Swedish icebreaker Oden and the mystery of SA2LLL/63

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This is the Swedish icebreaker Oden. Built in 1988 and originally used in winter time to keep open the shipping lanes of the Gulf of Bothnia, she was later modified to be used as a polar research vessel. The Oden has been on many expeditions both to the Arctic and the Antarctic, and she was the first non-nuclear surface vessel to reach the geographic North Pole! Seven more visits to the North Pole have followed since.

Currently the Oden is on a research expedition called Arctic Ocean 2018, a joint effort of the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat and the USA's National Science Foundation. At the beginning of August, the Oden left Longyearbyen, Svalbard and started the first part of the expedition to the north polar pack ice. At some point during the expedition, for the duration of about one month, the Oden will be moored at a large Arctic Ocean ice floe and will slowly drift with it towards the North Pole.

The good news for the ham community is that onboard the Oden is amateur radio operator Lars Lehnert SA2LLL (ex DL1LLL). According to his qrz.com page and his special Facebook page, Lars will be active from the Oden with the special callsign 8S8ODEN, in PSK, SSB, and WSPR!

I noticed that at the end of July and on August 1st, Lars was already making WSPR spots from the Oden as SA2LLL/MM on the 20m band from grid JQ78tf (Longyearbyen, Svalbard) (Fig. 1). I was not aware of this, and unfortunately was not doing any 20m WSPRing during that time.

Fig. 1  Lars Lehnert SA2LLL/MM making spots on 20m WSPR from the Swedish icebreaker Oden in grid JQ78tf.

When I was doing a 20m WSPR monitoring-only session though on August 3rd, I did receive some WSPR transmissions from SA2LLL/63, three in total, all consistently on 14.097042 MHz and with a DT of around 4 seconds (which is unusually large) (Fig. 2). I have no doubt this was Lars WSPRing from the Oden in the Arctic Ocean, but I have no clue what the /63 stands for. My WSJT-X did not upload the spots to WSPRnet.org, or at the database were simply ignored, most likely due to the received messages not containing a grid locator.
I checked the WSPRnet.org database, but no SA2LLL/63 spots could be found at all made by any other listeners.

Fig. 2  PA7MDJ receiving SA2LLL/63 on 20m WSPR. Receiver and antenna used were an SDRPlay RSP1A and an EFHW wire antenna. Note the frequency and the unusual large DT!

Then some time later that same day I received what probably was the matching second part of the SA2LLL/63 compound WSPR message (Fig. 3). When transmitting a compound callsign in WSPR it will be done in a two-transmission sequence; one carries the callsign and dBm power level, and the other carries the grid locator. When both are received, the WSJT-X or WSPR software will match the two transmissions in the decode screen.

The grid received was JQ78tf, which, looking at the frequency and the fact that SA2LLL/MM already used this grid at the end of July / 1st of August I have no doubt this was also originating from the Oden (Fig. 3). Unfortunately my WSJT-X did not make the match with the SA2LLL/63 message part (probably a too long time between the last reception of the part containing the callsign and the second part containing the grid locator).

Fig. 3  PA7MDJ receiving the second part of the SA2LLL/63 compound message containing the grid locator. Note the frequency and the DT!

Strange thing is that on August 3rd the Oden according to the special Arctic Ocean 2018 web page was not in grid JQ78tf (Longyearbyen, Svalbard) anymore, but already was in another grid north of the Svalbard Archipelago (Fig. 4). It might be that Lars overlooked to update the grid locator (which is quite a hassle on a moving ship when not done automatically). What also puzzles me is why other monitoring stations (many of them equipped much better than I am) also failed to receive the complete matched compound transmissions (as shown by the lack of spots in the WSPRnet database).

Fig. 4  The position of the Oden on August 3rd, north of the Svalbard Archipelago.

Then I remembered that the official WSPR manual notes that when sending compound callsigns, an add-on suffix can be either a single letter or one or two digits. A single letter! So in WSPR TX the /MM add-on will not be possible! I started wondering if maybe the /MM add-on when transmitted would decode into /63.
I decided to do an experiment, and in the settings of my WSPR 2.0 program added /MM to my callsign. I let WSPR 2.0 do some TXing and with a virtual audio cable fed the audio to WSJT-X (please note, no actual RF transmitting was done!) And lo and behold, WSJT-X decoded the messages into PA7MDJ/63 (Fig. 5)! And also, WSJT-X failed to make a match between the two compound messages! I say no more, I guess the mystery is solved.

Fig. 5  The experiment with PA7MDJ/MM sent by WSPR 2.0 and decoded as PA7MDJ/63 in WSJT-X. No match between the two compound messages is made (normally with a match the dots in the < ... > part would be replaced by the callsign).

