Diesel generators. As you can imagine this created an ongoing logistics need, although that wasn't as big of an issue as it may sound because the stations had relatively large crews and so already required regular delivery of supplies and new personnel. The method depended on the station but it was mostly done by sea or air.
Around the same time period the USSR was experimenting with lighthouses and remote monitoring equipment powered by RTGs, and on this side of the iron curtain McMurdo station had a small nuclear reactor. However RTGs produced much too little power for these stations and portable reactors were a very experimental technology that was abandoned for a number of reasons you can likely imagine. The RTGs turned out to be a bad idea as well because they now form a sort of sleeping environmental hazard in much of the arctic region, most of them slipped into the water and presumably the casing is slowly corroding away.
As a slightly related fact of interest, due to the ongoing need for crew there is a duplicate of a DEW line station located near Streator, IL which was used for training new personnel before they made the long trip north. It includes a troposcatter link to a small station in another town for training radio operators.
Around the same time period the USSR was experimenting with lighthouses and remote monitoring equipment powered by RTGs, and on this side of the iron curtain McMurdo station had a small nuclear reactor. However RTGs produced much too little power for these stations and portable reactors were a very experimental technology that was abandoned for a number of reasons you can likely imagine. The RTGs turned out to be a bad idea as well because they now form a sort of sleeping environmental hazard in much of the arctic region, most of them slipped into the water and presumably the casing is slowly corroding away.
As a slightly related fact of interest, due to the ongoing need for crew there is a duplicate of a DEW line station located near Streator, IL which was used for training new personnel before they made the long trip north. It includes a troposcatter link to a small station in another town for training radio operators.