W.A.P. Worldwide Antarctic Program
Some clips and photographs of a trip to South Georgia Island, Sub-Antarctic areas, in January, 2014 with the Oceanside Expeditions ship Plancius
(Click on the gif aside to see a 29′ videoclip)
Stops at Elsehul Bay, Rosita Harbour (WAP GBR-NEW), Stromness Whaling Station (WAP GBR-NEW), Grytviken (WAP GBR-29), Fortuna Bay, Jason Harbour, Gold Harbour and Cooper Bay.
Thanks and credit to: Jack Salen
More than 26,000 years ago, sea level was much lower than it is today partly because the ice sheets that jut out from the continent of Antarctica were enormous and covered by grounded ice — ice that was fully attached to the seafloor. The ice sheets were as large as they could get and at the time, sea level was much lower because a lot of ice was sequestered on the continent. As the planet warmed, the ice sheets melted and contracted, and sea level began to rise.
LSU Department of Geology & Geophysics Associate Professor Phil Bart and his students have discovered new information that illuminates how and when this global phenomenon occurred. Their research recently published in Nature’s Scientific Reports may change today’s sea level rise predictions as Earth and its icy continent continues to warm…
Read more at: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-09/lsu-rag092518.php
Casey Station (WAP AUS-Ø2) is significant as a transport hub for the Australian Antarctic Program, with the introduction of intercontinental jet flights for scientists and operational staff from Hobart to the Wilkins Ice Runway (WAP AUS-NEW), 65 kilometres (40 mi) inland from Casey Station. The inaugural landing of the AAD‘s Airbus A319 aircraft was on the evening of December 9th, 2007.
A video of Wilkins runway is available by clicking on the gif aside:
In addition, there is an appendix of the main Casey Base (WAP AUS-Ø2); that is Casey Station Skyway, just a smaller airstrip for aircraft such as Twin Otters and the Baslers. It is located at 66° 17’ 17” South, 110° 45’ 27” East, 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) to the East of Casey Base, and opened on 30 December 2004.
If you don’t know anyone residing or working in those remote corners of the world you can still receive covers from them. Here’s how I do it:
Put your cover and the request letter in a larger envelope and mail it to the base or administrative organization.
Expect your mail to take a long time to come back to you. Some covers could take well over a year to come back, and sometimes, they don’t come back at all. Be patient. It helps to know the shipping schedules so you can get your covers to the bases with plenty of time for them to be back on a boat (or plane) and back to you. If your covers arrive on the last boat of the season they might sit until next season for a return trip.
Remember that these bases are in the Southern Hemisphere: summer in the North when it’s winter in the South. During their winter months, access to most of these bases is nearly impossible so in most cases, mail will only be delivered during their summer.
Sometimes it is possible to buy some old and interesting stamped envelopes on the internet market but for sure, those addressed directly to you, as collector, have for yourself a better value.
Learn more at:
http://stamps.mybalconyjungle.com/antarctic_covers/antarctic_covers.html
WAP Meeting nr. 15th ; another great goal for the Antarctic Hams and followers!
Organized by ARI Mondovì since its launching on 2003, WAP Meeting continue with no interruptions. WAPwebsite (thanks in particular to Floyd KK3Q) is giving the visitors (Hams, chasers, students) a chance to know more about the Icy Continet and the HF communication with people involved down there in scientific missions.
39 years of continuous work is a real great commitment .. perhaps some younger Hams can come on to give us the change!
This year, theme of the Meeting, was “ Antarctic passion and WAP Directory” ; just one click to enter almost every corner of the Antarctic, a great job provided by WAP website, but also a regret to consider that the new computerized digital systems of communication are partly supplanting SSB & CW that was a most customary habit for more than 70 years and now, slowing down years after years! Ham Radio seems to have ceased, with the exceptions of Russia, Japan, USA, Australia, Germany end few other Cuntries that are almost still active every Antarctic Summer Season.
In the future it will be probably hard to record new calls and new sites by Hams operating from Antarctica, simply because other communication systems are supplanting HF contacts between amateur radio operators, rather than propagation studies and Radio experiments,
Presentation has been done by I1HYW with the help of Betty IK1QFM and Max IK1GPG (see pic aside) in front of an audience of about hundred people, between authorities and Hams coming from different parts of Italy and few European Countries.
Many Antarctic Research Stations, support satellite field camps which are, in general, seasonal camps. The type of field camp 
can vary; some are permanent structures used during the annual Antarctic summer, whereas others are little more than tents used to support short term activities. Field camps are used for many things, from logistics (Sky Blu, WAP GBR-NEW) to dedicated scientific research such as WAIS Divide Field Camp, WAP USA-34 located at 79° 28′ 03″ South, 112° 05′ 11″ West.