At PA7MDJ nothing has been heard from the Oden since August 3rd, but Lars mentions on the special 8S8ODEN Facebook page, that he can use the 8S8ODEN callsign as soon as they're in international waters. I'm now regularly monitoring 20m WSPR and anxiously await the special callsign to pop up in my WSJT-X decodes.

"Normal " satellite coverage (like INMARSAT) in the High Arctic is minimal to non-existent, and I guess any Facebook or other internet media updates from Lars during the expedition will be sporadic to none.


See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oden_(1988_icebreaker)
http://www.sjofartsverket.se/pages/41381/Oden%20f%c3%b6r%20webben.pdf
https://polar.se/en/about-polar-research/icebreaker-oden/
https://www.qrz.com/db/8s8oden
https://www.facebook.com/8s8oden-254266508479421/
https://polarforskningsportalen.se/en/arctic/expeditions/arctic-ocean-2018
https://www.helenczerski.net/at-sea/
http://www.marinfloc.com/case-studies/15-breaking-ice-and-new-environmental-ground

Life's too short for QRP! (WSPR chatter 4)

Last edited: 06.05.2018

Latest news 06.05.2018 - DJ0HO/MM has been confirmed as being located on the German icebreaker and research vessel RV Polarstern! See the addendum below!

I like the challenge of WSPRíng with 200 mW with my QRP Labs U3S. But sometimes you really want to be spotted by that special station, and after trying for a while you start to realize that 200 mW just ain't going to cut it, at least not without some extraordinary propagation conditions helping out.

Such was the case for me with DJ0HO/MM. This station the past two months or so had been making WSPR spots from the area around the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands (see also my blog entry of April 7). I really wanted to be spotted by this station, but my 200 mW WSPR sgnals just everytime failed to excite some electrons in the station's antenna.
So, giving the popular ham radio phrase "Life's too short for QRP" new meaning, I gave the U3S some rest and decided to do some WSPRing on the 20m band with my Yaesu FT991 instead, using no less than a massive 5 Watts of power, yes, 5000 mW! :-) In WSPR, and compared to the 200 mW I normally use, this was like going from QRP to high power QRO operations! :-) And it really showed; I got way more spots, much better SNR reports, and while I was at it I was spotted by stations in Japan, India and New Zealand to boot, countries I haven't been able to reach yet with my 200 mW signals (see also my WSPR DXCC list). But most importantly, I was finally also spotted by DJ0HO/MM!

The first spot for PA7MDJ from DJ0HO/MM appeared on April 29th from grid GC29ma, just north of the mysterious, remote, and desolate Elephant Island. Elephant Island is an ice-covered mountainous island, it's part of the South Shetland Islands, but lies in its extreme outer reaches. The island was named for the many elephant seals spotted on its shores by the early explorers. Elephant Island is most famous for having been the refuge of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men marooned there after the loss of their ship in the Weddel Sea during the Endurance Expedition in 1915.
A second spot appeared two days later from grid GC39al. The antenna I used during both spots was a sloping dipole for the 20m band.

Elephant Island. Photo by Terry Allan (source).

DJ0HO/MM near Elephant Island hearing PA7MDJ on April 29th, 2018

Raising the power from 200 mW to 5 W is not automatically a guarantee that your signals will be picked up, and the fact that I was spotted by DJ0HO/MM only twice shows that it was still no easy feat.

DJ0HO does not have a qrz.com account, and it surprises me that almost no information can be found on either DJ0HO or the WSPR operations of DJ0HO/MM. The only thing I've been able to find is that the callsign belongs to a Dr. Walter Jörg Hofmann, the owner / skipper of a sailing yacht. I initially thought the WSPR monitoring was done from this sailing yacht. But the past few days on the map of wsprnet.org  I noticed that, after having spent many weeks in the Antarctic, DJ0HO/MM was moving up north, and at some point had reached the southern tip of South America and was sailing just east of Tierra del Fuego. I'm no expert at maritime navigation, but the speed at which DJ0HO/MM had managed to sail from Elephant Island to Tierra del Fuego made me suspect that this could not be a sailing yacht. At the time of writing the last spot in the wsprnet.org database from DJ0HO/MM was made on May 4th from grid FD66it.

I started to suspect that DJ0HO/MM was operated from a bigger ship, maybe a research vessel. In that case the most likely candidate would be the German research and supply vessel RV Polarstern. I checked the ship's 2018 schedule and learned that from March 17th to May 6th the ship was on a biological oceanographic research cruise (PS112) in the area "WESTERN ANTARCTIC PENINSULA SCOTIA SEA". The cruise would end on May 6th in Punta Arenas, Chile, which would have the ship sailing along the coast of Tierra del Fuego just prior to it! This schedule corresponds VERY closely to the movements I've seen for DJ0HO/MM!

