Amateur Radio

Adventure In Sierra Mike Land

Like many hams, my HT goes everywhere I go. I even take an HF rig with me to wherever I can operate it. A few years ago, I took a small CW rig to the Alaskan Arctic. That was in the summer, and the sun was shining 24 hours. Last January, I took a Kenwood mobile HF transceiver and an antenna tuner to the Swedish Arctic. The Arctic in the winter? Yes, I went to the Arctic in the dead of winter, and spent three weeks there, including my birthday. Since my body was deep freeze on my birthday, my flesh was preserved from aging for one year, HI. In the Arctic, I was stationed at Institutet För Rymdfysik (IRF, literal translation from Swedish to English will be "Institute for Rim [outer edge] Physics"), but it is called "Swedish Institute of Space Physics". IRF is located in Kiruna city above the Arctic Circle in Sweden. Kiruna is known as one of the largest iron ore mining towns in the world. As a neutral country, Sweden sold ore to both Germany and the Allies during World War II. The population of the city is approximately 25,000.

A friend of mine, KL7YR, a geophysics professor at the University of Alaska, is researching Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSC) and Mother of Pearl Clouds (MPC). Recently, these clouds have received attention because they are closely related to the depletion of ozone in the Antarctic. These clouds also appear in the winter sky of the Arctic. So, there is a possibility of finding an ozone hole in the Arctic too. He wanted to determine the heights of these clouds by triangulation with the aid of ham radios. The measurement of azimuth and elevation angles for these clouds must be made simultaneously at two remote sites. The communication between two sites would be made by two-meter FM. So, I offered my help since I had a plan to go to Norway for cross-country skiing about the same time. Exactly a year ago, for a feasibility study for measuring the MPC's heights, we were in Abisko, located about 60 miles northwest of Kiruna. Compared to the Kiruna site, the Abisko Naturvetnskapliga (Scientific Research) Station made you know the meaning of the word "solitude". It was located in the mountains, and only a few people worked there.

The lessons learned from the previous trip were implemented in this trip. The lessons included not only measurement methods, but also how to live there! To keep me sane while living in the cold, dark, and isolated scientific station, hamming was a "must". I wanted to setup an HF station at the best location. The HF station might be setup at the top floor of the IRF building where an antenna feedline could be routed to the roof along the instrument cable trays. However, I was hesitant to do so. A hundred watts of RF power might interfere with sensitive instrumentation, and scientific data could be wiped out. Another problem was locating a high current 12-volt power supply needed to operate the HF rig. IRF had two ac voltage converters, each with one kilowatt rating, which converted 230-volts to 117. Geewizz!! If I knew this in advance, I would have brought a lightweight 117-volt switching power supply. For a year, I have searched for a compact lightweight switching power supply which worked on 230-volts, but no such thing is sold in the U.S. While looking for a power supply and a suitable site at IRF, almost ten days swept by.

Just in case of no hamming, which could happen due to poor propagation conditions or a malfunction of the HF rig, I brought cross-country skis, rock climbing gear, several cassette tapes, and paperbacks with me. The city maintains grooved-tracks for cross-country skiing. The course is also lit, which is essential for the Arctic. The daylight is very short during the winter months. At 9 a.m. on the first day at IRF (1/13/93), the sky was still pitch dark with twinkling stars, no different from midnight. The sun finally rose after 11 a.m., then set before 1 p.m.. The work schedule did not leave much time for skiing except for a few nights, but unfortunately, temperatures on those nights dipped minus 20 degrees Celucius. It was painfully cold. Only the scientists from Finland, who stayed at IRF, went skiing on those nights. So, the skis which I carefully carried through airports and customs were not used. However, on the lighter side, I did use my rock climbing gear! Believe or not, there was an indoor rock climbing wall in the public middle school, so I got a chance to try it out. This was my first time walked into a school in Sweden, they even got sauna baths in the gym! The most relaxing times I had were at the IRF's sauna and the city's indoor swimming pool.

I met several Swedish hams in Kiruna. Among them, Ola Widell, SM2CZG, who works at ESRANGE, i.e., Swedish Space Corporation, located about 20 miles out of the city center. ESRANGE is where rockets and balloons are launched, and Ola is in charge of all rocket launches and count-down announcements. Last winter, we were invited to observe a huge hydrogen balloon launch. Because of the highly explosive nature of hydrogen, the launch was under strict controls. It lifted 1100 pounds of scientific instruments, and was later recovered in Finland by a helicopter. This year, we got his permission and assistance in installing our video camera at the top of the radar site to collect data. We saw him on several occasions and he invited us to his home. It was very exciting to take a close look at a "famous" Swedish-built house. Sure enough, the house was well-built with air-tight construction, including triple-pain windows and six-inch thick wall insulation. Outside air was heated by an air-to-air heat exchanger to provide fresh air and prevent cold drafts. The house was heated electrically. At this time, we didn't know he was a ham. The dipole antenna in the back yard surprised us all. Ola holds a Swedish "Class A" ham license which is equivalent to the American "General Class" or higher. Ola became an instrument of change in our ham activities during the rest of our stay in Sweden.