WAIS DIVIDE is the ice flow divide on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) which is a linear boundary that separates the region where the ice flows to the Ross Sea, from the region where the ice flows to the Weddel Sea. It is similar to a continental hydrographic divide.
The site preparation for this Field Camp, started in the 2005/2006 season with the construction of the skiway, and a steel arch shelter for drilling and core processing. Camp logistics was provided by Raytheon Polar Service Company and the air transport by the New York Air national Guard using LC-130 aircraft.
The deep coring started in the 2006/2007 season using the Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) drill developed and operated by the Ice Drilling Design and Operations group at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The coring was stopped in December 2011 at a depth of 3,405 m, which is ~ 50 m above the bottom of the ice sheet. The last 50 m of ice was left in place to provide a barrier between the borehole and the pristine aqueous basal environment. The ice at the bottom of the hole fell as snow 67,748 years ago. In the 2012-2013 season additional core was collected in zones of high scientific interest.
The only Ham radio activity so far, from this location was made by Steve Polishinski WB9YSD who did sign KC4/WB9YSD. There is a very interesting web page http://www.wb9ysd.org/ where Steve explains the operation and the job at WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet) field camp. After his operation on January 2010, WAP did issue a new reference number as WAP USA-34.
So far QSLs have not been issued and the Antarctic chasers are still waiting.
We take the opportunity to send Steve a prayer … the saying goes, “the final courtesy of a QSO is the QSL card”.
Carsten Borchgrevink was a Anglo-Norwegian explorer, best known for being one of the first explorers of Antarctica; he 
began his exploring career in 1894 by joining a Norwegian whaling expedition, during which he became one of the first persons to set foot on the Antarctic mainland. The first buildings erected by Carsten Borchgrevink at Cape Adare were prefabricated of pine by the Norwegian factory Strømmen Trævarefabrikk. These huts are still standing, and the site is recognized internationally as a significant historic site.
Members of the Northern Party of Scott TerraNova Expedition overwintered at Cape Adare in 1911 and 1912. They erected one hut, which has fallen into ruin today.
The remains of Borchgrevink’s two huts, as well as those of the Terra Nova Expedition’s hut, have also been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 22), following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. The grave of Nicolai Hanson has been similarly but separately designated (HSM 23).
Expedition’s accommodation hut remains at Cape Adare, under the care of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust which acts as guardian to this hut and to those of Scott and Shackleton elsewhere on the continent. 
The Borchgrevink hut was designated by the Trust as Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) No. 159 in 2002. In June 2005 the Trust (the highest level of protection available under the terms of the Treaty), adopted a management plan for its future maintenance and accessibility.
At the light of this evidence, Borchgrevink Huts (ASPA No.159 – HSM 22) located at Cape Adare, Victoria Land, East Antarctica, 71° 18’ 04” South, 170° 12’ 05” East, will be add to the WAP-WADA Directory, under NZL-NEW
What do you do if you’re a fast-growing city in the desert with lots of thirsty people and little freshwater reserves? Park an iceberg off the coast.
That’s one Dubai-based engineering firm’s plan to provide fresh drinking water to the city’s rapidly-expanding population.
The National Advisor Bureau (NABL), a private engineering firm, wants to schlep a glacial iceberg from Antarctica – weighing approximately 100 million tons – to Dubai, via an intermediate stop in either Perth, Australia, or Cape Town, South Africa.
If the iceberg doesn’t melt along the way, the firm will sell the water to Dubai’s government.
If we succeed with this project, it could solve one of the world’s biggest problems – Abdulla Alshehi, NABL’s founder told NBC News- So if we can show this is viable, it could ultimately help not only the UAE, but all humanity.
Reed more and watch a video at:
For 13 months after breaking away from the White Continent’s long peninsula, the trillion-tonne block did little more than shuffle back and forth on the spot.
But now its southern end has swung round almost 90 degrees, indicating the berg has been caught in ocean currents.
The approaching southern summer should only assist its anticipated slow drift northwards, experts say.
“After more than a year of moving to and from near its parent ice shelf, iceberg A-68, which calved from the Larsen C Ice Shelf on 12 july 2017, has finally escaped,” commented Prof. Adrian Luckman from Swamsea University, UK.
