From Pole to Pole with the Poles

Last edited: 16.09.2017

Yesterday, I posted a blog entry about the Polish Antarctic Station Henryk Arctowski. But the Poles do not only have a research station in the Antarctic, but also in the Arctic, at Hornsund on the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago, to be precise.

Polish Polar Station Hornsund (source)

Polish Polar Station Hornsund is located at 77º00'N 15º33'W, and especially during winter is extremely isolated. The station is manned year-round. It was established in 1957 as a winter base for the 3rd International Geophysical Year 1957/1958 (1). There's a permanent staff of about 10 persons. The station is frequently visited by polar bears.

 

Last April, on the 20m band I managed to make a PSK31 QSO with Kamil Palkowski SQ8KFH who at the time was operating from the Polish Polar Station on Spitsbergen with the callsign JW/SQ8KFH. I'm awaiting a QSL card confirmation via the QSL bureau, and I will post it on here as soon as I've received it.

Spitsbergen is IOTA EU-026.

Polar bear trying to get into the Polish Polar Station (source)

Addendum 16.09.2017
(1) Actually this was the first International Geophysical Year (IGY), but there had been two "International Polar Years" before, on which the IGY was largely modeled.


See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Polar_Station,_Hornsund
https://hornsund.igf.edu.pl/en/
http://www.eu-interact.org/field-sites/svalbard/polish-polar-station-hornsund/
http://www.hustadnes.net/Tur/Svalbard/Hornsund1_eng.htm