Three-year project of VLBI experiments at Syowa Station, Antarctica started from February 1998 by JARE (Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition) 39 by using an 11m diameter multi-purpose antenna. Previously, VLBI experiment with the 11m antenna was carried out between Syowa Station and Tidbinbilla (Australia) in 1990 (Kurihara, 1995). At present, Syowa Station become a powerful space geodetic station colocating GPS and DORIS.

In this project, Hobert (Australia) and Hartbeesthoek (South Africa) stations are taking parts. Four experiments per year and 48 hour session for each experiment are planed among them. Already three experiments were carried out on February, May, and August in 1998. Kashima 26m antenna partially joined the experiments on February and May though the common radio sources were limited between Syowa and Kashima. Those experiments were done by S/X dual band, 8MHz 1 bit sampling and 16 channels (in total 128M bit/s). S2 systems were adopted by Hobert and Hartbeesthoek, while K4 systems were adopted by Syowa and Kashima. Preliminary reduction were done by VSOP correlator at NAO Mitaka, and fringes were detected between different VLBI systems. Detailed analysis will be done after all of Syowa's data are brought back to Japan on April 1999.