The RV Polarstern (source)

The Polarstern 2018 schedule (source)

I thus can do none else than strongly suspect that DJ0HO/MM was located on board of the RV Polarstern! If somebody can confirm this, please contact me.

In other WSPR news; I've also been receiving some High Altitude Balloon WSPR flights including SA6BSS (BSS #?) over Greenland and VE3KCL (U3B-15) near Northern Africa. Also the hospital ship USNS Mercy (see also my blog entry of April 27)  is still active, and I've been receiving its WSPR signals again, this time from Sri Lanka.

WSPR balloon SA6BSS over Greenland heard by PA7MDJ

Addendum 06.05.2018
DJ0HO/MM indeed is the RV Polarstern! For some reason I'd missed it, but earlier Felix Riess DL5XL had already replied to my blog entry of April 7th with the following information:

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Jörg, DJ0HO, is an electronics engineer on board the German icebreaker "Polarstern" (not exactly a "sailing yacht"). More information about the ship can be found here: https://www.awi.de/en/expedition/ships/polarstern.html - He uses a Red Pitaya STEMLab 125-14 with an active receiving antenna to monitor up to eight WSPR frequencies simultaneously and regularly uploads reception results to wsprnet.org through the vessel's satellite link. DJ0HO will be on board until the ship returns to its home port of Bremerhaven, Germany, in June 2018.
---

Thanks for the input, Felix! I appreciate it very much!



See also:

https://www.awi.de/en/expedition/ships/polarstern.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_Island
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition

Antarctic WSPR beacon / receiver soon to be operational

Last edited: 15.01.2018

This is the latest exciting news about the dedicated WSPR beacon / receiver to be set up at the Neumayer III station on Antarctica. For more information, see also my blog entry of July 29th, 2017.

From the DARC Facebook page, published on January 11th, 2018.

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Die Hardware für die geplante WSPR-Funkbake in der Antarktis als gemeinsames Projekt von Technischer Universität München, Hochschule Bremen und dem DARC e.V. befindet sich zur Zeit auf dem Weg ins ewige Eis. Die Installation besteht aus einem Bakensender für die Bänder 160m bis 6m mit einer Ausgangsleistung von 5 Watt sowie einem WSPR-Multiband-Empfänger auf Basis eines Red Pitaya, der simultan alle Bänder von 160m bis 15m beobachtet und bis zu 700 Empfangsberichte stündlich in das WSPR-Net einspeisen kann. Die Inbetriebnahme des Systems an der deutschen Forschungsstation "Neumayer III" ist noch für den Januar 2018 geplant.
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Addendum 15.01.2018
Felix Riess DL5XL reports on wsprnet.org that testing of the RX setup has begun today (January 15th, 2018). The beacon callsign is DP0GVN and the first RX spots have already found their way to the wsprnet.org database! They're not using the final antenna setup yet and there might be extended off times while they're working on the system.

According to info on fellow blogger PE4BAS' blogsite (http://pe4bas.blogspot.com) for TX they will be using a Procom vertical antenna at the main building. For RX they will use two loops, one of 170 m and one of 20 m size, located at the chemistry laboratory 3 km away from the main building. The planned up time of the beacon will be one complete 11 year solar cycle!

Addendum #2 15.01.2108
Wow, the DP0GVN beacon is already doing an excellent job! I started WSPRing on 20m around 18:50 UTC and in an hours time I've already been spotted in Antarctica three times! I'm using my 200 mW U3S transmitter and a sloper EFHW wire antenna.

And this is what it looked like at Neumayer III Station around the time I was spotted (from the Neumayer III webcam):

Christmas Caroling via HF from Antarctica Set for December 23

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It's very short notice, but I wanted to share this recently discovered news item from the ARRL, giving my fellow Antarctica enthusiasts the opportunity to tune in to some very special, festive signals from "The Great White Continent" this Christmas Season! Thanks to my friend Alan Gale G4TMV for notifying me!

From http://www.arrl.org/news

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12/21/2017

Each year, the “residents” of McMurdo Station, Antarctica, celebrate Christmas by singing and sharing Christmas Carols via HF — using a non-Amateur Radio frequency just above 40 meters — for those at remote Antarctic field camps. They’ll be doing it again in 2017, on Saturday, December 23, at 2300 UTC.

