Category - Blog
DP0GVN was logged this morning for my first contact with this particular German reasearch Station on Antarctica. Signals not too strong but working over the Long Path, 53 RST out and 51 RST in was all we could manage.
Situated on the Ekström Shelf Ice, Atka Bay, north-eastern Weddell Sea (Position: 70°40’S, 008°16’W, Neumayer Station III is the first research station to integrate research, operational and accommodation facilities in one building, situated on a platform above the snow surface, and connected to a garage in the snow.
Within a protective casing, the platform accommodates 100 containers with living quarters, a kitchen, a mess, a hospital, various laboratories, workshops, a radio operator room, sanitary facilities, the power supply station and a snow-melting plant. 
The garage underneath the platform contains storage, waste and fuel containers, as well as space for vehicles, ranging from Pistenbullies to motor sleds to a rotary snowplough.
Normally, nine people live and work at Neumayer Station during the Antarctic winter: A medical doctor who also acts as the head of the station, a meteorologist, an airchemist, two geophysicists, an engineer, an electrician, a radio operator/electronics engineer and a cook. During 2010, additional 2 construction workers stay at Neumayer the whole winter through.
Each team overwintering at the station stays there for 14 to 15 months. For nine months of that time, their only link to the outside world is by radio and internet. Photo’s courtesy Alfred Wegner Institute.
The HARAOA president and DX’Pedition leader Tommy VK2IR has just finished construction of a 40metre, 2 element Moxon antenna – yes that’s right a two element 40 metre beam is going on the ZL9HR DX’Pedition to Campbell Island (IOTA OC-037) for the activation between November 28th. and December 9th.
The element length is 15 ½ metres long! To see the construction of this monster simply search for ZL9HR on Youtube.
The fitting out of the four shipping containers to take all the equipment has also been finished and they are being packed. All of this is on schedule to be ready to be shipped out of Sydney in just a few days around the 15th. of September.
Please refer to the web site ZL9HR.COM for the full, up to date, information about this major DX’Pedition to the Great Southern Ocean.
Curiosity is on the move across Mars — but where is it going? The car-sized rover’s path after 29 Martian days on the surface is shown on the map.
Curiosity is still almost 300 meters from its first major destination, though, a meeting of different types of terrain called Glenelg and visible on the image right. It may take Curiosity two months or so to get to Glenelg as it stops to inspect interesting rocks or landscape features along the way.
The above image was taken about one week ago from high up by the HiRise camera onboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
GO2HQ Qsl Cards received from the printer yesterday.
Cards being processed and will be in the mail next week. Apologies for the delay which was caused with processing log before submission to the IARU Contest Adjudiucators.
The European PSK Club has the honour to invite the radio amateurs all over the world to participate in the CIS DX PSK Contest 2012. The objective of the contest is to establish as many QPSK63 contacts as possible between radio amateurs around the world and radio amateurs in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Everybody can work everybody for QSO and multiplier credit.
The CIS DX PSK Contest is held every year on the third weekend of September. This year it starts at 12:00 UTC on Saturday 15th September, 2012 and ends at 12:00 UTC on Sunday 16th September, 2012.
Important changes since this year: Since 2012 we only accept logs submitted through UA9QCQ web interface at
http://ua9qcq.com/contests/submit_log_eng.php
We don’t accept logs sent via e-mail any longer!
Complete rules can be found here. Good luck to all and see you in the contest!
This is the third and final instalment of reports of the London 2012 Olympic Games wirtten by Chris Colclough G1VDP. Please see the full report by using the link below. Thanks Chris……
Sadly we are coming to the end of the Paralympic games, and the Olympic games in London 2012. And to the end of what has been a memorable event here in the UK. It has shown that people from ordinary walks of life can achieve their goals and become winners at all levels.
There have been tears of joy, of pain, and of failure. Smiles and laughter. And every other emotion that a human can show. Photographs in the media of a proud parent looking on as their child has just won a medal, photos of the atheletes – both able bodied and paralympians – crossing the finish line with the smiles of the winner and anguish of the
loser, and one that as I have previously said will stand out for me of the british rower crossing the line and the sudden realisation of winning gold and saying to her partner “we just won the Olympics”. But every competitor, in my book, is a winner for qualifying and taking part. Heroes all.
Well done to all involved with the London 2012 Games and thanks to all of the Ham Operators who we have worked with MO0OXO, GO1VDP, MO0KYI & GO4RCG and for their kind words and flowers!
Scroll down this page for the previous two reports from Chirs and click link to see the full report from Chris which is help on our Club site of the StrumbleHead Amateur Radio Klub (S.H.A.R.K.).
NH8S qrv this morning for the first time on the Swains island DXpedition (IOTA OC-200). Very good signals 0800-1000+ so looks promising for the UK. Band conditions a little livlier too since the Solar Storms and poor K index over the last 6 days.
Swains Island has a total area of 460.9 acres (186.5 ha), of which 373 acres (150.8 ha) is land. The central lagoon accounts for the balance of 88 acres (35.8 ha). There is a small islet of 914 square yards (764 m2) in the eastern part of the lagoon.
The atoll is somewhat unusual, featuring an unbroken circle of land enclosing a freshwater lagoon cut off from the sea. Recent U.S. Coast Guard visitors to Swains described its lagoon as “brackish” and a source for the plentiful numbers of mosquitoes which plague the island. In April 2007, a member of an amateur radio expedition confirmed that the lagoon water was fit only for bathing and washing, and that fresh water seemed to be in rather short supply on the island at the time. According to a United States Department of the Interior description of Swains Island, drinking water on Swains is derived entirely from rainfall collected in two large mahogany tanks near the island’s copra shed.
Swains Island has a population of 37 Tokelauans, who harvest the island’s coconuts.
There was the usual parade of countries, and the Olympic flame descended into the arena carried by a Royal Marine, who had lost his legs in a conflict, from the 100ft top of one of the buildings down a Zip Wire (a wire between 2 points with a harness or other device attached 
allowing the person to slide – also known as a death slide) and then handed over to one of the first Paralympian medal winners to light the cauldron. Fantastic. And once more I think Great Britten showed how we can put on a party and welcome the visitors and atheletes to the games.
And as we are a Amateur Radio club we must also mention Louise
Simpson, M3WSQ, who is one of the atheletes at the games, click here for more information. We wish her and the GB Team all the best and good luck in all their sports
Don’t forget that during this period we will still be on the air and using our special calls, MO0OXO and GO1VDP, on all modes. Sadly Charles has had a computer failure and has been off air for the past few weeks but he is getting back on this weekend and will be racking up the contacts. Also look out for Chris on JT65A on the HF bands. He has just 
got the software and his radio working so will be using this mode over the weekend to give people a chance of getting the GO1 prefix in their logs.
And remember to support the atheletes now competing in the Paralympic Games, London 2012.