The first few days, we were quite busy setting up video and 35-mm cameras at various sites around Kiruna. Once setup, these cameras were used to collect the Polar Stratospheric Clouds data. Checking the video cameras became a morning routine. One camera had to be checked by driving 20 miles to ESRANGE on snow covered roads. During the drive, we saw many reindeer. They were wild but owend by the Samis people. Cars cannot stop quickly on the snowy roads, which accounts for the four dead reindeer we saw during our three week stay.

One day, we were in a little village, Rensjön, out side of Kiruna, and setting up the equipment in deep snow field near Samis' residences to check out the coordinate. Last year, the data taken from there seemed to have measurement errors on the coordinate. So, we were taking new measurements. Two Sami kids passed us by a snow mobile, almost hitting one of the tripod legs of the instrument. Then an old husky short Sami man strolled around us in a distance. Finally he started walking toward us. My heart rushed. He mumbled something, possibly he was talking in Sami. They usually can speak Finnish and Swedish besides Sami, but no English. So, I told him, "Vi tar vetenskaplig fotografering, och vi gå ut snart." He nodded his head and walked back to his house, and he never came back again. The Swedish course I took at Harvard really worked! I was never good at learning languages. Also, I was very self-conscious about being in the Swedish class full of Nordic-descended students, since they had some prior knowledge of the language from their grandparents. So, I was probably the number one goof ball of the class.

The entrance of ESRANGE looked like a secret military base, "Ice Station ZEBRA", the guards looked like something you''ve seen in the movies. The guards, all husky clean cut young men, in stylish military uniforms seemed a bit intimidating at first. Even in the sub-freezing temperatures, their uniforms weren't bulky at all. I got out of the car, walked to the guard, and said, "God morgon" (i.e., good morning, pronounce: [gud moron] with "trill" on "r"). He came back to me in rapid Swedish, all I understand was that he said "gud moron." What a mistake I made! They speak English.

One morning, after finishing the check of the video camera, Ola proudly showed us the control room and other facilities for rocket launches at ESRANGE. They were smaller scale than NASA's, most of equipment was made by ESRANGE. It was electronics after electronics. Now, it became obvious why there are so many hams in Kiruna, the electronics! Indeed there is a ham club in Kiruna, Kiruna Radioklubb, which Ola is the president. The club has about 30 members and many are working at IRF or ESRANGE in fields relating to satellite technology. Naturally, they are quite interested in the amateur satellite, OSCAR-13, and are currently working on a 430 MHz uplink system as a part of a club project. Their 2 meter downlink system has been tested. They are considering going to higher frequencies to get a better noise-to-signal ratio for smaller antenna systems.

Speaking of two-meter, the club has a two-meter repeater. To access any European repeaters, an audio tone with 1750 Hz is needed. The tone must be held for at least one second to open the repeater. Walter Puccio, SM2TNI, who works at IRF demonstrated his whistle to open the repeater. KL7YR brought a harmonica, and found one of the highest tones of the harmonica opened the repeater. Once the repeater is opened, the tone is not needed, and stays open for about eight seconds before closing. But I could not initiate the call to KL7YR on the repeater because I couldn't whistle. If you are taking your HT to Europe and can not whistle, be sure to bring a harmonica.

One night when I was monitoring the repeater, I heard a familiar voice but could not copy his call sign. The next morning I confirmed it was Walter. Swedish pronunciation of the alphabet is similar to American's, but some are quite different. For example, "A," "I," and "K" are something like these: "ah," "ee," and "co," respectively. These particular sounds aren't difficult for Americans; however, it is very difficult to describe how to pronounce "U," "X," "Y," and "Z" in Swedish. Spelling my name, Yuki, in Swedish makes my jaw hurt and lips point out like a beak. I encountered a similar experience in Japan. I could not copy a single call sign when I monitored some Japanese repeaters near Tokyo. Similarly, many Japanese hams have told me they could not copy American call signs on repeaters in the U.S.A. Can Europeans copy American call signs on American repeaters?