“Multiple stations are involved, each with different equipment,” explained Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, an assistant research professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology who has been part of the chorus in the past. “McMurdo Station and South Pole Station probably have the most powerful equipment. Field camps and remote stations could be calling in with systems that put out as little as 20 W.”

Frissell said McMurdo Station would serve as a net control of sorts to coordinate the various broadcasts, which will include a small choir and vibraphonist John Piper at McMurdo. Other camps and South Pole Station each will have a chance to chime in.

“This year, we are asking ham radio operators around the world to listen in and e-mail short-wave listening reports telling us how far away the carols are heard,” Frissell said. “Last time I did this, almost all of the positive QSL reports were from South Pole Station.”

The broadcast will take place on December 23 on 7995 kHz USB at 2300 UTC, which will be Christmas Eve in some parts of the world. Frissell requests reports via e-mail. For a Christmas in Antarctica SWL QSL card, send an SASE to his home address. A YouTube recording offers a sample of last year’s transmission.

A graduate of Virginia Tech, Frissell started HamSCI, Ham Radio Science Investigation, which sponsored the Solar Eclipse QSO Party this past year. At NJIT, he works in the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research.
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Canada C3 Expedition update nr. 2

While the Canada C3 Expedition came to a succesful end back in October, the WSPR beacon aboard the expedition ship "Polar Prince" continues to be active. The CG3EXP callsign licence expired and the beacon now can be caught on the HF WSPR sub bands with the new callsign VE0EXP.
The coming period the Polar Prince will be returning from the Canadian West Coast to its home port on the Canadian East Coast on a long home voyage via the Panama Canal. And radio amateurs, like on its voyage along Canada's three coasts last summer, will also be able to track the ship on its home voyage by monitoring for its VE0EXP WSPR beacon. The WSPR beacon continues to transmit on its usual time and band schedule. As of writing this, the Polar Prince currently is in grid CM78 off the coast of California. More info can be found on the CG3EXP qrz.com page.

From CG3EXP trustee Barrie Crampton VE3BSB and the CG3EXP team, as a token of appreciation, and as recognition of my help in publicizing the C3 Expedition, I received the beautiful C3 Expedition certificate, and it's which much pride that I present it here on the PA7MDJ blog. My thanks and compliments go out to Barrie Crampton and the others of the CG3EXP team for the wonderful project, and for making the ham community part of the epic voyage of the Canada C3 Expedition.

More about the Canada C3 Expedition and my monitoring sessions for its WSPR beacon in my blog entries of  October 29th and June 5th.

More 40m fun!

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In my blog of March 4th I already wrote about how I'm continued to be surprised by the DX I'm able to work on the 40m band with low power (100 watts or less) and a simple loaded EFHW sloper wire antenna; the US East Coast, the Caribbean, South America, Middle America, Africa, Australia, and even Antarctica, they're all in the log. Don't be discouraged when you have only modest equipment and antennas to your disposal. Combined with some luck and perseverance it will work for you! I know, because it does for me!
Especially the Caribbean is an easy target, and the past year or so the 40m band has been a good provider to me of quite some ATNOs from Africa as well. Now that the higher bands are in bad shape, 40m has become my primary DX band!

Looking at the success I had last winter / spring on 40m QSOing several Russian Antarctic bases in CW and various stations in the southern part of the African continent in both CW and digital modes, I guess for extreme DX, roughly taken, the path from my QTH going down south across the African continent to Antarctica is a very good one for me.
This again was proved the last couple of months when I managed to contact again several stations in the Antarctic region. Last September on 40m in JT65 I managed to work the Polish Antarctic Station Arctowski HF0ARC on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, IOTA AN-010 (more about this QSO in my Sept. 14 blog). Then early October on 40m CW I managed to work FT5XT/MM on a fishing trawler off the Kerguelen Islands (see separate "QSL card in the Spotlight" section below). And very recently on 40m CW I finally also succeeded in making a QSO with the Russian Antarctic Station Bellingshausen RI1ANO, also on King George Island. After a long time and many attempts in JT65, FT8, and CW on both 40m and several other bands I finally managed to put this station in the log.

Russian Antarctic Station Bellingshausen, South Shetland Islands (from the RI1ANO qrz.com page)

Operator Alexandr (UA1OJL) at RI1ANO (from the RI1ANO qrz.com page)

On several nights while running JT65 on 40m I was also spotted by the Japanese Antarctic Station Syowa 8J1RL. Unfortunately 8J1RL at the time seemed to be monitoring only, as I saw no signal of the station at my side (or other stations trying to contact the Japanese Antarctic base), and thus no QSO could be made.

PA7MDJ spotted by 8J1RL on 40m. Screenshot from PSKREPORTER.

