SRR, Hamlog and other interested organizations plans to conduct a special activity usingh 12 different callsigns, by the number of countries that originally signed the Antarctic Treaty. Read more at : https://www.qrz.com/lookup/r60ant 
R6ØANT is WAP-324

Russian Robinson Club together with SRR and HAMLOG.Online will issue a special award and plaque. More details at:   https://hamlog.online//club/rrc/209
See also  https://www.waponline.it/6oats-anniversary/6oats-awards/  

TNX Eugene RZ3EC& RW3DD

The 41st Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica is almost ready to start

41st Indian Expedition, will  embark Antarctica in October-November 2021 and return by February-April 2022 while those chosen for winter season duration, will continue their stay in Antarctica to return between December 2022 to March 2023.

National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) is India’s premier R&D institution responsible for the country’s research activities in the Polar and Southern Ocean realms , under the Ministry of Earth Sciences , Government of India.

NCPOR operates two- yearround stations in Antarctica, which are ~3000 km apart.

WAP IND-Ø3MAITRI Research Base (70° 45’58” South, ; 11° 43’56” East) is located in Schirmacher Oasis Central Dronning Maud Land. It is an inland station nearly 100km from the edge of  Lazarev ice shelf (Indian Barrier for Ship)

WAP IND-Ø4- BHARATI Research Base (69°24.41′ South, 76° 11.72′ East) is located in Larsemann Hills along   the Ingrid Christensen Coast, off the Quilty Bay (~ 200 m from the coast).

SHIP BOARD OPERATIONS CapeTown – Bharati – Maitri- Cape Town transect

Rumors say that this year there will be an Ham Radio operator who could be active on HF from at least one of the two Indian  Bases:  MAITRI  or BHARATI Stations.

The worldwide Radio Amateurs community recalls the great activity  done in  the years from 2010 through 2015 by OM Bhagwati Prasad VU3BPZ, Communication Officer at both Bases .

We are grateful to NCPOR if really some of the scientists  or personnel  will be encouraged to operate an Ham radio equipment during the 41st ISEA. We thanks in advance  the Chiefs of the bases for promoting HF tests through the Ham Radio bands in SSB  and/or  CW from Antarctica

Kizahashi Hut, New Entry in WAP-WADA Directory as JPN-NEW

Kizahashi Hut is located at 69°28’ South, 39°35’ East in a beach at the headland on Skarvsnes, one of the islands of the Flatvaer group on the coast of Queen Maud Land.

Flatvaer Islands (in Norwegian: Flatvær, means “flat islands”), also known as the Ongul Islands, are a group of small islands lying at the east side of the entrance of Lützow Holm Bay, 4 km from the Antarctica coastline.

Kizahashi-hama (Kizahashi beach) was mapped from survey and aerial photographs taken during the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) 1957-1962. The name Kizahashi-hama was given by JARE in 1972.

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Kizahashi Hut at Skarvsnes stands among a field camp which consists of the main hut, a generator hut, a small (green) lab hut and a series of small tents for sleeping and work. The North Face dome tent is a science tent.

 

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At the light of this evidence, Kizahashi Hut will enter into the WAP-WADA Directory as WAP JPN-NEW and more precisely:

 

Kizahashi Hut

69°28’ South, 39°35’ East

Skarvsnes,  Lützow Holm Bay, Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica

 

As far as we know, Kizahashi-hama Hut is frequently visited by a Team of scientist from Japan and other different Countries who are going there for marine life observation and scientific measurement such as Geosphere and to check  maintain the AWS (Automatic Weather Station) nearby at  69º28′25″ South, 39º36′43″ East.

TNX Yath Yoshikawa JG2MLI  and Gabriele IK1NEG

II6OANT WAP-323 will join 6Ø ATS

Special callsign II6OANT has been received by the Ministry and we are now ready to be  “On Air”.

In Italy, according to current regulations,  MISE (Ministry of Economic Development) on which Telecommunications and Ham Radio matters depend, does not issue callsigs with two or more digits, so,  instead of II6ØANT (6 and Ø are two digits), we folded up to II6OANT. WAP Reference issued is WAP-323

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Activity will be from Oct. 1st through Dec. 31st 2021.

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II6OANT WAP-323 is a valid station for the 6Ø ATS Awards program.

