TRANSPOLAR SKITREK EXPEDITION A SPECIAL REPORT FROM THE NORTH POLE On Monday, April 25th, the thirteen members of the Transpolar Skitrek Expedition reached the vicinity of the North Pole. Meanwhile, dignitaries and members of the press from both Canada and Russia gathered in the north of their respective countries ready to fly to the Pole on Tuesday. Canadian dignitaries include, Marcel Masse, Minister for Energy, Mines and Resources, Alan McLaine of the Department of External Affairs, Dennis Patterson representing the Government of the Northwest Territories and Norman Keenainak, representing the native population of the north and Assistant Park Warden of Ellesmere Island National Park, where the skiers will conclude their 1730 km journey. The Russian dignitaries are not known as of this report. UoSAT spacecraft operator Michael Meerman, G0/PA3BHF, is representing UoSAT and AMSAT at the press conference and ceremony at the North Pole! Michael has been responsible for all of the SkiTrek groundstation operations at UoS: developing groundstation software to easily reprogram the DIGITALKER, receiving position updates via HF packet, uploading the daily updates, and commissioning a special HF store-and-forward packet node for the Soviet and Canadian NordSki-Comm stations. Because of his dedication to the SkiTrek project, Michael was given the unique opportunity to fly to the Polar press conference. Michael will be asking the skiers many questions that are on the minds of those following the Trek, especially questions from students around the world. Look for some of his photos in a future issue of ASR and a special Progress Report featuring his observations at the Polar ceremony. To support the Polar Ceremony, UoSAT-2 will transmit DIGITALKER ONLY beginning 1845 GMT on 25 April. There will be a special event station at the Pole equipped with an Icom 761 and large linar amplifier. Frequencies to be used include 14.121 MHz and 14.181 MHz in the 20 meter band. No call sign for the Polar operation has been established yet. Garth Hamilton, VE3HO, reports that Barry Garratt, 4K0DX/VE3CDX, will be shooting a roll of film of the ceremony and DX operations from the Pole. Garth hopes to have the film at the Dayton Hamfest along with other shots of the expedition and CI8C support operations from Resolute. REPORT SUBMITTED BY RICHARD ENSIGN, N8IWJ TRANSPOLAR SKITREK PROGRESS REPORT #14: April 30, 1988 Prepared by Rich Ensign, N8IWJ, AMSAT Science Education Advisor For Use With The AMSAT Teachers Guide "Exploring The High Arctic From Your Classroom" The Amateur Radio supported Transpolar Skitrek got underway on April 28th after an event filled 2 day stay at the North Pole. Media coverage increased as Russian TV, the Cable News Network and CBC-TV covered activities at the Pole. As of April 30th, the skiers were at 89d 37.9m N and 94d 29.8m W. During the Trek the UO-11 Digitalker has been steadly reporting the "moving groups" position. For those of you who have wondered what the buzzing sound was before and after the Digitalker, wonder no more! Both spacecraft telemetry and bulletins where encoded in that buzzing. Here is the latest bulletin, as transmitted by UO-11: **** UoSAT-OSCAR-11 BULLETIN - 132 28 April 1988 **** UoSAT MISSION CONTROL CENTRE, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 5XH, England ** UoS TEAM MEMBER JOINS SKITREK AT NORTH POLE ** The joint Canadian-Soviet SkiTrek reached the North Pole on 26th April 1988, 54 days and 