Sad news, received yesterday from Ghis ON5NT.
Roger Vanmarcke, ON4TX (ex-OR4TX Antarctica) died of Covid on April 2nd . He was 82.
Roger did operate OR4TX from the Belgian King Baudouin Antarctic station (WAP BEL-Ø1) in 1960.
Ghis ON5NT thinks that Roger’s XYL also died a few days later of Covid.
Several pictures of Roger Vanmarcke can be found at: www.on5jv.com
Pic aside shows Roger ON4TX/OR4TX to the left with ON5NT Ghis
Today, in this sad circumstance, WAP and the Ham community express Roger’s family and friends the most deepest sympathy .
May the earth be light to you Roger.
Up there in the heaven we have another special person that we will carry in our memories.
King Baudouin Base Station (1960-1961) The King Baudouin Base in Antarctica is located approximately at 70 ° 25 ’53 “South and 24 ° 18′ 38” East. Roger ON4TX participated in 1960 (wintering 1960-1961) to the Belgian scientific expedition as electronics engineer and also as a radio operator. The meteorologist ON4TZ dealing more particularly with atmospheric electricity, as well as Roger. ON4KR
Regarding radio equipment, they were: Two Rhombic antennas, one large diamond-shaped 110m side 27m above the ground, while the other Rhombic was used for reception and was located 4 mts from the ground with which duplex with Belgium was commonly done. The transmitter was a Marconi delivering 1Kw equipped with Xtal frequencies and a VFO, also used on the amateur bands. As receivers for AM and CW traffic they used two Collins 51J4 equipped with the famous mechanical filters The 2 reserve receivers were RCA AR88 sometimes used for diversity reception with the two Rhombic antennas, but this on an experimental basis.