KC4/WB9YSD Antarctic DXpedition at WAIS Divide


Hello, I'm Steve Polishinski, WB9YSD, and I work at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC).Picture of me by McMurdo Station Sign  This year (2009) I was fortunate enough to get a chance to go to Antarctica with the ice core drilling equipment I've been working on and shipping off to the ice for the past several years.  You can read a summary and see some pictures of the equipment on the SSEC DISC Drill web page.

Skip to my web blog below. 

I hope to be able update this web page from Antarctica, so it is very simple.  The Internet connection is slow (38 KBaud) via GOES 3 and is only present for about 4 hours a day. It is also shared with about three dozen other people.  If it is not possible to update this web page from Antarctica, email does/will work, and is given priority over other uses of the connection. If I email my Wife, Barbara, N9JAR, she can update the page from home in Madison.

This web page caters to family, Amateur Radio (Ham) operators, friends, and students, so please understand as I try to address all audience levels at once. 

WAIS Divide Site

The site where we are drilling at is on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide, or WAIS for short.  It is pronounced like "waist" without the "t." It is located at longitude 112.085 W and latitude 79.467 S.  The WAIS Divide Wikipedia page gives more details and explains why this site was selected for our drilling.

The purpose of drilling ice cores at WAIS is to study the earth's past climate records going back nearly 100,000 years.  In very elementary terms, the ice cores contain layers, trapped gases, and trace elements which very accurately reveal the past climate.  IANACS (I am not a climate scientist), so please visit the web site at University of New Hampshire for more details.

The Antarctic Sun is a wonderful daily site to watch for all things happening with the US Antarctic Program.

Schedule

Here is my schedule for my deployment.  The weather in Antarctica nearly always plays havoc with scheduling, so anything after the November 11th date is likely to change.

HAM RADIO

It is impossible for me to go to Antarctica without taking my Amateur Radio equipment!  I hope to be able to operate it during my free time on the ice.  How much free time there'll be, I don't know! The work week on the ice is 54 hours long; 9 hour days, 6 days a week.  We get off on Sunday, though we are expected to do some light work cleaning or maintaining equipment.

Ham Radio has a long tradition in Antarctica.  Here is Charles Bentley, our PI operating a Ham station in the late 1950's.  He is still planning on visiting WAIS either this year or next!  Before satellites, Ham Radio and phone patches were the only way people could communicate back home to family.  Today we have satellite cell phones.

My radio is an  ICOM IC-7000 with a Dentron Jr. Monitor Antenna Tuner, if needed.  I also have a laptop, for logging, and hope to get it setup for at least CW (Morse code) sending.  Maybe RTTY or PSK31 if I can before leaving.

For antennas, the plan is to construct at least some dipoles from the 500 feet of copper wire and 250 feet of LMR-240UF coax that was shipped months ago along with our scientific gear.  Maybe something as fancy as an W8JK or wire Yagi antenna.  For antenna supports, I will use flag poles that are used to mark camp paths and areas.  Sitting on top of an ice sheet is almost like being on top of a tower to begin with, as earth ground doesn't exist.  Ice is an electrical dielectric, so any "Ground" my antennas will see is something like a metal building near by.   Getting the antenna wire several feet above the ice & snow will avoid some detuning effects, at least those that would change the tuning day-to-day were the antenna wire laid directly on the ice.  The ice will effect the angle of radiation of the antenna, unfortunately I believe raising it, which is not desirable for working off the continent.

My Ham Radio Schedule

I have no idea when there will be time for me to operate.  When I know more, it'll be posted here.  PLEASE DO NOT ASK FOR A SKED -- all requests will be ignored.  Emails to my ARRL address will NOT be checked from the ice!

At Christ Church, New Zealand, I'll try to get on the air for a couple of contacts to say I did, but will be there for only two nights.

At McMurdo, Nov 13th to Nov 23rd, I should be able to find time to operate KC4USV.

At WAIS, Nov 23rd, job responsibilities will dominate for at least the first week.  If possible, I will try to operate the ARRL November Sweepstakes Phone Contest, but even if I do get my station setup in time, my operating time will be limitted.  After I get into the routine, I expect to have several operating sessions per week.  Again, when I know, it'll be posted here.


BLOG

Nov 25th, 10:00 UTC or Wednesday night McMurdo time.

November Sweepstakes was a bust, with only 2 contacts.  Stateside QRM and poor propagation made it very tough to make contacts.  This
weekend is CQ WW CW!  Maybe, just maybe we could get some help from the Sun Gods to make it more successful.

Pictures are being posted here without captions, however I'm now adding pages with captions.

Here's some "sights" of McMurdo Station.

Here's pictures of  KC4USV, the ham station at McMurdo.

We are FINALLY getting some of our people into WAIS!  Today the first crew left for there.  I'm waiting until probably Monday, the 30th, but who knows!


 Jan 2nd, 2010, Saturday from WAIS.

Well, I've been at WAIS for near a month.  Internet is very poor, with email about all I can count on. Getting this web site updated meant sending pictures out with people leaving WAIS.

I've managed to get my ham station up and running with a 40 and 20 meter dipole FROM MY TENT WITH BATTERY POWER.   Operation from the a building at WAIS was tried, but quickly determined to be very difficult.  First, there's no place to put my antenna about any of the heated buildings, as for the most part 360 access for heavy machinery about all the buildings is required.   The batteries came from 3 computer UPSs that one of the professors used down here last year.  The UPSs were used for a few months, then stored in heated facilities in McMurdo.  He had the battteries replaced because it was unclear if they'd be good.  They are fine.  So I have SIX 7 Ampere hour batteries that I've been running in pairs.  After using one pair for a day or two, I bring it in to be charged.  My "solar oven" tent keeps temps above about 20F, and during the warmest part of the day it can reach into the 50s,
mostly keeping the batteries in OK shape.   So far, my contact total is at a screaming 10 or so.  KC4/WB9YSD?  That must be someone from Florida. 

Here a bunch of pictures with captions detailing what we've been doing for the last month at McMurdo and then WAIS Divide.

A hike about McMurdo.

My flight to WAIS, and some other ski plane flights into and out of WAIS.

Here we are getting ready to drill.

The first ice core this season.

My tent.  (Sorry, this was before I got the ham radio setup there so no pictures of it yet.)

A bunch of pictures describing the DISC Drill.

People I'm working with at WAIS.

The Ram Drill, which deployed out of WAIS.