Each year, the “residents” of McMurdo Station, Antarctica, celebrate Christmas by singing Christmas Carols to those at remote Antarctic field camps on the HF radio, and 2014 is no different.

“This year, we are asking ham radio operators around the world to listen in and e-mail short-wave listening reports telling us how far away the carols are heard,” said Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, a Virginia Tech graduate student who will be part of the on-air chorus. Frissell reports that the broadcast will take place on Christmas Eve, Wednesday, December 24, on 7995 kHz USB at 2300 UTC, which will be Christmas Day in some parts of the world. Frissell requests reports via e-mail. For a Christmas in Antarctica SWL QSL card, send an SASE to his home address.

Frissell is a doctoral candidate at Virginia Tech working in space sciences at the SuperDARN HF radar laboratory at the school. He arrived in Antarctica on December 5 and is working with Principal Investigator Bill Bristow and a team from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks making major repairs to the SuperDARN facility there. While at McMurdo, he operates KC4USV in his spare time. He expects to be in Antarctica until December 30.

Back home in Southwest Virginia, he involved with the Virginia Tech Amateur Radio Association (VTARA — K4KDJ), where he is part of the club’s e VE team.