KC4AAA to Be on the Air for Field Day
In June 2006, the following article appeared on the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) web site...complete with a small image of that old QSL card (!). There is a new one coming, but for now there are other South Pole QSL cards around, I have updated the most complete collection of them here. 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 the 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 go out later in the year. For more information, contact Nick Powell, NH6ON, nick.powell at usap dot gov.  Above is a group of the participants, courtesy of Erik Kawasaki, who reported that propagation was no help. |