On Mid December a group of Italian Researchers will be on the way to Concordia Station. Two of them have Ham License: Marco IK5SQX will stop for a while at Cape Prud’Homme (pic aside) before joining a traverse to Concordia while Nicola IZ7ZNZ will fly to Concordia via MZS (WAP ITA-Ø1)
The plan for Marco IK5SQX (aka DK5SQX) preview a departure from Hobart (Tasmania) on December 30th 2019 aboard the new French icebreaker L’Astrolabe, heading Dumont D’Urville (WAP FRA-Ø1) where they should arrive about January 5th 2020.
Weather permitting, Marco will move almost immediately to Cape Prud’Homme (WAP MNB-NEW) and fromm there, to Concordia (WAP MNB-Ø3), so the time to stay at Cape Prud’Homme Station is influenced by the weather and in any case limited, but Marco will look for a chance to operate from there and activate this brand new Antarctic site.
Indicatively they should be active from Concordia a few days after Jan. 5th but obviously dates are uncertain as subjected by several factors.
Ham radio activity is related to the professional work that await our Italian researchers, which evidently takes priority over everything else.
Marco IK5SQX will leave Concordia on Febr. 3rd , that means a time window of a month to operate from Concordia Station (WAP MNB-Ø3) and if things go as they hope, they should be able to dedicate enough time to the radio mostly 20 mts SSB; Nicola IZ7ZNZ will stay little longer. Nothing sure about the callsign they are going to use from there, maybe IAØDC … let’s keep our finger crossed.
WAP is in permanent contact with Marco, so any information will be spread out real time on the Cluster and on the Antarctica list.
Of course the Antarctic Ham radio Community wish all the best to Marco IK5SQX and Nicola IZ7ZNZ to their 1st Antarctic Adventure; being scientists and researcher in the Icy Continent is a great commitment and we’re sure they will succeed!
To see little more about Cape Prud’Homme, check: https://www.facebook.com/527023147703248/videos/421768748609244/