Jeffrey Donenfeld

The HAM Radio Shack – Talking To The World From KC4AAA At The South Pole

Jeffrey Donenfeld

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Buried deep within the B1 Emergency Pod at the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station is the emergency communications booth – inside, there is a complete set of backup comms equiptment, capable of operating completely independently from the rest of the station in the event of a catastrophic loss. In addition to backup gear, there is also the primary HAM radio set. The HAM radio, or HF radio, is used openly to talk with stations around the world. This season, it was operated by Boyd Brown, a seasoned polie. During a few Sunday mornings, I had the opportunity to sit in the shack with Boyd and talk on the radio with people from around the world, as well as all over Antarctica. Notably, I had a good conversation with the radio operator at Antarctica’s Palmer Station.

The South Pole Station’s callsign is KC4AAA, and mostly transmits on the 20 meter band at 14.243MHz. Here’s Boyd in the shack:

2013-02-03 Ham Shack - DSC06762-2000-90

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4 responses to “The HAM Radio Shack – Talking To The World From KC4AAA At The South Pole”

  1. The HAM Radio Shack – Talking To The World From KC4AAA At The South Pole « KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

    […] See on jeffreydonenfeld.dream.press […]

  2. Living and Working at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica, Summer 2012-2013 | Jeffrey Donenfeld

    […] HAM Radio Shack […]

  3. Martin

    Hello to all at KC4AAA trust that your all fine and that everything is ok in Antarctica
    my name is Martin Call Sign M1ANW QTH CHESTERFIELD DERBYSHIRE ENGLAND,, on the weekend of the 10th/11th of August 2013 M0OCT. ARS are holding a HF weekend under the special event call sign of
    GB4HFW. ALL MODES SSB FM IRLP ETC BANDS USING :- HF VHF UHF OUR LOCAL 70 CMS IRLP REPEATER GB3EE CHESTERFIELD NODE NUMBER 5046 we will be monitoring over this weekend as mentioned and we look forward to your call it would be really nice to have a call from Antarctica we also will send you our E qsl card our station wil be operational from 09:00 hrs 10th august throughout the weekend ie 24 hrs so please listen out for us if at all possible wishing you all the very best 73s Martin M1ANW ( SEE OUR WEB SITE m0oct.ars )

  4. Jim Sanders

    Very interesting site and pics!!
    The Music room looks like alot of fun, I think I see a Blues Deluxe front and center, I have one just like it, nice!

    I’d love to connect up my local repeater IRLP node and allow a few locals, or even some of my ham students in Southern California the opportunity to talk to the station Ham radio operators.
    I need to review the 3rd party traffic agreements I guess. :-)
    One of these days for sure.
    73 de Jim AG6IF

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