QSL via I1HYW (see QRZ.com)

19 Sept.2021, 18th WAP Meeting.

ARI-Mondovì (Cuneo) Italy, will run the 18th WAP Meeting in the frame of other programs such as the 20th DCI (Italian Castles Award) and 12th IFFA (Italian Flora & Fauna Award).
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It’s a three days event well participated by Hams from Italy and foreign Countries nearby.
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Sunday Sept.19, there will be a presentation of the 6Ø ATS by Max IK1GPG, WAP Award manager since the beginning of our Antarctic adventure!
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TNX IK1GPG & IK1QFM  and Co. for carry on the WAP Meeting‘s job since 18 years now, and happy time to those who are joining!
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Antarctica …. our passion forever!

Sovetskaya Research Station (WAP RUS-NEW)

Sovetskaya , 77° 58’ South, 89° 16 East was a Soviet research station in  Kaiser Wilhelm Land in Antarctica that was established on 16 February 1958 by the 3rd  Soviet Antarctic Expedition  on International Geophisic Year research work, and closed on 3 January 1959.

 

Antarctic Comrades (An American with the Russians in Antarctica) is  a book written by  Gilbert Dewart (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/159608932.pdf) . On it, Gilbert Dewart reports about a Sovietskaya Refuge (or Base) Here some paragraphs. We, have just add the WAP References for the sites mentioned:

… Another trail party left Mirnyy (WAP RUS-Ø7) that December: it took more fuel and supplies to Vostok, then returned to Komsomolskaya (WAP RUS-Ø5) and set out from there on a new heading in pursuit of the distant Pole of inaccessibility  (WAP RUS-NEW) see pic aside to the right-.

Again the going was very tough, and with the season becoming dangerously late, the party pulled up at an intermediate spot on February 16, 1958, and opened Sovetskaya Station 11,700 feet above the sea. Though this position was unplanned, it was near enough to the goal, and for the scientific purpose of studying the extreme interior of the polar ice sheet it would serve as well. Six men wintered here under the leadership of V. K. Babarykin. Sovetskaya and Vostok stations both set new world records for low temperatures that winter, the final extreme minimum being-87.4° C (-125° F) at Vostok, so the Russians could now claim the “Pole of Cold.” With the three stations established on the ice plateau, plus Mirnyy, Pionerskaya, and Oazis, they now had six permanent bases in Antarctica for the second phase of the IGY in 1958. The Third Expedition, commanded by Ye. I. Tolstikov, operated this array of scientific stations.

The site was occupied for only two weeks, until the official end of the IGY, then abandoned, though the shelters and basic equipment were left intact for future use.

With the Fourth Expedition, directed by A. G. Dralkin, the Soviet Antarctic Program underwent retrenchment and a change in focus. The personnel complement was reduced from 185 to 113 men, and Sovetskaya (WAP RUS-NEW), Pionerskaya (WAP RUS-10), and Oazis (WAP RUS-NEW) were closed down in January

1959 (Oazis station was turned over to a small Polish contingent, but the Russo-Polish relationship proved acrimonious, and the Poles soon abandoned it).

Komsomolskaya was converted to seasonal use as a weather station and logistical support base for air operations in the summer. On the other hand, two thousand miles to the west, on the coast of Queen Maud Land, a landing party from the Ob established a new permanent station which was named, with history in mind again, for M. P. Lazarev, Bellingshausen’s second-in-command. Lazarev Station (WAP RUS-NEW) was intended as the base for an investigation of a nearby ice shelf and for an ambitious geological exploration program in a range of little-known mountains a short distance inland.

WAP have no evidence of any Hams that did ever operate HF from Sovetskaya Base, Lazarev and Oazis.
Thanks and credit to:
Одинокий и холодный Ленин на «Полюсе недоступности» (фотогалерея) (rferl.org)

Collins Refuge  WAP CHL-16

Collins Refuge,  62º 10’ South, 58º 50’ 57” West, is an Antarctic shelter located in the Collins Glacier in the Collins Bay,  Fildes Peninsula, King George Island.

It was inaugurated at the 2006-2007 season and is administrated by the Instituto Antarctico Chileno (INACH).

