90 Degrees South,
107 Degrees Below Zero
Zetron Consoles on the Coldest Continent
For more than 48 years, the United States has maintained a
continuous presence at 90 degrees south-the South Pole. Named
after the first two explorers to reach the pole, AmundsonScott South Pole Station is home to scientists and engineers
conducting studies in the Antarctic and its surrounding ocean.
The United States Antarctic Program, managed by the National
Science Foundation (NSF), provides support for science
operations and facilities maintenance.
“Amundson-Scott South Pole Station is a U.S.-owned and funded
operation,” explains Gin Manuppella, a Project Coordinator with
the United States Antarctic Program,” but scientists from around
the world apply for grants so they can conduct research here.”
Some of these grants are awarded for research in the
atmospheric sciences, earth sciences, glaciology, biology,
meteorology, oceanography, astronomy and many other
scientific and engineering disciplines.
The current South Pole station is a geodesic dome designed to
withstand the gale-force Antarctic winds that can blow for days.
However, after decades of use, the facilities are becoming dated
and the dome is slowly disappearing under years of accumulated
snow and ice. Case Study | Amundson-Scott South Pole Station
A ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules transport aircraft flies in much-needed supplies and personnel.
A hostel in the inhospitable:
The new Amundson-Scott South Pole Station, currently under
construction, is scheduled to be completed in 2007. Made of
giant, double-skinned, structurally insulated panel “boxes”
assembled on-site, the entire structure rests on steel pillars that
keep it elevated above the snow pack. The pillars also allow the
building to be gradually raised as snow accumulates beneath it.
“During a typical austral summer (October-February) the South
Pole base is home to around 100 to 120 people,” Manuppella
adds “That number is currently closer to two hundred-fifty
because of the construction workers building the new station.
During this particular winter, the station is being manned by a
contingency of 86 people, but typically that’s closer to 45.”
Mission-Critical Communications:
With researchers and construction crews living and working
in the severe climactic extremes of the Antarctic, reliable
communications are an absolute necessity. What’s more, the
radio system must provide total coverage for every aspect
of operations at the Amundson-Scott base, whether that is
construction crews building the new facility, researchers out on
the ice, or base personnel working at the generating plant or
outlying buildings, some of which are as far as five miles away.
MPT 1327:
The challenge of providing a state-of-the art communication
system for the new Amundson-Scott base is being accomplished
through a collaboration of contractors and sub-contractors.
Pericle Communications of Colorado Springs, Colorado, (a
consulting engineering company specializing in wireless
communications) is responsible for designing the new radio
system in partnership with KNS Communications Consulting.
“The station’s existing system is conventional radio with no
trunking,” explains Dan Mieszala, Vice President of Radio
Planning with Pericle Communications. “We found that certain
frequencies were blocking a lot, while others weren’t used that
much. We performed a needs assessment and looked at all
the new station’s requirements. Originally, the NSF had leaned
toward a large and complex P25 system. But with a maximum of
around 250 summer season occupants, a P25 system would have
been overkill-especially since it doesn’t have to interface with
other systems, as there is nothing else within 800 miles of the
South Pole.”
After reviewing all the possible options, Pericle Communications
recommended an MPT 1327 trunking system.
“MPT 1327 was chosen for the advanced feature sets like digital
paging, plus the call groups setup complemented the operational
needs of the station,” Mieszala adds. “There was also a concern
for redundancy and MPT 1327 has the redundant control
channel capability. If a control channel goes out, the system
automatically goes to the next channel. MPT 1327 is also an
international standard, so there’s support close by on the New
Zealand mainland if needed. Plus there’s growing support for
MPT 1327 here in the US.”
The MPT 1327 system designed by Pericle Communications
uses Kenwood K385 Portable Radios and Kenwood repeaters
in conjunction with Zetron MPT 1327 controllers and three
positions of Zetron’s Integrator RD radio dispatch console.
“There are five channels on the system,” Mieszala says, “which
should be overkill for 250 people. We have five Zetron Model
827 Trunking System Controllers plus spares, two Model 427
Trunking Controllers and the Model 4020 Common Control Unit
MPT 1327 was chosen for the
advanced feature sets like digital
paging, plus the call groups setup
complemented the operational
needs of the station.”
Satellite communications provide a link to the outside world. The photos
shows the bottom of the MARISAT radome under construction.
with Aux. I/O. We designed the system so it could be expanded.
The RFP called for two years’ of growth, but when we did the
needs analysis we planned for the maximum.”
At the heart of the system are two positions of Zetron’s
Integrator RD Radio Dispatch Console which will be located in the
station’s operations center. A third Integrator position has been
installed as an on-line spare in the Emergency Communications
Room. The Zetron radio consoles will be tied in with the analog
PBX (Public Telephone Exchange) and the VoIP (Voice Over
Internet Protocol) system.
A unique RF challenge:
The South Pole is one of the quietest radio environments in
the world. As such, it provides a perfect location for scientists
engaged in radio astronomy and many different aspects of radio
research. Because of this, the station’s radio system had be
kept as “quiet” as possible to keep spurious RF emissions from
interfering with sensitive scientific experiments.
“The NSF is very concerned about RF emissions at the South
Pole Base,” Mieszala says, “so we have special harmonic filters,
dual junction isolators, and high quality cavity combiners on
the transmit system to control out of band emissions. Also, the
receive system is carefully set up to preclude the possibility of
noise created by the inverter.”
While the system had to be RF “quiet,” it also had to provide
penetration through steel buildings and structures either partially
or completely buried.
“We had to include an in-building, distributed antenna system
that’s interfaced to the radio system,” Mieszala says. “Plus there’s
an 1800 foot long tunnel six meters under the snow that will be
fitted with a Radiax® antenna system.”
A number of the station’s outbuildings were not included in the
original spec, but should the NSF wish to add those at a later
date, that will not pose a problem thanks to the use of a fiber-fed
system. Extending coverage will simply require running additional
fiber to the outbuildings and installing free radiating antennas.
World’s longest service call?
The radio console equipment was supplied by Bear
Valley Communications and its consulting division KNS
Communications Consulting, which bid the project as a
subcontractor with Pericle Communications. Because of
the distances involved, flying out technicians to install and
troubleshoot equipment was not an option. Instead, Bear Valley
Communications configured the system and mocked up the
install at its own location prior to shipping the equipment, as
company owner Sue Thomas explains:
“My job was to label every wire, draw very detailed schematics,
and document everything so the engineer can reassemble the
system once it arrives at the South Pole.”
At the time of writing, the equipment has arrived at the ScottAmundson base and is scheduled to be installed during the
Austral winter by U.S. Polar Services’ Engineer Michael Ray. In
order to get to the South Pole station, Ray had to catch a flight
from Los Angeles to New Zealand. From New Zealand, Ray
boarded a military transport aircraft which flew to the McMurdo
station on the coast of Antarctica. The final leg of his journey
involved a flight from McMurdo to the Amundson-Scott base in
an LC-130 Hercules cargo aircraft fitted with skis for landing on
ice and snow-packed ski-way.
This might just be the world’s longest service call! The Advantage
will update its readers when the system is up and running.
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005-7435B August 2014
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