Syowa Station, Antarctica under the rays of the Aurora australis (from the 8J1RL qrz.com page)

Syowa Station, Antarctica (from the 8J1RL qrz.com page)

During the CQ Worldwide CW contest on November 26 around 15:00 UTC the 40m band once again surprised me when I managed to work K6AR in grid DM13ib near San Diego, California. It left me absolutely astonished, to say the least. Ok, I had worked Antarctica and other distant parts of the world on many occasions, but with my equipment on 40m I'd always considered the path to the US West Coast to be a very difficult or even an impossible one! I've made some contacts over the years, but also on the higher bands California always has been a very difficult area to reach for me.
One would expect a greyline contact here, but strictly seen it wasn't; K6AR had just come out of the grey line zone though, and I was about to go into it. The screenshot below from DX Atlas shows the great circle path completely in daylight. It might also have been a long path contact but I don't believe so.

Short path between PA7MDJ and K6AR on 26 Nov 2017 14:53 UTC

LotW QSL

The good 40m path south to Antarctica looks very promising for me for the upcoming 3Y0Z Bouvet Island DXpedition planned for early 2018. Looking at the path to Bouvet Island, I should have no problems catching their CW signals on the 40m band. I expect the pile-ups for this DXpedition to be HUGE and to be lasting until the very last second of the operation, so I'm not expecting to work them, but I'm hoping to at least hear them, so that I can send in an SWL report. Since I've got my ham licence, I usually don't send SWL reports anymore, but for Bouvet Island I'm going to make an exception and return to my roots and to how it all started: being an SWL! From this special DXpedition and special location I just need to have that QSL card momento! If not for a 2-way QSO then for an SWL report!

I've been deeply fascinated by the elusive "Bouvetøya", as the uninhabited, subantarctic Norwegian dependency is officially called, for a long time. In the 1990s I read about the mysterious Bouvet Island in the book "Het ijspaleis" (The Ice Palace) by Boudewijn Büch (1948-2002). Büch is one of my favourite Dutch writers, not for his fictional novels, but for his non-fiction series of island books. As far as I know the books were never translated, but for every island enthusiast that's able to read Dutch, the series of books is a must-read. I can without doubt say that the origin of many of my fascinations with certain islands and places on this earth derives from reading one of Büch's books. "Het ijspaleis" is largely dedicated to Bouvet. Although he never visited the island, Büch was an authority on Bouvet and therefore unique in the Netherlands and maybe even the World. Reading "Het ijspaleis" makes you realize how remote and elusive the island really is, not only on the ham bands, but also in many other ways.

The island series books by Boudewijn Büch, from the PA7MDJ library. On the right "Het ijspaleis: eilanden, derde deel" from 1993.

For those interested in 40m DX, Oene Spanjer PA3CWN is an avid 40m DXer, and his propagation observations for this particular band as laid out on his qrz.com page are very interesting, and they are recommended reading for every serious 40m DXer!

You can read more of my 40m contemplations in the March 4 blog entry linked to at the top of this page. More on FT5XT/MM in a separate section below


See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudewijn_B%C3%BCch
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudewijn_B%C3%BCch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingshausen_Station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showa_Station_(Antarctica) 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouvet_Island

QSL card in the Spotlight: FT5XT/MM near Kerguelen Islands

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QSL card from FT5XT/MM for a 40m CW QSO with PA7MDJ on 8 Oct 2017 0115 UTC.

FT5XT/MM is operated by Frenchman Gildas Ballanec F4HQZ (ex-TU5KG). Gildas is the captain of a fishing vessel which each year sails in the FT5 area for a period of about three months. He's active as FT5XT/MM from the ship when he sails within the vicinity of the Kerguelen Islands, and as FT5WQ/MM within the vicinity of the Crozet Islands. As most of you will know, /MM stands for Maritime Mobile and is added to an amateur radio callsign to indicate the station is located aboard a ship at sea.
Sporadically Gildas goes ashore on one of the islands (for instance when the ship needs refueling) and will be active from there with the callsigns FT5XT (on Kerguelen) and FT5WQ (on Crozet) without the /MM suffix added. Both Kerguelen and Crozet are part of the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises or TAAF and both form a separate DXCC entity. In case of Gildas' operations, of course they will only count as such when he operates from the islands and not when he's operating /MM from the ship at sea.
In previous years Gildas sailed on the fishing trawler "Ile de la Réunion", and I assume this year is no different. The "Ile de la Réunion" is shown on the QSL card and on his TU5KG qrz.com page. The "Radio Officers" website in an October 9th, 2017 news item also reports Gildas is aboard the F/V "Ile de la Réunion".