It has capacity for six persons in summer, and it is used for scientific research. It has communications with HF and VHF radio, satellite telephony and the logistical support comes from the Professor Julio Escudero Base (WAP CHL-Ø7), by sea.

INACH counts two refuges throughout the Chilean Antarctic Territory: Collins (WAP CHL-16) and Julio Ripamonti (WAP CHL-Ø3).  They allow geographic displacement through the territory.

The Collins Refuge stands as one of the main housing supports on the ground for Antarctic work in Fildes Bay with a laboratory module as well as magnifying glasses and microscopes are available.  A laboratory module as well as magnifying glasses and microscopes are available.

A 350 hp Yamaha ATV is also available. The Refuge (sometimes called Base) replaced one with the same name, built in 1969, given to the Uruguay Antartic Institute in 1984 and dismantled in 1989, located in where today is the Artigas Base from Uruguay.

Artigas (WAP URY-Ø1), located at 62° 11’South,  58° 51’West is a small year round Station widely spread over a mainly flat area above Collins Harbor towards the east of Maxwell Bay. The station was established in 1984 and is operated by the Instituto Antarctico Uruguayo (IAU), which is part of the Ministry of National Defense.

COLDEX, The “Center for Oldest Ice Exploration.

The Oregon State University  (USA) will lead a National Science Foundation-funded effort to discover Antarctica‘s oldest ice and learn more about how the Earth’s climate has changed over the past several million years.

The Center for Oldest Ice Exploration, or COLDEX, will be created under a five-year, $25 million Science and Technology Center award announced on Thursday.

The centre will bring together experts from across the US to generate knowledge about the earth’s climate system and share this knowledge to advance efforts to address climate change and its impacts.

“This is fundamental exploration science,” said Ed Brook, a paleoclimatologist in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and the principal investigator for COLDEX.

“What we’re after is to see how the earth behaves when it is warmer than it has been in the last one million years. In order to do that, we have to find and collect ice cores that go back that far.”

The oldest continuous record of Antarctic ice, collected by drilling miles down from the continent’s surface, currently goes back about 800,000 years. The researchers hope to find a continuous record that goes back 1.5 million years, Brook said.
Thanks and Credit to: https://weather.com/en-IN/india/environment/news/2021-09-10-scientists-to-discover-antarctica-oldest-ice

Stansbury Peninsula Refuge (China), a New Entry on WAP-WADA Directory

Antarctic Treaty Inspections Programme Report 2014-15, shows at page 90 a visit jointly undertaken by the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic in accordance with Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty and Article 14 of the Environmental Protocol, done  on January 2015 by a group of observers  of the two Nations.

(see: https://documents.ats.aq/ATCM38/att/ATCM38_att092_e.pdf)

Near  Eco-Nelson WAP CZE-Ø1 (a nongovernmental Czech facility) there is a small Refuge approximately 1 km to the east of that facility, around a small headland and situated approximately 20 meters above a gravel and rock beach.

Located at 62° 15’ South, 58° 59’ West on Nelson island the Refuge consists of a shipping container, flanked by two smaller containers. The main building contains several bunk-beds, a large amount of assorted bedding and blankets and a small store of water bottles, fruit juice and medicine.

The Refuge  was linked to, or had been used by staff from, the Great Wall Station, China (WAP CHN-Ø1). The shipping container is in poor condition with extensive rusting and exterior deterioration. A large, apparently empty, rusting gas cylinder was being used to hold the door closed.

A smaller container adjacent to the main building held a collection of waste material. The door to this structure had rusted away completely leaving the contents open to the snow and wind.

A third small container lay approximately 10m to the east and was partially filled with snow. This contained a half-full 200lt blue plastic fuel barrel, apparently containing a heating and cooking fuel such as white spirit.

The visitors’ book in the shipping container indicated that this refuge was occasionally visited by those living in the nearby vicinity, including from the Eco-Nelson facility, and it contained relatively recent entries. However, the refuge was now in very poor condition, and without adequate supplies, was not in a suitable state to act as a genuine refuge in case of a serious emergency or accident nearby.

At the light of these evidences, Stansbury Peninsula Refuge, 62°15′ South, 58°59′ West, Stansbury Peninsula, of Nelson Island,  between Edge Bay and  Fildes Starit, King George Island in the South Shetland Islands,  will enter  into the WAP-WADA Directory as WAP CHN-NEW.

