Antarctica's KC4AAA to be on the air for Field Day (Jun 16, 2006) -- KC4AAA at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica, has announced plans to participate in ARRL Field Day 2006. The station's Satellite Communications Technician Robert Reynolds, N0QFQ, will head up the effort. Operations from KC4AAA will commence at 1800 UTC on June 24 and continue through 2100 UTC on June 25. Experience has shown that best opportunity for North and South American stations to contact KC4AAA appears around 2300 UTC on the Eastern Seaboard, moving westward with time until the window closes around 0400 UTC. Given South Pole's location right under the auroral oval, propagation can make South Pole intercontinental HF radio communications a challenge, so listen carefully! The primary operating frequency will be on or about 14.243 MHz. KC4AAA operators will monitor and exploit other bands, but 20 meter SSB will be the primary operating mode. South Pole will operate as a "home" station with supplied power (Class 1D). Reynolds plans to have a team of up to 10 operators staffing the station, most of whom are in a ham radio licensing class at the station. KC4AAA will be running 1 kW and will mainly use a pair of log-periodic antennas aimed toward the US. KC4AAA plans to upload its Field Day log to Logbook of The World (LoTW). QSL cards will be sent later in the year.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
There is Still Hope
One of the things that I have tried desperately to accomplish in my ham DX career is to work Antarctica. On many levels I need to get this one out of the way (its holding up my IOTA award). Now I may have another neat shot at them. For those who haven't seen it, this from the ARRL website (thank you HQ for the heads up).
Antarctica's KC4AAA to be on the air for Field Day (Jun 16, 2006) -- KC4AAA at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica, has announced plans to participate in ARRL Field Day 2006. The station's Satellite Communications Technician Robert Reynolds, N0QFQ, will head up the effort. Operations from KC4AAA will commence at 1800 UTC on June 24 and continue through 2100 UTC on June 25. Experience has shown that best opportunity for North and South American stations to contact KC4AAA appears around 2300 UTC on the Eastern Seaboard, moving westward with time until the window closes around 0400 UTC. Given South Pole's location right under the auroral oval, propagation can make South Pole intercontinental HF radio communications a challenge, so listen carefully! The primary operating frequency will be on or about 14.243 MHz. KC4AAA operators will monitor and exploit other bands, but 20 meter SSB will be the primary operating mode. South Pole will operate as a "home" station with supplied power (Class 1D). Reynolds plans to have a team of up to 10 operators staffing the station, most of whom are in a ham radio licensing class at the station. KC4AAA will be running 1 kW and will mainly use a pair of log-periodic antennas aimed toward the US. KC4AAA plans to upload its Field Day log to Logbook of The World (LoTW). QSL cards will be sent later in the year.
Antarctica's KC4AAA to be on the air for Field Day (Jun 16, 2006) -- KC4AAA at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica, has announced plans to participate in ARRL Field Day 2006. The station's Satellite Communications Technician Robert Reynolds, N0QFQ, will head up the effort. Operations from KC4AAA will commence at 1800 UTC on June 24 and continue through 2100 UTC on June 25. Experience has shown that best opportunity for North and South American stations to contact KC4AAA appears around 2300 UTC on the Eastern Seaboard, moving westward with time until the window closes around 0400 UTC. Given South Pole's location right under the auroral oval, propagation can make South Pole intercontinental HF radio communications a challenge, so listen carefully! The primary operating frequency will be on or about 14.243 MHz. KC4AAA operators will monitor and exploit other bands, but 20 meter SSB will be the primary operating mode. South Pole will operate as a "home" station with supplied power (Class 1D). Reynolds plans to have a team of up to 10 operators staffing the station, most of whom are in a ham radio licensing class at the station. KC4AAA will be running 1 kW and will mainly use a pair of log-periodic antennas aimed toward the US. KC4AAA plans to upload its Field Day log to Logbook of The World (LoTW). QSL cards will be sent later in the year.