1000 km after setting out on their "Transpolar Ski-Trek." Since departing from northern USSR on 1 March, the team has received daily progress updates of their exact location from the UoSAT-2 DIGITALKER. Arrival at the North Pole marks the half way point in the 2000 km trek from Cape Arktichesky on the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, USSR, to the Cape of Columbia on Ellesmere Island, Canada. The team was joined at the Pole by journalists from around the world - flown in to a unique North Pole press conference. In recognition of the assistance that UoSAT-2 continues to provide for the skiers, Michael Meerman (G0/PA3BHF), member of the University of Surrey's UoSAT Spacecraft Engineering Research Unit, was invited by the Soviet Ski-Trek leader to attend the press conference at the North Pole. Michael is the UoSAT Team member in charge of the daily operation of both UoSATs, and has been responsible for loading the Ski-Trek reports to UoSAT-2. Michael travelled to Moscow on 24 May, and travelled from there to Sretney Island on the 25th. From Sretney, he made contact with G3YJO at UoS via 20-metre SSB. On the 26th after some delays caused by bad weather, Michael arrived at the pole, where he was able to interview members of the Ski-Trek team. Thousands of school children throughout the world have been tracking the skiers by listening to the UoSAT-2 DIGITALKER, and learning about polar exploration through weekly Ski-Trek updates authored by AMSAT-NA member Rich Ensign (N8IWJ). Michael Meerman carried a list of their questions with him to the pole, to get the answers directly from the skiers themselves. As the Ski-Trek continues towards its final destination in Canada, UoSAT-2 will also continue to provide daily position updates, demonstrating the value of the UoSAT-OSCAR satellites to education and polar communications. ** DIGITALKER ON UOSAT-1 ** Many of those listening to the Ski-Trek DIGITALKER reports will be interested to know that the UoSAT-OSCAR-9 spacecraft (UoSAT-1) also carries a DIGITALKER, which is activated every week. From 0000 to 1500 GMT on Thursdays, the UoSAT-1 DIGITALKER "speaks" spacecraft telemetry values in plain language. The best UoSAT-1 passes usually occur around 8 or 9 o'clock local time each morning and evening. Pass this information on to those who have only been listening to UoSAT-2, but would like to try more experimentation with satellites. ** SEND ACTIVITY REPORTS ** As always, we at UoS are interested to hear what you are doing with the UoSAT satellites. If you have been using the DIGITALKER to follow the Ski-Trek, please send us (address above) a brief description of your activity. You can send reports to UoS through amateur packet radio if you are in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or the USA. Just address your messages so that they will be forwarded to your local UoSAT-2 DCE gateway station. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Michael Meerman's report from the Pole will appear in our next Progress Report to be issued on May 6, 1988. TRANSPOLAR SKITREK / PROJECT NORDSKI COMM - SKI TEAM POSITION LOG ----------------------------------------------------------------- Daily reports are made by the team to communications support stations on Sredniy Island, USSR, Russian ice station North Pole 28 and Resolute Bay, Canada via amateur radio. These reports are relayed south at 1500z in the 20m amateur radio band on 14.121mHz USB. Reports are automatically