Bad Weather and Iceberg Interrupt VP8 DXpedition

South Thule and South Georgia
Islands are both located in the Southern
Ocean off Antarctica. (Map courtesy
Wikimedia Commons)

The operators of a DXpedition to Southern Thule (VP8STI) and South Georgia (VP8SGI) Islands had to cut short the first part of their operation in late January after a severe storm caused a large ice floe on Southern Thule to break away and threaten to block access to bay where they were camped. 

The ARRL reported that the captain of their transport vessel declared an emergency on January 25 and ordered everyone back on board the ship. The crew was able to secure the station equip- ment from the island the next day before setting sail for the second part of the operation on South Georgia. The ops logged more than 50,000 QSOs from VP8STI before being forced to shut down.