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Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 1994-95: VUWAE 39

12. Radio Communications

12. Radio Communications

We were in the fortunate position to have an experienced radio technician as part of the team (Tony Haver). Regretfully, we believe that there are a number of problems with the current Communications set-up.

We were issued with two older Codan radios from Scott Base, one of which worked well, the other having a deficiency in power output We had been expected to be issued with the new Codan X2 radios but apparently these were unavailable. As far as we could see, at least one X2 spent our field time sitting in a broken down Hagglund. Whilst we managed good communications with the radios we had (and this is not a result of the radios alone), we had difficulty understanding why one new radio could not have been made available to the only deep field party this season.

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Our HF radios were tested approximately 15 km from Scott Base toward "Room With a View". Testing of radio equipment any closer to Scott Base is not a true test of the system. As testimony to this, we called the radio room from the hanger by transmitting from our lower power radio as it was in its box, no aerials attached. The perfect communications resulting from this indicate the importance of taking HF radio gear away from base. We would consider the absolute minimum distance for such a test as 5 km from Scott Base.

For safety reasons whilst travelling on glaciers, we had also requested the use of a HF vertical whip aerial and were on the understanding that one would be available (otherwise we would have brought our own). Contrary to the experience of our technician, we were informed that such a whip aerial would not work and consequently we were not even given the chance to trial the set-up. We consider a system that avoids unwinding the conventional dipole aerial in a crevassed area a definite necessity from a safety perspective, and believe that developing a system for adaptation to skidoos something that NZAP should seriously consider.

Batteries supplied with the radios whilst serving their purpose for brief radio conversation, were not adequate for the extended conversation periods that we found necessary. However, we acquired a spare 12V skidoo battery to overcome this problem. We believe that the batteries supplied in the green wooden boxes should be modified slightly to include, as all our own batteries did, a fuse. Given that these batteries are charged from unregulated solar panels, a simple short or overload could result in a fire. Fusing the batteries is a cheap and simple safety precaution.

We did not use the issued NZAP dipole aerials and brought our own, along with 3m length poles upon which to mount the aerials. The raising of the aerials above the ground in combination with the use of an aerial tuning unit was likely the major factor contributing to our good communications with Scott Base. These communications were interrupted only by failures at Scott Base and rarely by unfavourable atmospheric conditions.

We found that the radios had no settings to American frequencies currently in use. This leaves a field party in dire straits should a problem occur at a time when Scott Base is off line. We experienced such a time when Scott Base was off line and the only way we could communicate was through the gratefulness of South Pole who tuned off their standard frequency (now 8998 MHz) to talk to us on 8997 MHz. We believe that it is essential for NZAP to look at getting some American frequencies set on the radios immediately, especially the modification of the 8997 MHz band to the 8998 MHz band.

As mentioned above communications with Scott Base were excellent We also found that we were frequently relaying for other field parties closer to Scott Base than ourselves. One particular party experienced a fault with their Compak radio and were unable to contact Scott Base with the back-up. It was fortunate that we were listening at the time, and also fortunate that we were delayed from the page 14 field, otherwise they could have been in the field with no means of communication for a period of about a week.

We found the radio sked timing to be suitably flexible. Radio operators were friendly and helpful. Weather reports were provided on request and messages were passed to and from New Zealand efficiently. Information on flights and resupply was slow in coming through, though certainly not through any fault of the radio operators. We often had to request information about flights, but generally found it quicker to get information regarding flight schedules direct from South Pole. We requested a food package be prepared and air dropped to us, a drop that never arrived, we hope due solely to aircraft troubles.

VHF radio's along with high gain aerials were also supplied to us for inter-party communications. We found that the high gain aerials were ineffective when the party was further than about 10 km apart.

In the future we would plan to bring our own radio communication and eventually satellite communication equipment. This way we can be sure of the standard of the equipment and know that we will always be able to communicate with Scott Base and the outside world.