For more info on this QSO, see also my "More 40m fun!" blog entry above.

Kerguelen Islands (source)

The "Ile de la Réunion" (source)

Map showing the location of Kerguelen and Crozet (source)

QSO confirmed in Clublog

See also:

https://dx-world.net/ft5xt-kerguelen-island/
https://dxnews.com/ft5xt_kerguelen-islands/
https://www.trafficlist.net/fv-ile-de-la-reunion-ft5xtmm/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Southern_and_Antarctic_Lands
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:751477/mmsi:635225000/imo:9246970/vessel:ILE_DE_LA_REUNION

Canada C3 Expedition update

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On June 5th I wrote a blog post about the Canada C3 Expedition. Yesterday in Victoria, British Columbia, the epic 150-day expedition came to an end. The expedition ship "Polar Prince" had sailed 23,000 km from Canada's east to west coast via the infamous Northwest Passage in the Arctic.
For the complete duration of the Canada C3 voyage the Polar Prince could be tracked by radio amateurs by monitoring for the ship's WSPR beacon with callsign CG3EXP. At PA7MDJ over the summer many CG3EXP listening sessions were done. During the first legs of the voyage, the 200 mW CG3EXP WSPR beacons on 40m could be received relatively easily, and most nights around midnight UTC I could count on the CG3EXP callsign to show up in the decode window of my WSPR program at least a couple of times.
As expected, whilst the Polar Prince got more northerly and westerly spots became more seldom. Spots already became scarce when the ship had reached the northern part of Newfoundland. From this point on during listening sessions if I could get one or two spots I was lucky.
Nevertheless I managed to receive the CG3EXP beacons from various locations in the Arctic. The northern and westernmost location of the Polar Prince I managed to receive a WSPR beacon from was Pond Inlet, Nunavut at approximately 73ºN 78ºW in grid locator FQ02xq. And I'm still amazed! Receiving a 200 mW signal on 40m from this far into the Canadian Arctic with just a simple wire antenna! The fact that the antenna of the CG3EXP beacon was located aboard a ship surrounded by salt water must have been of huge benefit.

The Polar Prince at Bylot Island in the Canadian Arctic (photo from the Canada C3 Facebook page)

Below you can find the Canada C3 WSPR logbook (click to enlarge) that I kept during the summer. It does not contain all received beacons as it was more or less a logbook for all the different ship locations I managed to hear the WSPR beacons from. It includes locations like the previously mentioned Pond Inlet and other locations in the Arctic, and also L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, famous for being an archeological site with the remains of a Viking settlement dating to around the year 1000. It's the only certain site of a Viking settlement in North America and is widely accepted as evidence for pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact.

Canada C3 Expedition logbook. The original Excel logbook spreadsheet was provided by Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) to keep a log and to send in at the end of the expedition. Each received unique 6 character grid locator gives points for a Canada C3 Award certificate (more information on the CG3EXP qrz.com page) . Unfortunately I didn't manage to obtain the required 150 points.

Electronic QSL card received for my reception of the CG3EXP WSPR beacon from Pond Inlet. Electronic QSL cards can be requested by e-mail (see CG3EXP qrz.com page for more information)

Pond Inlet, Nunavut (source)

CG3EXP in Pond Inlet heard by PA7MDJ

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

Polish Antarctic Station Arctowski

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Beautiful picture from the HF0ARC qrz.com page.

In the evening of September 9th, 2017, I managed to make a JT65 QSO on 40m with HF0ARC. Amateur radio station HF0ARC is located at the Polish Antarctic Station Henryk Arctowski on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. It is operated by Sebastian Gleich SQ1SGB who is part of the current overwintering crew of the 41st Polish Antarctic Expedition (2016/2017) to Arctowski. Austral winter is coming to an end though, and at the end of October, Sebastian will be leaving the station and head back home for Poland. So I feel very lucky to have already managed to put HF0ARC in the log, as time will be running out soon.

I was running my Yaesu FT991 at 35 watts and used my sloper HyEndFed 10/20/40 wire antenna. I was surprised when I managed to make the contact already on the first attempt! An eQSL for the contact followed the next day. This contact definitely is one of the most special and memorable moments of my ham radio career!

Location of King George Island in the South Shetland Islands (source)

HF0ARC replaces the old Arctowski callsign HF0POL. The old HF0POL call was associated with Arctowski Station up until March 2016, and had been in use at the station since the late 1970s. In 2015, the Polish licensing regulations changed, making it possible to have the HF0 prefix issued to any Polish ham operating from Poland as well. Previously, the HF0 prefix was assigned exclusively to Polish hams operating from the South Shetland Islands. HF0POL is now in use by ham SP9GMK for ham operations from Poland, and is not associated with Arctowski Station anymore.

