Researchers from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute conducted a short-wave radio communication session between the Novolazarevskaya Antarctic station and the North Pole ice-resistant platform drifting in the Arctic Ocean somewhere at 85 degrees.

The distance between the interlocutors was more than 18,000 km. The parties exchanged information about their location and signal level.

The signal was established at a frequency of 7.074 MHz with a digital mode of communication (FT8) and a signal level of 12 (in both directions). The radio had 800 watts of output power and a horizontal rhombic antenna at the Novolazarevskaya station.

"Shortwave radio communication is an alternative to space-based communication systems or the internet, and allows for the rapid transmission of small amounts of digital information," says a message on the institute's website.

The first Arctic-Antarctic radio contact took place back in 1955 between the North Pole-3 drifting research station and the Slava whaling flotilla. During the first transmission, flotilla captain Alexei Solyanik and SP-3 expedition commander Alexei Treshnikov exchanged greetings via radiograms on behalf of the crews.