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July Greenland Trip
29 August 2015 | by Made a quick trip to Greenland for three days in July to work on some equipment there. I did not get on the air due to work activities and operation of the incoherent scatter radar whose modulator trashes the HF bands if you’re close to it (i.e., same building). A few photos, though. These were all shot with an iPhone 5s, nothing fancy.
3 Responses to “July Greenland Trip”
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Nice pictures Ethan
Ron W0EAX
Hello Ethan,
Many thanks for the nice pics you passed along. I feel sorry that you couldn’t get on the Amateur Bands whilist visiting Greenland. It would have been nice to have worked you, particularly on Six Meters! I wasn’t aware that radar QRM was a problem there, but due to a picture of the dish you passed along I can see why – hi!
I wonder if the radar QRM is omnipresent and on what Amateur Bands it’s most prevalent. Just curious. I’ve never been to Greenland but think it would be a most enjoyable and educational experience. If I could get on the radio while visiting there it would make for some gigunda pileups and lots of fun!
73. Joe Cro N3IBX
Thanks for the comments, both Ron and Joe.
Joe, the radar is a megawatt-class L-band (1.3 GHz, very close to the amateur band, actually) system. The modulator (4PR400, believe it or not) trashes HF if you’re really close to the radar (in the same building). Once you get away from the radar even a km or two, it dissipates, probably conducted through the wiring or something. But, I was staying in the bunkhouse attached to the radar building! I’ll see if I can get a couple more pictures onto the blog in the next day or two.
The dishes for the troposcatter system were high-power, high-duty cycle in their heyday, but those are all QRT…relics of the Cold War. The L-band radar has a massive dish on a destroy gun mount. It’s impressive.
Greenland is really remarkable. Two past trips were documented here in a little more detail:
http://www.k8gu.com/?p=1143
http://www.k8gu.com/?p=1446