Polish Antarctic Station Henryk Arctowski was established in February 1977. On the beaches near the station numerous whale bones can be found, remains from the time when the site was used by whalers to process whales killed nearby. Nearby the station are various colonies of three different types of penguins. The station is named for Henryk Arctowski (1871-1958) who as a meteorologist accompanied the 1897-1899 "Belgica" expedition, the first expedition to overwinter in Antarctica. According to Wikipedia, Arctowski proposed the original notion of a wind chill factor, arguing that wind could be as damaging to human flesh as cold in harsh climates.

The South Shetland Islands are IOTA AN-010.

Arctowski Station (source)

Penguins n front of Arctowski Station (source)

Whale bones at Arctowski. Photographer T. Janecki (source)

Winter at Arctowski. Photographer T. Janecki (source)

Arctowski Station. Photographer T. Janecki (source)

eQSL to PA7MDJ from HF0ARC

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_Arctowski_Polish_Antarctic_Station
http://www.arctowski.pl/ 
http://www.waponline.it/hfoarc-henryk-arctowski-station-wap-pol-o1-on-air/
http://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/hf0-is-not-only-shetland-island-any-more.522100/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_Arctowski
https://dx-world.net/hf0arc-south-shetland-islands/

RRS James Clark Ross / British Antarctic Survey

Last edited: 15.08.2017

The Royal Research Ship James Clark Ross at Vernadsky Base, Antarctica. (source)

This is the RRS James Clark Ross, a research and supply vessel operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The Radio Officer of the JCR is amateur radio operator Mike Gloistein GM0HCQ. The ship mostly can be found in Antarctic waters, doing research cruises and supplying the bases of the British Antarctic Survey. But during the Austral winter (i.e. summer in the northern hemisphere), the ship turns its bow to the North, and also does research cruises in the Arctic.

Mike regularly is active from the ship as GM0HCQ/MM, mainly in CW but sometimes also in digital modes. In the autumn of 2014, then still with my novice callsign, I managed to work Mike aboard the JCR on 20m in PSK31 when it was close to the Azores and heading south for the Antarctic. It resulted in the wonderful QSL card shown below.

QSL card for PD7MDJ from the RRS James Clark Ross.

During the Arctic cruise this year, Mike also had a WSPR receiver running, 24/7 and with spots being uploaded real-time to wsprnet.org with the reporter callsign GM0HCQ/MM. But only on 30m, which made reception of my WSPR beacons sent with the QRP Labs Ultimate3S (see also my blog about the U3S kit here) impossible. With the U3S I'm only active on 20 and 40m with a HyEndFed 10/20/40 wire antenna. I am active on 30m with the HyEndFed in other modes and with other transceivers, but then I'll let the transceiver's internal antenna tuner make a match (with my transceiver's internal tuner I actually get the HyEndFed 10/20/40 tuned on all HF bands except 80 and 160m). But for the U3S I don't have any kind of tuner. And besides, I also didn't have a 30m Low Pass Filter for the U3S.

Then a couple of weeks ago at the QRP Labs booth at HAM RADIO 2017 in Friedrichshafen I bought the U3S 30m LPF kit. I also recently got my hands on a HF-P1 portable vertical antenna (which I'm planning on using during SOTA or WWFF activations). The HF-P1 can be used on all HF bands from 80 to 10m by adjusting the antenna's sliding loading coil. So I recently started experimenting with the U3S sending WSPR beacons on 30m through the HF-P1. It worked nicely, I was being heard all over Europe and crossed the Atlantic to North America a couple of times, but there were still no spots from GM0HCQ/MM. The HF-P1 being light-weight, self-supporting, and quickly assembled, and therefore very suitable for a portable setup, with its short length, loading coil, and minimalistic radials however never will be more than a very compromised antenna.
I therefore took up the plan to make a 30m Inverted-V dipole. I took apart my homebrew 15m dipole, to use its centre and end isolators, and cut new lengths of wire for the 30m band. Minus 5%, as that's what they say the length should be for an Inverted-V with a 90º apex angle. I thought the antenna would fit in my garden, but I was wrong. The restricted space forced the Inverted-V to take a funny, and not so perfect V shape (see the illustration below).

Crude sketch of the "Funny V" antenna as I like to call the newly installed Inverted-V for 30m. Would love to see its radiation pattern in for instance the EZNEC antenna software. If somebody could help me with that, please contact me.

