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:
