Dr. Eddy De Busschere is the Secretary of the Belgian Polar Exploration Society (BPES).

For many years, Belgian and Dutch Antarctic teams carried mail from collectors during the involvement of the Antarctic programs  often in cooperation with other nations. The scientists and expeditioners  did their utmost to take care of the philatelic mails and BPES, through Eddy, has done  great efforts to  set and forward  boxes of self addressed envelopes  to the various Bases and Camps as well to polar ships starting their Antarctic campaigns in order to have the precious covers with Base leader’s signature mailed in the polar regions  or as near as possible. If many of the Antarctic philatelic collectors (including myself) have some or many of these rare envelopes,  have to thank Eddy and BPES for the service!

Recently I have received a mail from Eddy. He states: «Polar philately is nearly not existing this season because of Corona. I am offering a collection of stamps and covers related to Marconi. May be one of your Radio amateur friends is interested?  Exchange is also possible against Antarctic QSL cards».

In addition to this, Eddy sent a scan of the old QSL card  of OR4OR Gene (Jean Hooghewys). That is really a rare one! Eddy is still looking to have one of this card for his collection.

He said:  « Jean Hooghewys OR4OR is no longer with us and I cannot contact his family to find out if any cards are left. It is the only card I am still missing from the Belgian Antarctic base 1957-1967. I think I have all the others. The only person that has such a card is Ghis Penny (ON5NT). May be there is someone able to offer me such a card. I keep my fingers crossed.

Now, if someone could be interested in exchanging Antarctic QSL cards with  Marconi’s stamps and covers (see some in pics attached) or having a card of OR4OR can eventually write to me:

Eddy De Busschere

Kriekenstraat 5

BE-8310 Assebroek, BELGIUM – Belgique

email: pole@telenet.be

Dr. Eddy De Busschere  sent greetings to the passionate collectors and Polar lovers and  hopes Polar Philately and Ham Radio activity from Antarctica will soon resume.

TNX Eddy De Busschere @ BPES

“The 26th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition left for the Vernadsky Research Base (WAP UKR-Ø1) on March 24. Researchers will spend approximately 13 months in Antarctica,” the National Antarctic Science Center press office informs.

Bohdan Havryliuk, a geophysicist from Kharkiv, is the team’s leader. This is the ninth annual expedition for him. Before that, the maximum number of winters spent at the base by one person had not exceeded eight. Bohdan is also the oldest team member and he will celebrate his 49th birthday at the station.

In total, the expedition includes 12 participants: 7 scientists, a doctor, a cook, a diesel engineer, a system mechanic and a system administrator. Of these, 11 men and one woman, a biologist Oksana Savenko, is going to the Base for the second time. This is also a record as no other woman had wintered twice before.

Polar explorers will study the climate, living organisms, the structure of glaciers, the formation of precipitation and monitor the level of ozone in the air. The team also plans to explore the “languages” and “dialects” of whales, recorded using hydrophones.

Thanks and credit to: http://kharkivobserver.com/kharkiv-geophysicist-leads-ukrainian-expedition-to-antarctica/

With regret, Ham radio community worldwide chasing DX and collect QSLs from Antarctic Bases, will miss to contact Vernadsky Station  WAP UKR-Ø1 on HF! As far as we know, no Ham radio operators are this year among the Team!

The Atmospheric Research Observatory (ARO) at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (WAP USA-21)  is a National Science Foundation (NSF) facility located near the geographic South Pole. The NSF has allocated ARO to a long-term research program conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Monitoring Division (NOAA/OAR/ESRL/GMD).

ARO is located approximately four hundred meters grid east-northeast of the main station, physically separated and on the edge of a designated area called the Clean Air Sector. Due to local meteorology, winds at South Pole are very consistent, hence the designation of the Clean Air Sector. By positioning on the edge of this sector, ARO remains upwind of the local pollution inherent around the daily industrial operations of Amundsen-Scott Station. This clean upwind air is representative of the true mixed background atmosphere over Antarctica, and by sampling this air, ARO can establish an accurate long-term climate record of the continent. The mission of ARO is to measure long-term trends of important trace gases, aerosols, and solar radiation and to investigate the influence of these gases and aerosols on the Earth’s climate.

Thanks and credit to NOAA

Read more at: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/observatory.html

Matienzo Base  64° 50’ South, 60° 07’ West (Base Aérea Teniente Benjamín Matienzo)  WAP ARG-Ø1 is one of the Argentine Antarctic Base and scientific research Stations named after Lieutenant Benjamin Matienzo, an Argentine aviation pioneer. The Base is located in Larsen Nunatak one of the Foca Nunataks, in Graham land , Antarctic Peninsula. Matienzo is one of 13 research bases in Antarctica operated by Argentina.

