Crozet Project: Establishing radio contact with scientists on the Crozet Archipelago in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands
The University and the Southern Territories
The Faculty of Sciences at Montpellier, in partnership with the Teyran RadioClub* (F8KHR), has been selected to establish radio contact with scientists on the Crozet Archipelago in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.
From December 2022 to March 2023, an amateur radio operator, Thierry Mazel (F6CUK), will be operating amateur radio equipment in the archipelago to communicate via audio and video.
On this occasion, the REF (Network of French Research Stations) issued a call for proposals to universities and schools to organize an event that would allow many students to ask scientists questions. These islands, which are resupplied four times a year by the ship Marion Dufresne, are uninhabited except for the Alfred Faure research station. Numerous research projects on local fauna, flora, and magnetism are being conducted there.
On the initiative of Sylvie Jarrix F4HEU, a faculty member and researcher in the EEA (Electronics) Department of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Montpellier, a satellite communication ground station is being set up by students with the help of the F8KHR Radio Club. A satellite dish can be seen on the roof of Building 1 on the Triolet Campus, connected to the lab equipment used daily in teaching. The École Polytech’Montpellier is heavily involved in the project through its faculty members and Enzo Becamel, a student who is an amateur radio operator. A partnership has also been established with Lycée Joffre for two 10th-grade classes that visited the campus facilities and will be involved in asking questions.