## 1 Introduction
Having long data series in a givenlocation provides information on the time evolution of the physical magnitude being measured, which is essential to many studies, such as those related to the secular variation of the main magnetic field in our case, or those related to the 11-year solar cycle variation. The availability of 17 years of geomagnetic data at LIV, for example, enables to average out transient effects in magnetic and ionospheric data, which otherwise would be biased by natural reasons, or at least would provide an incomplete vision of the real behavior. The aim of the observatory is thus to monitor both the geomagnetic and ionospheric activity and to send the data to Spain at any time so it can be analyzed and processed in real-time even when the ASJI is unattended during the austr winter. Until today, only a part of the recorded geomagnetic data from just one of our two variometers in operation (see Section 3.1 below) can be sent to Ebre Observatory using the facilities provided by the INTErnational Real-time MAGnetic observatory NETwork (INTERMAGNET). This is accomplished by means of a Data Collection Platform (DCP), which packs and sends these essential one-minute three-component data to the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-East (GOES-E), operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Data are collected by the so-called INTERMAGNET Geomagnetic Information Node (GIN) in Ottawa, and made available to us via FTP. However, the primary data, sampled at 1 and 10 s rates from our two variometers, cannot be transmitted because of their huge  
Figure 1: Map of the stations in the vicinity of Livingston Island Observatory with a current geomagnetic observatory (green pins), ionosonde (purple pins), and both a geomagnetic observatory and an ionosonde (yellow pins). The three-letter IAGA code is included in the geomagnetic observatory names. Geographic coordinates are in red and geomagnetic coordinates (valid for 2005) in yellow. volume, and can only be stored in memory devices that will not be downloaded until the next summer season. Mainly with the aim of transmitting this important primary data, during the 2003-2004 survey the authors that sign this paper, along with several other collaborators, started a research project with the objective of providing the remote geomagnetic observatory in the ASJI with HF data transmission. The project also included implementing both the new vertical incidence and the long-haul oblique ionospheric sounders. Therefore, as far as data transmission from our sensors in Antarctica is concerned, we distinguish between satellite communications and HF transmission through ionospheric reflection. The main features of the two means are explained below:  
Satellite communications are not always available since equatorial geostationary satellites are hardly visible from near the poles. The communication capabilities of meteorological satellites such as those of the GOES program are indeed a good choice within approximately the 75\({}^{\circ}\) great circle arc of the sub-satellite point, although in locations with free-sky views this can be extended to 80\({}^{\circ}\), which means transmitting through less than 5\({}^{\circ}\) of elevation antennas [11]. Thus, as stated above, satellite transmission is not an inconvenience because of the relatively northward location of LIV, but the time-slots allowed for the INTERMAGNET observatories are so short that only less than 200 bytes of data can be transmitted every 12 min, which limits the data transmission capability of this option. The Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) program consists of a pair of satellites, which ensures that every part of the Earth is regularly observed at least twice every 12 h [12,13]. Transmission of data through polar satellites is possible thanks to the Argos system [14], but the amount of information that can be sent per day is, again, very small.