From 1961 to 1985 it served as a permanent base; since then it is open during the summer season only. The Ham Radio Callsign was LU1ZAB

WAP-WADA Antarctic Directory,  lists almost all of the Bases,  Camps, Huts and Refuges known in Antarctica and on the Peri-Antarctic regions.

WAP-WACA Directory lists about 4,500 callsigns used in Antarctica since 1945.

TENIENTE MATIENZO AIR BASE – Antarctic Campaign 1970/71

Reported by Jorge Canova

After the kitchen, the Radio Station was our second meeting place. While in the first one we met to fraternize, make comments, tell jokes and have a few bitter ones enjoying the occurrences of our cook, the Radio Station was the obligatory point of attendance to listen and find out the latest news and communicate through the networks established to make official links and also to get in touch with our loved ones.

Who were neophytes in this discipline and specialty, did learn the secrets and tricks that the responsible  of the Radio room used to secure the connections fighting with the noises of the ether and band openings according to the time of the day, the distances between correspondents and the geographical location of the chasers and Dxers, taking advantage of the technical virtuosity of those, that among the Team  were operating  radio equipments,  we could hopefully listen to some Argentine and foreign radio stations, thus learning about the news of the day and how the world worked.

Thanks Jorge Canova

In the 80s,  thanks to these great guys, we could work almost all the  Argentine Antarctic Station  on HF bands, then decades after decades  with the  advent of new technologies such as satellite,  internet and digimodes, the emotion of a DX contact in SSB  and CW with Antarctica,  has became a rare event …

Six Bulgarian polar explorers:  Yordan Todorov, Petar Sapundzhiev, Emil Ivanov, Nikolay Nikolov, Kamen Nedkov and the doctor Dr. Atanas Peltekov, after about a month of delay, on April 14 2021,  left the Antarctic region and, by  a Uruguayan military plane arrived in the southernmost Chilean city of Punta Arenas.

The adventure of the 29^th Bulgarian  Antarctic Expedition started late due to a sequence of facts: The Spanish ship Esperides, which was scheduled to arrive at Livingston Island, did not sail from Spain at all, due to cases of Covid-19 of some of the crew. After twenty days of strict quarantine in Punta Arenas (each of the six Bulgarian guys was alone in a hotel room with food delivered to the door), the other Spanish ship, the Sarmiento de Gamboa, carried the group before the closure of the Spanish Base Juan Carlos I (WAP ESP-Ø1). The Chilean icebreaker Aquilez, which was scheduled to carry the Bulgarians from Livingstone Island at the end of March, was also quarantined due to Covid testing positive for some of the crew.

At the end of the season, before the onset of polar winter, there were practically no ships in the area of the South Shetland Islands. Prof. Pimpirev (doyen of the Bulgarian Antarctic Program) made contact with the Chilean Antarctic Institute, the polar ship Lautaro  went to take the group, threatened them with hibernation, without supplies of food and fuel, to the largest island in the area, King George, where there are several year-round bases and an airport. “Despite logistical problems, the expedition was able to complete all planned activities. Damage to facilities and buildings on the base caused by high winds during the time when no one was on the base was repaired and it was conserved for the coming winter. The site was prepared for the construction of the new laboratory block, a special hangar was built for the incinerator, which burns the waste ecologically, and all the data were taken from the year-round scientific equipment, which records climatic, seismic, mareographic and glaciological events, in the area when the base is not inhabited”  said Prof. Dr. Hristo Pimpirev, head of all Bulgarian polar expeditions and director of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute.

In Punta Arenas the  polar explorers have not been under quarantine, their return to Bulgaria is expected on April 19.

Prof. Hristo Pimpirev,  together with Javier Cacho, a Spanish scientist physicist , recently received the “Unifier of Cultures” award in the eighth “Worlds and Colors” contest, organized by the Association of Spanish speaking Journalists in Bulgaria. (pic to the left)

Javier Cacho is one of the first researchers of the ozone hole. He was the base commander of the Spanish polar Station “Juan Carlos I” on Livingston island. He is also a famous writer and several of his Antarctica books have been translated into Bulgarian. The “Worlds and Colours” awards are given to journalists, artists and intellectuals for their overall contribution to the rapprochement between the cultures of Bulgaria and the Spanish-speaking world. Due to the epidemiological situation, the award will be held as an online event until the end of April.

Text taken from the original article   at: https://bnr.bg/hristobotev/post/101453437

TNX Dr. Volker Strecke DL8JDX

Ale Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions manage several sites in Antarctica. One of those, is Union Glacier Camp at 79˚46’South,  82˚52’West, located in Ellsworth Land in Antarctica.

The camp is the only private seasonally occupied camp which sites in the Heritage Range, below the Ellsworth Mountains, on the broad expanse of Union Glacier, that gives the camp its name.

