As DX hunters know, the RUDXT team has conducted numerous DXCC and IOTA expeditions to various corners of the world: Africa, South America, Oceania, and the Middle East—over the years. We’ve grown year after year, gaining experience and improving our technical capabilities. But the idea of an expedition to Franz Josef Land, Russia’s only rare DX territory and, simultaneously, the northernmost DXCC territory in the world, has been haunting us for the past few years.
You’ve got to admit, what a team this is – one that has travelled to so many countries but neglects its own, especially one that’s more in demand. It all started with my personal acquaintance with Anatoly UA1OIW in 2022. Anatoly is a polar explorer who wintered at E. Krenkel’s station on Heiss Island. He agreed to assist us in negotiations with Roshydromet. Then began a tedious correspondence, searching for possible delivery options, and so on. Describing all the intricacies of the expedition’s preparation and organization isn’t particularly worthwhile; most people wouldn’t be interested. It’s worth mentioning the origins of the second expedition, RI1FJZ, which is currently heading for Franz Josef Land. The thing is, Vasily RA1ZZ had been part of our team the entire time, and we were naturally supposed to travel together. But at some point, due to disagreements over a number of organizational matters and various subjective reasons, Vasily dropped out and began assembling his own team. Well, as they say, the hunt is worse than captivity. Naturally, we were nervous at first. This was our team’s idea, and we’ve already made progress with preparations.. So, we’ve moved on and continued preparations.
As for the expedition itself, it all started off cheerfully. The team was planning to gather in Murmansk on August 4th, using whatever means necessary – trains, planes, and even cars. We rented a three-room apartment downtown, celebrated, and debated politics – everything as expected. But due to bad weather, the yacht was delayed. Ultimately, after loading and completing port and border formalities, we were only able to set off on the morning of August 12th. Crossing the entire Barents Sea on a sailing and motor yacht is a whole other story. It’s undoubtedly the most challenging and tiring part. As luck would have it, the wind was constantly blowing, as they say, “in our faces.” We were sick, laying in bed, and enduring it. Instead of the planned 6-7 days, it turned out to be 9.5 days.
As we approached the archipelago, a thick fog descended. The straits were full of ice floes, some of which were truly icebergs due to their large size. We moved extremely slowly and carefully. Late in the evening of August 21st, we reached Hayes Island. The shore and the weather station buildings emerged from the fog only when we were no more than 50 meters from the shore, fortunately, the water depth of about 5-6 meters allowed for this.
I think we were very lucky with the landing. There was virtually no movement, so we unloaded over 800kg of equipment, personal belongings, and food without any losses. I think the landing was filmed a bit, so we’ll show it in a video. Vyacheslav OK8AU and I headed to the weather station, where they were already waiting for us. Four polar explorers are currently wintering at the station. Great guys, by the way.
We eventually found common ground, even became friends, so our two-week stay at the station wasn’t (I hope) a burden for them. So, we brought in a tractor and trailer and transported all our gear to the base. They showed us what, where, and how. They assigned us three rooms. After 10 days on the yacht, we enjoyed hot showers, the warm weather station wardroom, and just the firm ground under our feet.
Then we got down to what we know and can do. In one of the rooms allocated to us, we decided to install a digital shack with a separate set of antennas – two spiderbeams (30-17-12 and 20-15-10) with triplexers and a set of bandpass filters, meaning we could simultaneously broadcast on six bands. Phased verticals on 40 and 18 meters, and a vertical on 80/160.
Finding a place for CW/SSB stations proved more difficult. Initially, we planned to set up on the so-called “pimple” – a hill south of the station, on which are located old, now-unused buildings and a trailer with VSAT satellite internet equipment. Accordingly, electricity was brought there, and to connect any nearby building (which could be used as a shack), we hauled 100 meters of self-supporting insulated wire from Murmansk. It was a great, high location, with plenty of room for any antennas. Unfortunately, during the survey, two complications arose.
1) We couldn’t find a dry room with doors and windows anywhere on the “pimple” that could be heated. And sitting for two weeks in a cold room with puddles of water on the floor, rotting wet walls, and a dripping ceiling… not a good idea. We need to protect the personnel!
2) The distance from the main living quarters is about 700-800 meters, some of which is steep. Walking to shifts is a long way. And if the weather is bad, then it’s not safe.
Luckily, at the very foot of the hill we found a dry and clean house, which polar explorers call “magnitka.” Equipment for studying the Earth’s magnetic field was once stored here. Currently, the house is abandoned, but has not yet had time to leak. Two small rooms, dry, with windows and doors. Excellent!
The only remaining issue was the electricity. A cable to the house was installed, but it was apparently damaged somewhere. Thanks to Ruslan “UA4Z,” who found the break in the most inaccessible spot, above the roof of one of the abandoned houses, and was able to connect the cable. We decided to place some of the antennas directly on the “pimple,” and lower the coaxial cables into the “magnetic” section. Luckily, we had extra cable, and the polar explorers also had a whole coil of 8D-FB cable at the station, which they allowed us to use (with return).
From there, it was a matter of technique. Initially, we set up two stations here: Elecraft K3 transceivers, an Expert 1.3K-FA power amplifier, and an OM-Power 2000A+ (Yes, I read that right. A 2+ kW vacuum tube automatic power amplifier. A fantastic machine! And for digital, among other things, we had an ACOM-2000). Later, a third station was added: a Yaesu FTDX-10 and an Expert 1.3K-FA.
What can we say about the on-air portion of the expedition? The overall excitement and pile-ups exceeded our wildest expectations! Despite the fact that in previous years, Franz Josef Land was periodically represented on the air by wintering polar radio amateurs, for many we gave an absolute “New One.” Dozens of enthusiastic emails, reviews online… and simply stunning, endless pile-ups.
I’d like to especially note that while working in SSB, many foreigners thanked us in Russian, wished us luck, etc. I won’t hide the fact that it was very pleasant and important for us to feel the support of radio amateurs from all corners of the planet, to see and hear that very amateur radio brotherhood, to be a part of it! We tried and made every effort to work as many stations as possible on all HF bands.
Ruslan UA4Z excelled, having worked a shift lasting 23 hours without a break! It’s worth noting the peculiarities of polar propagation, which we naturally had to contend with. The first three days were relatively calm, but soon, due to a minor magnetic storm, propagation deteriorated sharply. There were moments when the signals of stations calling us weren’t just distorted, but completely unreadable! We were well aware that our signals could be the same, so we patiently and calmly reported 3-4-5 times to stations that didn’t respond and continued calling.
The result of our expedition was 160,000 QSOs and two world records. It also included the largest number of QSOs on the 30-meter band and the most productive expedition in Europe (referring to European DXCC territories). We are 100% satisfied with the result. I hope that our followers, RI1FJZ, will study our statistics in detail and focus on those slots where we had fewer QSOs.
73, Vasily R7AL
