Spending the Antarctic Winter Learning to Become Proficient Radio "Hams"

National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230

Posted October 11, 2017

Image: James Casey

This Southern Hemisphere winter, 11 people at NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station passed exams administered by ARRL - the National Association for Amateur Radio certifying various degrees of competency in the field of "HAM" radio.

The station's winter population is 45 people, who monitor experiments and maintain the station. Those passing the recent exams brought the number of qualified radio operators to 12, more than a quarter of the station's population.

It was the first time such an exam had been offered in Antarctica since 2014. In all participants took a total of 32 tests of varying skills

Read more about the complications of preparing for and administering the tests in #Antarctica in a short blog written by James Casey, who is spending the winter at the Pole and who both organized the class and served as the local volunteer examiner for the tests: https://blog.jamescasey.net/2017/08/ham-radio-at-south-pole.html