HAM Radio KC4AAA

A couple weeks ago, we had a HAM radio exam at the South Pole Station. Six of us took the examination to either upgrade or get new HAM licenses. The HAM radio exam is closely regulated by the ARRL. It requires three moderators, and we had to receive special permission from the ARRL to host the exam and set up a special video conference link to allow for more moderators. 

Overall, the following licenses were issued: 4 Technician, 3 General, 3 Extra (some people took multiple tests). This marks the first time in history than and Extra license was granted in antarctica. It was also only the third time in history the ARRL exam was done remotely (the second time at the south pole). There was even an article about it here. 

Because the south pole is so far way from anywhere else in the world, many HAMs around the world try to contact it to add to their list of contacts, so in good propagation there can be a "pile-up" of people waiting to contact the south pole. If you make a contact with the South Pole Station, you are granted a QSL contact card like the one shown below. 

The HAM radio shack is located on the station and also serves an an emergency communications room. We've started making some contacts so far, but reception is still poor because the sun is down. When the sun comes up in a bit over a month, and the couple weeks leading up to sunrise, we will have better reception and be using the equipment more often.

South Pole Station has some high quality radio equipment, including a very expensive Alpha 87A Linear Amplifier, without which we would not be able to contact the outside world (via radio). We have four antenna options: 6 element 20m pointed at the US, 3 element 40m beam pointed at the US, multielement 10-15-20m beam pointed at Europe, and 4 element 17m beam pointed at the US. Most of the time we operate on the 20 or 40 meter beams pointed at the US, and generally reception is better on those wavelengths. 

Other contacts:

• Check out this interesting article on stations around the continent preparing for opening
• Yes, hair cuts are available on station from one of the winter-overs who has skills with scissors
• When aurora are active propagation improves but it is sporadic and fluctuates because of the transient nature of the aurora
• The station pod where the ham shack is located also doubles as the emergency quarters, where people live if the rest of the station manages to blow up / burn down. 

Next Week in Pole: Aliens