Field Day Preparations & Arctic Anniversary

Today was an all amateur radio day. After Mass, I readied my house for a Field Day planning meeting and BBQ dinner. Field Day is a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work and a lot of planning goes into it. Shift schedules need to be organized, operators signed up, equipment and material needs to be at the right place at the right time for set up and, of course, it all needs to be working by Saturday morning at 11:00 am.

A few hours later on the same day, I had a bunch of hams over to our home for a presentation for the twentieth anniversary of the only joint United States - Soviet DXpedition to the Soviet Arctic. (For the uninitiated, a "DX" is a "distant station", so a DXpedition is an expedition to a distant station, usually somewhere quite remote and difficult to contact via radio.)

Fortunately, after our hike yesterday, I managed to find a local Russian/Georgian bakery on the internet. Off I rushed to see if I could find some Russian goodies for today's presentation. I found some piroshki (chicken and beef), some kachapuri (a Georgian cheese pastry), some Russian braided poppy seed bread, and some kind of chocolate covered meringue confection with hazelnuts. Although I intended to get some Russian vodka (Stolichnaya is the only brand I know of) for the presentation, I forgot this, so we had some good California wine instead.


The presentation was fascinating! Both the American (Tony, AB6Q) and Russian (Valeri, UA0KK) counterparts were here to talk about their experiences. Fortunately for me, our Russian guest liked the piroshki. (I figured that he would be the only one who would know if it was bad!)

We also got to see footage that they shot on location. The DXpedition was to the town of Pevek which is on an island in the Siberian Arctic, where there is snow 11 months out of the year. Pevek is a very small town whose main industry is herding reindeer, although it is rich in minerals and there has been uranium mining as well. Because of Pevek's close proximity to the international border, special permission was (and perhaps still is) needed to go there. Pevek's history is also intimately tied to the gulag era, when 11,000 people were sent to its four camps to work in the mines until they died.

The Russians, many of whom had never met a foreigner let alone an American, welcomed their American guests with open arms. Much of their hospitality was captured on tape and I was glad that I could return some of that hospitality for this evening's Russian guest. We all had a great time, and enjoyed both a little bit of history and Russian culture.