The Soviet–Canadian 1988 Polar Bridge Expedition (also known as Skitrek) began on March 3, 1988, when a group of thirteen Russian and Canadian skiers set out from Siberia, in an attempt to ski to Canada over the North Pole. The nine Russians and four Canadians reached the pole on 25 April and concluded their trek on Wednesday, June 1, 1988, when they reached Ward Hunt Island, Ellesmere, Northern Canada. At the North Pole, they were welcomed by a group of dignitaries from the Soviet Union and Canada, members of the international press, and radio amateurs involved in support and communications.
The daily progress of the skiers was followed by many thousands of school children and radio amateurs around the world. They listened to the voice synthesizer on board the UoSAT-OSCAR-11 satellite, which transmitted the latest known position of the expedition in FM on the two-meter VHF amateur radio band, using digitised voice; and to progress reports, produced regularly by AMSAT-NA,Richard Ensign, Transpolar Skitrek Progress Reports #1-20, 1988 which were distributed worldwide through amateur packet radio and orbiting amateur radio satellites.
Background In the autumn of 1986, a group of Soviet scientists and radio amateurs made plans to ski to the South Pole, starting at the Antarctic coast. They intended to use amateur shortwave radio for all their communication with the outside world, especially the support stations in Moscow. However, it is not a good idea to rely on radio propagation conditions to the other side of the world, even with a support station on the Antarctic continent itself; so, in November, 1986, the University of Surrey (UoS) UoSAT centre was contacted to investigate the feasibility of using the UoSAT-OSCAR-11 satellite to relay information to the skiers.University of Surrey, UoSAT group, correspondence between Dr M Sweeting, then head of the UoSAT department, and Mr Pat Gowen G3IOR, Norwich, UK on behalf of Leonid Labutin UA3CR, Moscow (Radio Amateurs)
Since UoSAT-2 (a.k.a. UO-11 or UoSAT-Oscar-11) is a Sun-synchronous polar orbiting satellite in a low Earth orbit, it passes over the poles every 98 minutes and a small handheld receiver with a simple whip aerial is sufficient to get a few minutes of excellent reception on each pass. By the end of 1987, while preparations were under way in the USSR, it was decided that the expedition would not take place at the South Pole, but instead at the North Pole; and the team would consist not only of Soviets, but a few experienced Canadian skiers as well. This time they would not only ski to the pole but continue their trek to Canada. The objective thus became to ski across the Arctic Ocean from the Siberian coast, via the North Pole, to the Canadian coast. The expedition started on March 3, 1988, and finished on June 1, when the skiers reached the small Ward Hunt Island just off Cape Columbia at Ellesmere Island, Northern Canada. The expedition was privately organized by 'Komsomolskaya Pravda', (the Soviet Youth Newspaper). Sponsors were the Soviet Youth Travel Agency 'Sputnik', and McDonald's restaurants of Canada.Soviet Canadian Polar Bridge Expedition Canadian Project Manager was the Polar Bridge Company,Polar Bridge: An Arctic Odyssey] by Richar Weber, Laurie Dexter, Christopher Holloway, Max Buxton, Key Porter Books, 1990 a group organized by the Canadian skiers.
Communications All the necessary equipment for the route was carried in rucksacks. No sledges, dogs or other transport vehicles were used, other than six airdrops of new supplies, carried out by Russian and Canadian planes. The Canadian and Russian skiers trained in both Canada and Siberia during the months prior to the expedition and also tried to learn to speak and understand each other's language. The main obstacles during the 95–100 days were open water, pressure ridges, thin ice, blizzards and very low temperatures, (-50 °C). They were medically examined before and after the expedition.
The Russian group consisted of:members of the expedition expedition leader and Arctic explorer Dmitry Shparo; photographer Alexander (Sasha) Belyayev, also in charge of meals; artist Fyodor Konyukhev; cameraman Vladimir Ledenev; physician Mikhail (Misha) Malakhov; radio operators Anatoli Melnikov and Vasili Shishkaryov; Anatoly Fedyakov who was responsible for equipment; and researcher Yuri Hmelevsky. The four Canadians were: navigator Richard Weber; radio operator Laurie Dexter; doctor Max Buxton; and scientist Chris Holloway. (See List of firsts in the Geographic North Pole).