Union Glacier Camp is only accessible by air and lies on the broad expanse of Union Glacier in the Southern Ellsworth Mountains.

Union Glacier Camp is the only facility of its kind in Antarctica. Full-service private camp operates during the Antarctic summer (November through January) and is dismantled at the end of each season. The camp does not only provides accommodations to guests on guided experiences, but also serves as a logistics hub, supporting private expeditions and National Antarctic Programs.

Find more at: https://antarctic-logistics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Compress_Union_Glacier_Camp-1-compressed.pdf

Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions LLC (ALE) offers air transportation, logistic support, and guided experiences for those venturing to the interior of Antarctica. In 1985, our predecessor, Adventure Network International (ANI), pioneered private flights to Antarctica for an ascent of Mount Vinson. More than 30 years later, ALE remain the most experienced private operator on the continent with an impeccable safety record, a strong environmental ethic, and a desire to share the white continent with other passionate explorers.

WAP and Radio amateurs WW,  hope that some day  an HF Radio room and antennas could be set down there, to give more opportunities to the eventual HAMs wishing to travel in this fantastic and spectacular site!

For now,  Union Glacier Camp has been add to the WAP-WADA Directory and referred as  (WAP MNB-NEW)

A research team led by Prof. Shang Zhaohui from National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) has proved that Dome A (short for Dome Argus)  in Antarctica is the best site for optical astronomical observation on Earth.

Seeing reflects the atmospheric turbulence that makes stars twinkle or smears star images observed by telescopes. At an observatory with good seeing, weak turbulence results in a smaller seeing value and sharper images. This is especially good for viewing faint objects. A small-aperture telescope at such a site can compete with a larger one at other sites.

Due to the geographic and atmospheric properties at Dome A, atmosphere turbulence usually resides in the near-ground, shallow boundary layer, above which is the very stable free atmosphere with superb seeing.

Read more at: https://scitechdaily.com/dome-a-in-antarctica-is-the-best-site-for-optical-astronomical-observation-on-earth/

and also:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100324134431/http://mcba11.phys.unsw.edu.au/~plato/plato.html

Dome A nearest Base is the Chinese. Kunlun Station located at 80° 25’ 01”South, 77° 06’ 58” East (WAP CHN-NEW), the only Base there around.

Dome A (aka Dome Argus) 80°22′ South,  77°22′ East is the highest place on the polar ice cap in East Antarctica, with an altitude of 4093. It is also one of the least-known places on the globe. An automatic weather station provides data from this remote site,  was set up over there, as part of an Australian-Chinese collaboration in January 2005. No ground-based scientific investigation had been made at this site before the arrival of the Chinese over-snow traverse team.

TNX and credit to: https://www.antarctica.gov.au/antarctic-operations/stations/other-locations/dome-a/

Dome A will be add to the WAP-WADA Directory under Multinational Base as WAP MNB-NEW

DT8A, KING SEJONG Antarctic Scientific Base (WAP KOR-Ø1)

In a recent mail (April 2 2021) Lee Sang Hon (DS4MNJ) informs that antenna for 80m~10m is installed and now he is ready for FT8 and CW. SSB is possible but it is only for contest or request.

Several spots have been put on the Cluster, so it’s a good time to stay tuned! Lee  has promised to send WAP some pictures and stories.

The King Sejong Station (WAP KOR-Ø1) was established and inaugurated on King George Island in February 1988.

QSL for DT8A is via DS5TOS

TNX DS4MNJ/DT8A

Research vessel Polarstern leaves the Falkland Islands.

The return journey of  R/V Polarstern from Stanley on the Falkland Islands to the home port of Bremerhaven begins last, Friday, April 2,
2021. The German research icebreaker is expected to arrive there on April 29th.
The current Polarstern voyage has the official abbreviation PS 125. On the Falkland Islands there has been an extensive change of crew and scientists. In order to achieve a safe exchange with regard to the pandemic situation, all new crew members from Germany as well as the representative of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar Research (AW) and two employees of the German Weather Service (DWD) were previously in a two-week quarantine.
Among them is Felix, DL5XL, who has been very active on the bands in the past few months under DP0GNV from the Neumayer III Research Station (WAP DEU-Ø8)  and under DP0POL/MM from on board the Polarstern. Together with Theresa, DC1TH, he made it possible for many radio amateurs to have very special radio contact via QO-100 or on shortwave in his limited free time; we reported several times.
Addendum: Polarstern started its voyage to Europe on Friday evening at 1849 UTC. On the night of April 3, DP0POL/MM was already active again in the 40 m band in CW. Radio amateur on board is Andreas, DL3LRM.
Read more at: https://www.funkamateur.de/nachrichtendetails/items/PS125.html
TNX Info AWI and DL1AX