After the tour of ESRANGE, Ola handed us a key to the club station building. It was an old "skeleton" key, and was odd to see such a key still in use. However, I was more surprised at his offer. Do we, American, let non-members to operate our club station without a presence of any member? Perhaps, we may do it for certain occasions. But Swedish people seem to be very generous. I experienced a similar thing when Swedish climbers let me climbed on their club's wall. When we got the key, we modified our work schedule so we could operate fifteen and twenty meter bands when the bands were open to the U.S.A. and Japan. The new schedule made us get up earlier and work faster to complete the day's work, but to get out from the monotonous daily routines was incentive enough.

The club station is occupied in a cute gazebo-shaped historical building on the park side near the city center. Now, I solved the mystery of "the skeleton key," the old building had that kind of a lock! The building was used as an old AM radio station, which made it an ideal ham station. The single story building has an octagonal shaped floor of approximately 30 feet in diameter. Again, the heating of the building is totally electric. The club station is neatly organized with an operating room, working areas, and a water closet. The station equipment consists of an IC-701 HF transceiver which can be operated on all five amateur bands with SSB, CW, and RTTY modes. The antennas consist of a five-element tri-bander with a forty meter rotatable element, an eighty meter sloper, and a forty meter loop. The small original radio tower supports these antennas.

Although we had reciprocal operating permits from Telestyrelsen (Swedish FCC), we used the club call sign, SK2GJ, rather than our own calls SM2/WB1Y and SM2/KL7YR. The prefix, SM, is used for individual ham stations in Sweden, and SK is used for club stations. A suffix is only assigned to one particular station, so that the number may be changed when a ham moves to another area. However, the suffix remains unchanged. For example, a ham, SM2XYZ, moved from Kiruna to Stockholm, the call sign would change to SM0XYZ. The "2" area is for the northern Sweden, and the "zero" is for the Stockholm area. How would it be if this system was implemented in the U.S.? Extra class call signs such as two-by-one would run out very quickly. It works nicely for less populated countries like Sweden. Sweden has a population about 8.6 million, slightly more than Massachusetts (6 million). It has about the same population as New England without Connecticut and Rhode Island, but a land area similar to California.

We operated the club station around 9 a.m. for JA's opening, and around 6 p.m. for W's. Mostly fifteen and twenty meter bands were used, but the band conditions weren't in good shape. We worked a few W's and JA's. I heard a rare DX station, a JX, working on a huge pileup from North America. The JX is Jan Mayen, a Norwegian Island near Greenland, and located less than 800 miles away from Kiruna. I called JX several times but no response, I assumed his antenna was pointing to North America. Several W stations were active on ten meter band, but they were too weak to work.

European stations were overwhelmingly strong on higher bands and were easy to work with. However, when I tried to work with some European stations on lower bands, it was a different story. Strong QRM and very annoying QRN shut me off quickly. It would be novelty for most American hams to operate phone below 7.1 MHz. I thought to check-in the Algonquin Amateur Radio Club CW net on eighty meter. But the local time would be 1:30 a.m. and I was not sure about the propagation conditions to North America. I operated the club station until my final day in Kiruna. I worked two old friends, both members of JAIG Club, DJ MBG and DF2CW, on fifteen meter. It was exciting to talk to them on the same time zone for a change. I was hoping to contact some old friends in W and JA, but there was no luck.

I packed my Kenwood HF transceiver and two-meter booster amplifier in the suit case, neither were needed or used. My cross-country skis had not been unpacked from the ski bag. Three out of four paperbacks I brought were not even touched. I would have used these things if I hadn't operate the club station (no regrets). The airline counter at Kiruna informed me that they had to book me on a non-stop flight to Stockholm because the original flight was over-booked. With all my luggage, I was more than happy to hear that. Also, I was anxious to go to Stockholm to take care of the cabin fever. It was a good flight, the beer was free of charge. I arrived at Stockholm in the early evening and checked into a hotel near the Galma Stan, the old section of city. The view from my hotel room was great - beautiful Galma Stan in night lights and fireworks over the river. I stayed in the city for a few days before returning to the US. The experience in snow covered Stockholm was very different from the tourist infested summer city scape, and it would be in another story.....

The flight from Stockholm to New Jersey was also a good flight, I had three cans of Scandinavian beer. Usually, I don't like beer, but those native beers, i.e., Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, were great. So far so good, I was almost home. At the U.S. Customs in NJ, Murphy's Law struck. Skis don't go through the regular baggage, usually it's the last item to be dropped off at the rear door. So, I was the last person to go through customs. It was a slack time for the custom agents, and an eagle-eyed agent wanted to see inside all the suits cases. He even wanted to see inside the HF rig! If he had found the coiled dipole antenna, he would have broken the epoxy-filled center insulator looking for whatever. Luckily, he did not noticed the chalk bag which contained white powder! I had only thirty minutes to catch the Boston flight, I barely made it. I swear that I will never bring skis on foreign travels again.

73, Hej då!

WB1Y, March, 1993.