[1] Our research group in Electromagnetism and Communications is involved in a project dealing with the channel characterization of an ionospheric radio link from the Spanish Antarctic Base (62.6°S, 60.4°W) to the Observatori de l'Ebre (40.8°N, 0.5°E) in Spain. Since the link was established for the first time on December 2003, the sounder and measurement techniques have been improved on the basis of the preliminary results. In this paper, the final results of the project corresponding to the 2006/2007 sounding survey are presented. First the hardware and measurement techniques used to probe the channel are described. Then the results in terms of channel availability (and its daily, hourly, and frequency variation), multipath and Doppler spreads, and signal-to-noise ratio are discussed. These results are being used to design the physical layer of a low data rate transmission system intended to send the information acquired by a geomagnetic sensor in the Antarctica.

[1] A vertical incidence sounder (VIS) was installed at the Spanish Antarctic Base (62.7°S, 299.6°E) during the Antarctic summer survey [2004][2005]. In addition, an oblique sounding (OS) system for HF communications between Antarctica and Spain (12,700 km) has been operated during the Antarctic summers since December 2003. OS results are compared to Rec533 model and to VIS data obtained from stations located along the radio path, including VIS stations at the emitter and receiver sites. The results presented in this paper show the potential of this infrastructure for ionospheric monitoring and research purposes at and from polar regions. The results also show that relevant information (e.g., maximum received frequency) of very long range radio links can be obtained from appropriate VIS stations along the path.

Boulder specializing in GNSS applications, astrodynamics, and satellite navigation. He received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and is currently employed there as a research assistant for the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research. His research interests are in GNSS RFI detection, localization, and mitigation. Dennis M. Akos completed the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at Ohio University within the Avionics Engineering Center. He has since served as a faculty member with Luleå Technical University, Sweden, and then as a researcher with the GPS Laboratory at Stanford University. Currently he is a faculty member with the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder and maintains a visiting appointments at Stanford University and an affiliation with

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