After a few minor trimming cuts on both legs of the Inverted-V, I managed to get a perfect VSWR for it! I quickly connected the U3S and started beaconing on 30m. And lo and behold, the antenna works like a charm! Spots from all over Europe, many more and with much better SNR reports than with the HF-P1. At night I crossed the Atlantic many times to North America and also into Puerto Rico. And most importantly, this time my 200 mW beacons were finally also spotted aboard the James Clark Ross! The JCR had just finished this year's Arctic research cruise and was lying "all fast alongside Pier 22" in Tromsø in Arctic Norway before commencing its voyage back to England. I wanted to be spotted by the JCR before it would depart from the Arctic, and I'm glad I succeeded. I wish though that I had the U3S running on 30m sooner, to see if it would have reached the ship when it was still much further north at Svalbard. I could have used one of my other transceivers and a PC with WSPR software (the U3S is a stand-alone WSPR transmitter), but there's no fun in WSPRing at 5 watts, and I like the challenge of the U3S putting out only about 200 mW.

GM0HCQ/MM hearing PA7MDJ

Me and my radio history with Mike Gloistein and the RRS James Clark Ross actually goes back a long time. Before I obtained my radio amateur licence in 2012, in the 1980s and 1990s I was already a passionate shortwave listener, specializing in monitoring utility radio stations, and in those years one of my favorite frequencies to tune in to was 9.106 MHz. On this frequency around 2330 UTC I could regularly receive the SSB signals of the bases and ships of the British Antarctic Survey. The ships were the RRS John Biscoe and the RRS Bransfield, and later also the James Clark Ross which in 1991 replaced the John Biscoe. The ships every night would send SYNOP coded weather observations to one of the bases. I also managed to receive the JCR, and the reception report letter I sent to the Radio Officer of the JCR in 1995 resulted in a nice big and thick envelope arriving in my mailbox from the Falkland Islands! It contained amongst other things various brochures and information leaflets about the British Antarctic Survey and the JCR, my returned and filled-out PFC (prepared form card) QSL, and a personal letter from the JCR Radio Officer, being Mike Gloistein GM0HCQ!

PFC QSL from the RRS James Clark Ross for SWL reception of the ship with official radio traffic on 9.106 MHz in 1995.

PFC QSL from the British Antarctic Survey base Faraday for SWL reception of the base with official radio traffic on 9.106 MHz in 1992. The QSL was mailed to me directly from Faraday (see postmark). In 1996 Faraday Base was sold for a symbolic one pound to Ukraine and was renamed Vernadsky Base. This is one of my most prized SWL QSLs.

The following BAS bases and ships were active on 9.106 MHz:

• Bird Island (callsign ZBH22)
• Signy Island (callsign ZHF33)
• Faraday (callsign ZHF44)
• Rothera (callsign ZHF45)
• Halley (callsign VSD)
• RRS Johny Biscoe (callsign ZDLB)
• RRS Bransfield (callsign ZDLG)
• RRS James Clark Ross (callsign ZDLP)

For more information and photos of the JCR, check out Mike Gloistein's excellent website at www.gm0hcq.com!


Addendum 11.08.2017
Mike Gloistein informed me in an e-mail exchange that during this year's Arctic cruise whilst the RRS James Clark Ross was north of about 77º latitude, the WSPR spots weren't uploaded to the WSPR database real-time due to lack of communications satellite. All reception details of this period were stored and were uploaded manually once communication was restored.
Mike tells me that the WSPR setup aboard the JCR is using one of the commercial receivers which isn't really designed for such weak signals, but nevertheless seems to work fairly well.
The WSPR receiver will be switched off soon when the JCR is back in England and Mike leaves the ship around August 15th.
Mike also informs me that all being well the WSPR receiver will be up and running again from late October for six weeks whilst Mike is back on board the JCR for the first section of the Antarctic season.

I'm looking forward to see if I can get my WSPR signals aboard the JCR coming autumn while it's cruising the seas of the southern hemisphere. In the mean time, whilst the JCR is getting more south on the way back from its Arctic voyage, the reception of my WSPR beacons aboard the ship is getting more common (see screenshot below).

Addendum 15.08.2017
Gavin Taylor GM0GAV informed me that it was him who replied with the QSL from Faraday. Gavin was at Faraday as a comms man from 1990 to 1993. Gavin nowadays is also very active in SOTA, and upon checking my log, I found out that not too long ago I've worked him on 40m CW on the summit of SOTA GM/ES-044.


See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRS_James_Clark_Ross
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Antarctic_Survey
https://www.bas.ac.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernadsky_Research_Base
https://www.bas.ac.uk/about/about-bas/our-history/british-research-stations-and-refuges/faraday-f/