Igor, RQ8K will be active as RI1ANE from Progress Station, IOTA AN - 016, Antarctica, 14 December 2023 - till May 2025.
He will operate on HF Bands.
QSL via RQ8K, LOTW.
Ads for direct QSL:
Igor Taranenko, Entuziastov street, 22B, appt. 8, Noyabrsk, 629806, Russia.
Progress is a Russian (formerly Soviet) research station in Antarctica. It is located at the Larsemann Hills antarctic oasis on the shore of Prydz Bay.
The station was established by the 33rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition on April 1, 1988 and was moved to another place on February 26, 1989 In 2000, work was temporarily halted but it reopened in 2003.
A landing field is located close to the station for air connection with other stations. From 1998-2001 works were performed to transfer transportation operations to Progress from the Mirny Station and make it the main support base for Vostok station.
Russian Progress station
The Antarctic scientific research station "Progress" was founded in the late eighties of the last century as a summer field station-base for seasonal geological and geophysical surveys. We are talking, of course, about the polar summer, which starts here in December and ends in the first days of March.
A unique area of snowy Antarctica was chosen for construction of the station - the part of it where there is no Antarctic ice sheet. This huge polar accumulation of ice is the most powerful on the planet and in Antarctica occupies 98% of its total area.
And all would be well, but there was one political event that put a cross on the existence of the station and, having existed for more than 10 years, the base was gradually mothballed. The Soviet Union suddenly collapsed, but it is good that the collapse of a large state, which owned the station and expensive equipment on it, was not determinant for the termination of Progress. Three years later, the blockade was lifted, and in 2004, Russia began a complete reconstruction of the station, after which the seasonal base became permanent and returned to active life.
The status of the capital has to be earned
The long, rocky-sandy plateau with a strongly indented coastline, where all the station facilities are located, is protected on both sides by rocks, so snow practically does not get here even in winter. These two percent of the Antarctic land free from polar ice, rising fifty meters above sea level, are called an oasis by many people, and these people cannot be accused of bias.
The modern Russian station "Progress" is a complex with very decent infrastructure: comfortable living quarters, recreation areas, a gym with exercise machines, a beautiful bathhouse with sauna, well-equipped offices for radio operators, hydrologists, meteorologists.
In the medical unit (hospital) polar explorers have an opportunity to receive emergency medical aid, full-fledged in-patient treatment and even osteosynthesis (this is the name of operations on bones). Precedents have already happened, and everything was successful - the equipment of the Progress medical unit can be envied by small modern hospitals of district significance. The presence of a dental office is another proof of that.
There is a helipad with a fuel and lubricants base, and even an airstrip, thanks to which it is now possible to get here freely by airplanes (including heavy IL-18 and IL-76), instead of waiting for the glacier to melt and the waterway to open for an expedition vessel.
However, the "air gate" is located six kilometers from the base, on the ice sheet, and the weather at the airfield and at the base differs very significantly. Besides Russian polar explorers, the services of the Russian airfield are also used by polar explorers from other countries, whose research bases are also located in Antarctica.
The base has its own bakery, food preparation shops, workshops and diesel power station, satellite communication. Now the Antarctic Progress station has rightfully acquired the status of the Russian capital of Antarctica.
When it's minus temperatures in July...
It sounds strange, but the coldest month in Antarctica is July, and December (when summer begins) is the warmest. The average annual temperature does not fall below minus 10 ° C, but about twenty years ago, in April, suddenly struck by frosts to minus 40 ° C.
Snowstorms are frequent, occurring about sixty days a year, sometimes for several days in a row, but in summer there are no big snowfalls. In summer, it does not snow at all, but precipitation falls in the form of snow grains, and sometimes it even rains.
Polar explorers are hardened people with strong health and nerves. Bathing in Antarctic summer in a local small lake, when the air temperature is only about 10 degrees Celsius, is a norm for them. The water in the lake is crystal clear. And why would there be dirt here, amidst the endless snow-white landscape?
Fish seek where it is deeper, and man seeks where it is better
People who have been to work here most often come back again - apparently, the polar cold, solid ice around and cold wind add romance to their work, which is incomprehensible to many people, and comfortable accommodation and everything necessary for a full life of polar explorers is available here, which is also important. Why look for something new and unknown?
That's why there are not so many newcomers, and those for whom "Progress" has become almost a native home, after six days of work find some entertainment on Sundays: they catch fish in holes made by a drill in the ice, go to visit the neighboring Chinese research station, celebrate all kinds of holidays together with their neighbors. In winter they play table tennis or billiards, and in summer, when the weather is nice, they enjoy playing soccer on the runway of the airfield.