Until recently, the iceberg was hemmed in by dense sea-ice in the east and shallow waters in the north. Now, a strong foehn wind blowing eastwards off the ice shelf in early September has pushed the southerly end of the iceberg out into the Weddell Gyre. This persistent clockwise drift of ocean waters and floating sea-ice flowing north past the Larsen Ice Shelf has rotated A-68 out into the Weddell Sea.
“Here, it is much more free to begin moving away and be carried further north into warmer waters.”
Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute will lead one of the scientific cruises, using the Research Vessel Polarstern; the UK’s Scott Polar Research Institute will lead the other, run off the icebreaker SA Agulhas II.
Read more at: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45421315
In the Argentinean Base Belgrano II (WAP ARG-Ø6), in the Land of Coats, there is a cave carved in the ice. It is the most southern place of religious worship on the planet, only 800 miles from the South Pole. The Catholic Chapel of “Our Lady of the Snows” serves the base throughout the year. Unlike the other temples that appear in this entrance, the Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows is dug in the ice instead of being a building to use.
The chapel is accessed through a system of tunnels in the subsoil, built to facilitate the movement of the resident personnel and scientists that works at Belgrano II Research Station (WAP ARG-Ø6).
Pedro Sarli LU1JHF, sent a link where (in spanish language) you can read the history of Base Belgrano I since the fist inauguration on 18 January 1955 and see lots of pics of this fantastic ice carved chapel. After an activity of 25 years, the old base General Belgrano (WAP ARG-Ø5) was inactivated. In order to continue the scientific programs and maintain the Argentine presence in the area, on February 5, 1979, the Belgrano II Base was founded as a replacement.
Click on the link below and enjoy the history:
Pic here above shows the inside view of the ice carved Chapel; belows its the entrance!
TNX LU1JHF
As our readers know, WAP is collecting information and pictures to document what important is, for the people in Antarctica, to have a place to pray Lord, an holy place to free one’s spirit and thank Lord for his magnificence.
In the year 2003, WAP did propose to the italian authorities build a little Church at the Italian Base “Mario Zucchelli Station” at Terra Nova Bay… our proposal is still alive waiting the wall of bureaucracy to fall down!
Adam Campbell ZL4ASC says he will operate for 13 months at Scott Base (WAP NZL-Ø1) signing ZL5A. His schedule is to be at Scott Base on Ross Island, over the 2018-2019 Antarctic season. More info to follow.
Adam said: Please note I will be working on critical communications equipment and can only operate as an amateur in my spare time.
Adam has a website at: https://www.adamcampbell.co.nz/
In a recent mail, Adam wrote: Hi Gianni, I am hoping to contact a large number of stations whilst on the ice, yourself included.
I am very busy collecting equipment and training for my deployment, and once I have left NZ I will be able to focus more on my ham radio stuff. Thanks for your interest and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
TNX ZL4ASC/ZL5A
Just to remind the readers that New Zealand holds 3 WAP reference numbers in Antarctica for as many bases as listed on the WAP Directory:
WAP NZL-Ø1 Scott Base
WAP NZL-Ø2 Swan base
WAP NZL-Ø3 Worldpack Base (Greenpeace Station), plus about 21 New sites (WAP NZL-NEW) Field camps, Huts, Stations and Refuges.
On Ross Island, there is another brand New one (picture below): The Arrival Heights Laboratory (WAP NZL-NEW) which houses equipment for atmospheric 
experiments, low frequency radar and aurora studies for universities and other research groups.
Let’s hope Adam might have a chance to go up there and give the Antarctic hunters the chance to log this “New one” … let’s keep our finger crossed, let’s hope!!!
The first overwintering hut was erected in Antarctica at Cape Adare in 1899 by the British Antarctic Expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink.
It was a large wooden structure supplied as a kit for speed and ease of erection, it was the first time a building had been erected on Antarctica, perhaps surprisingly it still stands and so is the only remaining example of a surviving first building on any continent.
It set the pattern for Antarctic buildings for the next fifty years or so of wooden huts designed to be erected quickly during a short summer season that will at some time be interrupted by adverse weather conditions.
While the buildings were only needed for 2-3 years at most, they had to be very strong and sturdily placed to withstand the relentless onslaught of the elements.
Along with cold temperatures in Antarctica resulting in a slow rate of decomposition of the wood the huts were built from, this means that there are a number of huts that are still in existence today in pretty good condition, considering their age.
Shortly we’ll report about some new Huts not yet listed on WAP-WADA Directory; they will enter on WADA next release
TNX and credit to: www.coolantarctica.com
Read more about Huts in Antarctica at: https://www.coolantarctica.com/Travel/antarctica-huts-historic.php