Communications were handled via HF (shortwave) amateur radio between the skiers and support stations on and near the Arctic Ocean, and headquarters in Moscow and Ottawa. Special amateur radio call signs, CI8UA and EXOVE, were allocated for the expedition; and prefixes, CI8 and EX, for the support stations. The University of Surrey's orbiting space satellite UoSAT-OSCAR-11 was used to relay the position of the group, using the on-board Digitalker,UoSAT-2 helped bridge the Pole (a computer speech synthesizer). At this time, before the advent of GPS, the position of the group was obtained by celestial measurements made by skiers themselves, and by using a beacon or Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) to send signals to be picked up by one of the COSPAS and SARSAT 'Search and Rescue' satellites when it flies overhead. Like the UoSAT satellite, they are in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), flying over the poles every 95–98 minutes. The position is calculated by command and tracking stations in Moscow and Canada, using the on-board stored date and time of the signal, and the measured Doppler effect, (a shift in frequency due to the relative velocity between the beacon and the satellite). The skiers could not do the translation to degrees longitude and latitude, because this would require special receivers and computers. Once processed, the data was sent directly to the skiers via shortwave amateur radio, (radio propagation conditions permitting), and by telex or shortwave radio (digital packet radio or voice) to the UoSAT command station at the University of Surrey in Guildford, Surrey, UK. There the information was subsequently loaded into the UoSAT-OSCAR-11 Digitalker. To listen to the satellite, the skiers carried ICOM u2AT handhelds, which were donated by ICOM and tested at very low temperatures, (-50 °C).
The shortwave radio equipment used by the expedition was a Soviet-made solid state 10 watt transceiver. It weighed 1.2 kilograms without batteries and had six fixed, crystal controlled frequencies for single-sideband (SSB) operation on the 80, 40 and 20 meter amateur radio bands. The 2 kg lithium battery provided the 2.2 amps at 12 V required to operate the transceiver for about a month, one hour per day, at low temperatures. The antenna for the system was an inverted-V with the mast made of five skis fitted together. The limited lifetime of the batteries was one of the reasons that there was generally no contact between radio 'Hams' and the skiers, other than with the support stations.TRANSPOLAR SKITREK PROGRESS REPORT #1: February 1, 1988
Uploads from the control station at the University of Surrey to the polar orbiting UoSAT satellite were delayed six to seven hours because the satellite only comes in range during two daily 'windows': two or three passes in the morning and two or three passes in the evening. The satellite flies over the North Pole every 98 minutes.UoSAT-2 Data sheet, University of Surrey, UoSAT group, 1986
Each day around 1100 GMT the skiers rested for about eight hours and switched on their ELTs for about two hours. During this period the COSPAS/SARSAT satellites passed at least once. When the satellites came in range of their ground stations in Moscow or Ottawa, the information was downloaded and processed. The resulting position in degrees longitude and latitude was then passed on to the Ski-Trek amateur radio support stations.
The skiers got this information via the support stations in the USSR and Canada on their shortwave radio and by listening to the UoSAT-2 satellite. The support stations were manned and set up by amateur radio volunteers in remote areas, close to or on the Arctic Ocean at: Resolute Bay on Ellesmere Island, NWT, Canada (CI8C) Sredniy Island, a small Island in the Arctic Ocean near Severnaya Zemlia, Siberia (EX0KP) Soviet drifting ice island North-Pole 28, near the North-Pole (4K0DC and 4K0DX) Dikson Island, North Siberia, USSR (4K0DR) the University of Surrey 'Electronics And Radio Society' (ears) radio station in the UK () and UoSAT Control Station for UoSAT-OSCAR-11 communications
Digitalker One of the problems was composing, from a limited vocabulary, a proper DIGITALKER message for the expedition. The speech chips on board the satellite had about 500 words, some with an American accent, others with an English accent. The manufacturers actually used human voices which were digitised, not unlike the Compact Disc technique, but with fewer samples per second. Words such as NORTH, WEST, EAST, POSITION, LATITUDE, and LONGITUDE were not available, and new words could not be added. Fortunately, they did have DEGREE, TIME, and DATE.
The following message format was chosen, (with sample values):
<Two warning tones> NUMBER 0 PRIORITY 0 0 0 DATE FIRST OF MARCH TIME 12 HOURS AND 0 MINUTES GMT YOU ARE AT 80 DEGREES 12 POINT 3 MINUTES N AND 90 DEGREES 87.6 MINUTES E 73 FROM UOSAT see here for an audio recording.
The number would increase for every new position report, (typically once per day). The priority was an emergency code, for when all communication with the skiers failed. Assuming they could still listen to UoSAT, it gave the possibility to acknowledge the last received message and indicate the action taken, like sending a plane or helicopter, if necessary. This feature was not needed. '73' is amateur radio speak, (originating from Morse code), for 'Greetings and Good Bye'.
This unprecedented hybrid link, involving ELTs, SARSAT/COSPAS, voice or telex and UoSAT-OSCAR-11 was known as NORDSKI COMM.Newspaper De Telegraaf (Netherlands) Saturday 1 June 1988 'STEM UIT DE HEMEL LEIDT POOLEXPEDITIE' (voice from heaven leads polar expedition) (article about the use of 'talking satellite' UoSAT-2 for the polar ski-trek expedition) It was the co-primary navigation tool for the skiers; celestial navigation was the other, more traditional, method.
The Expedition
The start was delayed two days by bad weather preventing the airplane taking off for Sredniy. As the skiers set out, temperatures were around -47 °C with occasional blizzards. It was still polar night which would end at the start of spring, 23 May. Unexpectedly for those not familiar with Arctic regions, the skiers reported many leads of open water. They didn't use their single man boats, opting to try to go around the lead, or wait until the gap narrowed. The main cause of this open water