ARKHANGELSK, July 8. /TASS/. A short-wave communication channel will connect Franz Josef Land’s Hooker Island, a part of the Russian Arctic national park, with the mainland. According to the park’s Deputy Director Roman Perkhunov, the new communication channel will be used for sending information via the Internet.
"We shall have a short-wave communication between the Hooker Island and the Alexandra Land Island, and thus [people at the base on the Hooker Island] will have communication with the mainland," he told TASS. "We have bought special antennas and equipment, and now we are formalizing [use of certain] short-wave frequencies, and, as soon as the documents are ready, we shall launch this "electronic bridge", people will be able to use electronic mail on the Internet and, possibly, voice communication."
The year-round Omega base on Alexandra Land has stable Internet connection, and the base will be sued as a switchboard for communication with the mainland.
"At Alexandra Land we have our own station - a satellite access to the Internet," he added. The national park’s Director Alexander Kirillov told TASS the base on the Hooker Island is using only satellite telephone communication, "which is very expensive."
The procedure of obtaining necessary formal permissions to use short-wave channels is very time-consuming, the deputy director said. "The involved are the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Defense Ministry, the television - all those, who use those channels; then goes necessary expert judgement, followed by an official permission," he explained. It is not possible to have an UHF communication between the islands. "The distance is more than 100km, no direct visibility, and besides here is the George Land Island with its high glaciers," the director said.
The national park’s base on the Hooker Island is located where the first Soviet polar station, Tikhaya Bay, on Franz Josef Land worked between 1929 to 1957. Nowadays, this island is a base center for scientific expeditions and the archipelago’s tourist center. In good weather conditions, all cruises to Franz Josef Land come here.
The Russian Arctic national park is the northernmost and Russia’s biggest natural reserve, which unites the Franz Josef Land archipelago and the northern part of Novaya Zemlya.