As soon as an HF  Ham Radio operation from this location will  maybe on air  a relater reference number will be given.

Uruguay: 30th Anniversary of the first Antarctic naval mission

On last August 30, 2021, a ceremony was held at the facility of the Ministry of National Defense. The Uruguayan Mail,  following the request  of the Uruguayan Antarctc Institute, presented a commemorative stamp, celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the first Antarctic naval mission aboard the ship “Pedro Campbell

TNX Istituto Antarctic Uruguayo

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Peter Campbell (1780-1832) , also known in Spanish as Pedro Campbell was an Irish naval officer who founded the Uruguayan Navy.

Russian Robinson Club join the 6Ø Antarctic Treaty Signature Anniversary

Antarctic region, its use for exclusively peaceful purposes and transformation into a zone free of nuclear weapons.

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Initially, the Treaty was signed by 12 Countries: Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway, USSR (Russia), USA, France, Chile, South Africa, Japan.

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In honour of the 6Øth anniversary of the event, from October 1st to December 31st, 2021 Russian Robinson Club together with SRR, Hamlog and other interested organizations plans to conduct a special activity usingh 12 different callsigns, by the number of countries that originally signed the Antarctic Treaty:

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R6ØANT  – Russia
RA6ØANT – South Africa
UE6ØANT – Belgium (instead of RB6ØANT as previously announced)
RC6ØANT – Chile
RG6ØANT – Argentina
RJ6ØAN   – Japan (instead of RJ6ØANT as previously announced)
RK6ØANT – United Kingdom
RL6ØANT – France
RN6ØANT – Norway
RT6ØANT – Australia
RU6ØANT – USA
RZ6ØANT – New Zealand
Plus a special callsign from Antarctica RI6ØANT.

WAP have already issued a Reefrence number for each of the above Special Event Calls.

Check https://www.waponline.it/6oats-anniversary/   to download the whole WAP references issud for this Event

Russian Robinson Club together with SRR and HAMLOG.Online will issue a special award and plaque

Award “60th Anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty”

To receive the award it is enough to make 1 QSO / SWL with each of 12 stations using special callsigns in a period from October 1st to December 31st, 2021.
Missed special callsigns can be replaced by callsigns of ordinary radio amateurs from appropriate country. For example, missed RA60ANT QSO can be replaced by any 3 QSOs with South Africa. RI60ANT counts for any missed special callsign.
To receive a plaque, you need to make 2 QSO / SWL with each of 12 stations using special callsigns in a period from October 1st to December 31st, 2021.
QSL info: All QSL Rx60ANT via RZ3EC (OQRS (better)/direct/bureau)

3YØJ, KAPP FIE,  New entry on WAP WADA Directory

WAP is happy to read that next 3YØJ Expedition to Bouvet Island ( Novem,ber 2022) will be set at Kapp (Cape) Fie,  which site will enter  for now, into the WAP Directory, as WAP NOR-New

Here is the statement:
After discussing with the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) and other experts the Expeditionners have come to the conclusion that the only possible place to setup a camp SAFELY is at Cape Fie at the South East part of Bouvet. Cape Fie was first roughly charted in 1898 by a German expedition under Carl Chun, and was re-charted and named by the Norwegian expedition under Captain Harald Horntvedt who explored the area in December 1927.

Cape Fie,  54° 27′ South,  3° 28′ East  is a rock formation at the South East part of the Island, the only safe place to stay for a longer duration overnight. All other locations have a high risk for rock or icefall or large amounts of seals.

Norwegian Research Station Bouvetoya (aka Nyroysa), WAP NOR-Ø2 is not  accessible due to the Bouvet Regulation (that came into force in 2005), which restricts access to only allowed scientific research activity.

As such, and also due to safety issues, the camp will be setup at the rocks above the beach at Cape Fie.​ The area is roughly estimated to 50x240m (150 ft x 800ft).

Kapp Fie , 54° 27′ South,  3° 28′ East, South East side of Bouvetøya (Bouvet Island), will (provisionally) enter into Section 2, Sub & Peri-Antarctic Territories  of WAP-WADA Directory as NOR-NEW. Later,  when the operation will start, a full Reference number will be given.