[TWIAR] Orlando Sentinel Article on Peter I DXPedition

[Williams, Gregory S.]

Remote broadcast
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/lifestyle/orl-antarctic06jan04,0,467
169.story?coll=orl-living-headlines

A team of radio fans will go to great lengths to be on the air from the ends
of the Earth.

Aline Mendelsohn | Sentinel Staff Writer 
Posted January 4, 2006 
 
This is not the kind of trip you can book on Travelocity or Orbitz.

Later this month, a group of amateur radio enthusiasts, including two from
Central Florida, will embark on a journey to a remote Antarctic island
called Peter I.

The expedition might as well be going to another planet: Peter I is one of
the hardest places on the globe to reach, an uninhabited, volcanic island
about 280 miles west of the Antarctic mainland and roughly 8,000 miles from
Orlando.

One of the biggest challenges members have faced already is explaining why
on earth they're doing this.

Why else? To communicate by radio from one of the most remote areas of the
world. As the expedition's Web site helpfully points out, "It's difficult to
make radio contact with a country without a population!"

For the uninitiated, amateur radio provides a way of communicating via
noncommercial radio. An offshoot of the practice, known as DXing, challenges
enthusiasts to make radio communication from as many different locations as
possible.

Two previous amateur radio expeditions landed on Peter I, most recently in
1994. The current group hopes to connect with 100,000 amateur radio
operators around the globe.

"We're trying to achieve international goodwill," says Bill Beyer, 46, an
engineer from Ormond Beach.

The rest of the 22-member clan includes professors, doctors, other engineers
-- and a San Francisco man hoping to break world travel records. They hail
from eight different countries and they came together mainly through
previous friendships and "meetings" over the airwaves. In addition to a fun
radio trip, Beyer and the others see the adventure as a personal challenge,
a chance to see a part of the world few will ever visit and an experience
that will feed their need for excitement.

They know it won't be easy.

"Let me put it this way: It's not like going on a vacation to Disney World,"
says Al Hernandez, 58, a Melbourne engineer.

A trip to Disney World might be expensive, but it's much cheaper than this
venture's price: half a million dollars.

Some of the cost will be funded by business sponsors and DX associations. As
for the rest of the cash, team co-leader Bob Allphin, of Marietta, Ga., says
each member is shelling out more than $16,000, "for the privilege of going
to this God-forsaken place and freezing."

Way off the beaten path

Peter I was discovered in the 1820s by a Russian explorer who named it after
Peter the Great. About 100 years later, a Norwegian explorer made the first
landing on the island.

"It's a very, very difficult place to get to," says Eugene Domack, an
Antarctica scholar and professor of geosciences at Hamilton College in New
York.

It will take eight days for the group to reach Peter I. A series of flights
and boat rides will whisk the team to Chile to King George Island and
finally to Peter I. The sea voyage alone will last about four days.

But because walls of ice surround the island, Peter I is inaccessible by
ship. So from the vessel, the team members will fly in by helicopter -- and
they might have to wait a few days to do that.

After all, Peter I is moody. At times the island is placid and pristine,
with stunning mountaintop views and icebergs drifting by. Other times it
turns hostile, with zero visibility and howling winds.

"It isn't beautiful very often," says expedition co-leader Ralph Fedor, 61,
a Minnesota radiologist who visited the island in 1994.

Though it's summer right now in the Southern Hemisphere, the members should
consider leaving their Tevas and flip-flops at home. At this time of year on
Peter I, the temperature can range from a few degrees below zero to a balmy
30 degrees during the day.


It's a 15-ton picnic

Once the team reaches Peter I, the helicopter will make 50 round trips to
deliver radio equipment, as well as generators, tables, chairs, food,
kitchen supplies and other items that will sustain group members. They're
even bringing a bread maker, mainly for the comforting and morale-boosting
smell of baking bread.

Excluding food and fuel, the supplies add up to an astonishing 30,000
pounds.

The expeditioners are the kind of guys who generally pack lightly, but Peter
I is an unforgiving destination.

"You don't just bring a windbreaker and shorts," Beyer says.

Adds Allphin, 61, "We have to prepare ourselves for whatever Mother Nature
decides to throw at us.''

The team will set up camp on top of the glacier, a few hundred feet above
sea level. They will sleep in cold-weather-rated sleeping bags tucked inside
insulated tents. For safety reasons, generators will not heat their sleeping
quarters.

In addition to making radio contacts, the team will conduct scientific
research such as measuring the depth of snow, collecting rock samples and
setting up a weather station for various scientific groups as well as for a
university in Germany.

have completed their mission in a window of 21/2 weeks, they will pack up
everything -- including waste -- and return to the ship.

"We don't leave anything behind but our footprints," Hernandez says.

Hernandez's son Alberto is proud of his dad but nervous at the same time.
"If anything fails, it can be a life-or-death matter," says Alberto
Hernandez, 31, of Palm Bay.

But the risks don't seem to faze the team members.

About this time two years ago, George Nicholson of Atlanta was having bypass
surgery. Early in his recovery, he vowed he would go on the Antarctic
expedition.

True to his word, Nicholson, now 59, is part of the team. He will have with
him a banner that reads, "Heart Surgery 2004, Antarctica 2006."

When he arrives at Peter I, Nicholson plans to find a scenic spot, unfurl
the banner and have his picture taken

Gregory S. Williams
williamsgs at saic.com