Permanent WSPR beacon in Antarctica Now on the Air

The DP0GVN WSPR now is in operation from the German Neumayer III Research Station of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. The installation is part of a scientific project of the Technical University of Munich in cooperation with the University of Bremen and the German Amateur Radio Club (DARC).

“The beacon is still under test and will be shut down occasionally for more configuration and optimization of antennas and software, before it can be mounted at the final installation site in a few weeks,” said Rainer Englert, DF2NU.

The technology consists of a multiband WSPR receiver that can simultaneously monitor up to eight bands from 160 to 6 meters and feed several hundred receive reports per hour to WSPRnet. The 5-W multiband transmitter also had been commissioned and is working into a vertical antenna.

“After a few days in service, DP0GVN has received several thousand beacons spots already,” Englert reports.

In related news, DP0GVN will be the call sign for Matthias Maasch, DH5CW, starting in February, at Neumayer III Research Station for 1 year, and he plans to be active on HF. For the past year, he has been using DH5CW from the German Antarctic Base. QSL DP0GVN via DL5EBE. — Thanks to Tom Kamp, DF5JL, IARU Region 1 HF Committee Chairman via Rainer Englert, DF2NU, and The Daily DX

Source:ARRL