Antarctica
OR4TN Op: Karel, ON5TN WAP BEL-02 Princess Elisabeth Station, Antarctica Lookups:   8200
QSL: ON5TN

QRZ Record: 1676638 Login to manage/edit Lookups: 8200 (8812) Mailing Label... QRZ Admin: ON5TN Last Update: 2010-01-07 15:49:08 Latitude: -70.670881 (70° 40' 15'' S) Longitude: 15.205078 (15° 12' 18'' E) Grid Square: JB79oh QSL Info: ON5TN QSL by Mail?: Yes (e.g. Will this ham QSL by Postal Mail?) QSL by eQSL?: No (e.g. Will this ham QSL with eQSL?) Uses LOTW?: No (e.g. Does this ham use ARRL's LOTW ?)

Explore on GridMap

More information about the Princess Elisabeth Station can be found on http://www.antarcticstation.org/

 

Last and final update: March 3, 2010 - Karel has arrived home safely on March 2, 2010.

Update: Feb 21, 2010 - OR4TN is now QRT. As Karel has been very busy helping preparing (the station) for departure (of the entire team), no more QSOs were added in the log. Final number of QSOs is 1925. Karel will be leaving Princess Elisabeth Station at 16:20 local time today to fly to the Russian base Novo at then continue his journey with a flight from Novo at 23:00 local to arrive in Cape Town, South Africa around 04:00 local on Feb 22. Karel will make a stopover (to warm up, hihi) in South Africa and is expected home in Belgium on March 2, 2010. In the mean time the OR4TN log has been received safely in Belgium via email.

Update: Feb 12, 2010 - As per today Karel has now 1925 QSOs in the log. He hopes to have 2000 before he leaves. His departure lift off flight from the Princess Elisabeth Station is now planned on Feb 21 or 22.

Update: Jan 31, 2010 - New departure date: OR4TN will now leave the Princess Elisabeth Station on February 20. On January 24 at 1724UTC, a HISTORICAL QSO was made on 14MHz CW between OR4TN and Roger, ON4TX, ex-OR4TX. Roger was QRV from the Belgian King Baudouin Base in Antarctica from Jan 30, 1960 until Jan 29, 1961. So this historical QSO took place 50 years after OR4TX had been QRV himself from Antarctica.  

Update: Jan 26, 2010 - Wow ... after having been on 40m CW and SSB, Karel appeared on 3513.7 CW at 2300UTC and worked EU for about 1/2 hour. So Karel seems now to have good working antennas for 80, 40, 30 and 20m

Update: Jan 25, 2010 - The last 4 days Karel has been QRV daily. Jan 22: 7009 2121 till 2255UTC; 14010 2256 till 2340UTC = Jan 23: 14011 2249 till 2314UTC = Jan 24 (Sunday): 7011 0025 till 0102UTC; 14008 1621 till 1746UTC = Jan 25: 10107 2125 till 2151UTC.

Update: Jan. 20, 2010 - The official document confirming the extention of the OR4TN license until end of February 2010, has been received today in the mail.

Update: Jan 19, 2010 - Karel's OR4TN license ended as per end of January. We received confirmation today that the extention of his license until end of February 2010 has officially been granted. Our thanks to the concerned authority in Belgium for this fast approval.

Update: Jan 14, 2010 - Just received a phone call from Karel. His stay has been extented until February 25. At that date the entire team will leave Antarctica. Karel says he is mostly QRV on 40m CW in the time window of 21:00 UTC till 23:00 UTC. He will now also try to listen for NA on 20m during this time window. Later then 23:00 UTC he says bands higher then 30m are closed. But he confirmed he will check more regularly 40 and 20m CW also after 23:00 UTC. SSB is a bit of a problem as it is very noisy for the other team members who are in the same room. The equipment he is using for the moment has no 30m, which doesn't mean that he will not be on 30m anymore. 

Update: Jan 2, 2010 - Karel forwarded a picture showing him on top of Utsteinen mountain near the Princess Elisabeth Station (see here above). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update: Dec 29, 2009 - Since a couple of days OR4TN has been active on 14195 SSB and 14005 after 23:00 UTC for North America.

Update: Dec 5, 2009 - Apparently Karel got his 30m antenna working now. He was on 10107 for about 20 minutes starting at 21:50 UTC.

Update: Dec 2, 2009 - Looks like Karel got things running nicely now. He was QRV again today in CW on 7008 from 20:53 UTC onwards. Then moved to SSB on 7076 and 7080. He was still 59 on 7080 at 23:22 UTC in Belgium when he went QRT for the day.

Update: Dec 1, 2009 - OR4TN has been QRV today (Dec 1) for the first time. Karel was on 7008 in CW from 21:30 UTC onwards. Karel says to look for him in the future on 7007 CW or 7077 SSB each time +/- a couple of KHz. 3507 is another possibility. Operating times: between 2100 and 2300 UTC. He still has a problem with his 30m antenna. 20m is also a possibility but might be difficult for EU in the above time frame.

Update Nov 22, 2009 - Karel has arrived on the Princess Elisabeth Base. On his way he spent one night on the Russian Novolazarevskaya Base and made 20 CW contacts on 40m using R1ANY. As the entire telecommunication infrastructure for the Princess Elisabeth Base still has to be arranged, Karel won't be QRV immediately. 

===========================================================

 OR4TN is ON5TN’s call sign from the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Station on Antarctica. Karel, ON5TN, is a member of the team who is there on a mission to make the new base operational. That means he is there to work and will be there from around late November  2009 until the end of January 2010. Karel took an IC7200 and wire antennas with him. IF, we repeat, IF work permits Karel will try to be active but it is NOT a priority. Best chances will be 30m and 40m CW. DO NOT SEND emails to Karel’s home email address. We repeat, when possible, Karel will be QRV. You will depend on the spots in the DX clusters. Karel prefers CW. 

We know the call signs are confusing, but yes his call sign on Antarctica is OR4TN and yes, his home call sign is ON5TN.

You will find updates here.