The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast December 10, 1988

Arctic Ski Expedition

     Radio amateurs take an active part in many of the expeditions that take place over the years, such as explorations on land and sea into the remote areas of our planet.  In many cases, we are the only link back to civilization.  These events spark a special interest in the amateur radio community.
     If you follow these expeditions on a daily basis, you begin to feel like you are a part of it, even though you are comfortable at home while keeping in touch with them on amateur radio.
     So it was when a group of thirteen Canadians and Russians wanted to determine if it were possible to ski over the frozen Arctic Ocean all the way from Russia via the North Pole to Canada.  The expedition was in the planning stage for months.  Soon everything was in order and on the third of March 1988, the assembled group of thirteen Canadian and Russian skiers headed north from Cape Arctic in Russia for the North Pole and then on to Cape Columbia, Canada - a distance of 1,076 miles.  Since this skiing expedition was also a test of man's endurance in the arctic environment during their three-month hazardous journey, they carried all of their equipment and supplies with them except that an aircraft dropped food supplies every two weeks.  The expedition members included scientists, engineers, doctors, a minister and several radio amateurs.  They were all seasoned expert arctic skiers.
     Included in their equipment was a small lightweight radio beacon that transmitted a special signal to a rescue satellite system.  This gave the location of the expedition in latitude and longitude to radio amateurs and others all over the globe several times each day in voice.
     "You are at 84 degrees 28.9 minutes and at 97 degrees 12.4 minutes end 73."
     What you just heard was the synthesized voice of the expedition's location as they were heading north a few hundred miles out over the frozen Arctic Ocean.
     A fellow radio amateur, Earl Korf, K2IC of Lincroft, a retired pioneer aircraft navigator, was also interested in this expedition and we both were comparing data of their progress during the three-month journey by listening to amateur radio satellites and the Arctic Amateur Radio Network.
They were only skiing a few days when they were reporting temperatures down to minus 47 degrees Celsius.  Soon all of them were suffering from frostbite.  The ice cap over the Arctic Ocean was so rough that they broke four pairs of skis.  They had a near-disaster one day when the space heater set fire to their tent.  There were many openings in the ice caused by severe pressures and one of the skiers fell into the frigid Arctic Ocean.  They were still skiing on under difficult conditions when they reached the North Pole on the 26th of April 1988.  After a brief celebration, they skied on for another month and arrived at Cape Columbia, Canada on the first of June 1988.
     This was the first time that anyone came all the way from Europe to North America via the North Pole on skis and this became another interesting experience and public service event in amateur radio.

December 10, 1988

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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