taped at W0RPK and reduced to daily information notes for continuing logs. DAY/TIM UTC LATITUDE LONGITUDE REMARKS ----------- --------- ---------- ------------------------------------------- 01May 11:49 89d18.6mN 90d17.4mW -10dC wind 25km/h vis 4km light snow 36km 30Apr 10:32 89d37.9mN 94d29.8mW 29Apr 10:30 89d48.2mN 106d55.0mW 28Apr 11:21 89d51.1mN 109d53.9mW 27Apr 90d00.0mN Official Canadian/Russian meeting 26Apr 16:00 90d00.0mN The North Pole 25Apr 10:12 89d56.6mN 147d18.8mE 6km to pole 22km 24Apr 11:13 89d46.4mN 107d25.7mE -25dC 24km to the pole 28km 23Apr 89d30.9mN 87d54.9mE -20dC 46km to pole ETA 25Apr 18km 22Apr 12:39 89d21.2mN 80d26.2mE -20dC 64km to pole 21km 21Apr 11:33 89d11.9mN 89d20.6mE -22dC Wind NE 43kts bad conditions 20km 20Apr 11:05 89d00.0mN 95d42.8mE -30dC Now estimating pole on 25Apr 25km 19Apr 11:58 88d45.8mN 94d31.6mE -35dC 140km to pole 27km 18Apr 11:10 88d33.9mN 91d47.9mE -30dC 27km 17Apr 11:00 88d20.3mN 91d28.9mE -32dC 185km to pole 25km 16Apr 10:30 88d08.9mN 90d44.6mE Movement due only to ice drift 15Apr 10:35 88d10.7mN 91d48.2mE Movement due only to ice drift 14Apr 11:45 88d11.4mN 95d09.9mE Movement due only to ice drift 13Apr 88d11.4mN 97d07.0mE Air drop coordinates 13Apr 10:42 88d10.4mN 96d45.2mE Start of trek before air drop 15km 12Apr 10:49 88d02.7mN 95d34.9mE -30dC 235km to pole 37km 11Apr 12:06 87d42.4mN 94d55.7mE -30dC Estimating pole April 24-26 18km 10Apr 11:37 87d32.6mN 93d29.5mE -30dC 272km to the pole everything ok 34km 09Apr 10:38 87d14.2mN 91d48.4mE 08Apr 11:55 87d00.2mN 91d03.5mE -28dC Best single day progress 37km 07Apr 10:08 86d40.6mN 92d38.6mE -28dC 600km total 369km to the pole 26km 06Apr 10:57 86d26.3mN 93d18.3mE -40dC Lots of ice everybody ok 27km 05Apr 11:01 86d12.4mN 92d07.2mE 421km to go to the pole 22km 04Apr 10:39 86d00.7mN 91d44.5mE -37dC 22km 03Apr 11:49 85d48.8mN 92d20.5mE -36dC Everybody ok 02Apr No position report 01Apr 11:12 85d23.2mN 93d40.0mE -37dC Slept in before starting 8km 31Mar No change 30Mar No change 29Mar 11:38 85d18.9mN 94d55.3mE -35dC 2nd air drop a success - stopped 24km 28Mar 10:26 85d07.1mN 95d17.4mE -38dC Open water a problem 12km 27Mar 10:48 85d00.1mN 95d31.5mE -45dC clear wind light good ice 31km 26Mar 12:15 84d43.1mN 95d50.5mE -42dC Clear wind NW 2-3mps 2days prog32.4km 25Mar No position report 24Mar 13:00 84d25.6mN 95d58.2mE -37dC wind 40km/hr snowstorm 0km 23Mar 13:00 84d28.9mN 96d12.4mE -33dC Strong head winds 20-40km/hr 15km 22Mar 13:02 84d19.0mN 97d02.9mE Everything good ice, temp, progress 28km 21Mar 13:00 84d03.5mN 97d40.4mE -39dC ice excellent few leads&hummocks 21km 20Mar 11:40 83d51.8mN 97d27.4mE -36dC wind 1-2mps good ice & spirits 26km 18Mar 13:00 83d37.9mN 97d21.7mE -31dC no wind or open water good cond 22km 17Mar 13:00 83d11.7mN 97d26.6mE -35dC SE wind 3-5meters/sec 24km 16Mar <1st air drop successful on 14MAR > 15Mar 13:00 82d58.7mN 97d28.9mE 14Mar <17Mar for R&R and experiments > 13Mar 11:16 82d52.2mN 97d19.8mE -42dC wind 3-4meters/sec 24km 12Mar No position report 25km 11Mar 11:36 82d28.8mN 97d13.0mE 10MAR 11:58 82d16.9mN 97d24.6mE -45dC 20km 09Mar 12:30 82d09.3mN 97d47.0mE -30dC 12km 08Mar No position report 20km 07Mar 12:23 81d56.6mN 97d15.1mE 17km 06Mar No significant progress - Open water - Very windy - camped early 0km 05Mar 12:44 81d35.8mN 96d52.4mE -21dC Snow wind 33meters/sec 14km 04Mar 11:13 81d32.3mN 97d 0.0mE -28dC 20km 03Mar 11:24 81d21.2mN 96d12.8mE 7km 03Mar 07:31 81d15.0mN 95d50.0mE Starting point on Cape Arktichesky