-

The station is at or near maximum capacity now. There have still been no trips to the pole and all the folks for the pole are here. It is crowded. You have to plan when you do things to make sure you can get them done such as laundry. I hear that we are getting at least 3 trips to pole tomorrow. That will be good. It has been unseasonably cool at pole. The rule is that the LC-130s don't land when it is colder than -50 F. It has been -60F at the pole all last week. Cool indeed.

Here is a picture of me struggling with the Antarctica climate at Gallager's at McMurdo. It is a non-smoking bar. The folks who tend bar are moonlighters. They have regular station jobs but also tend bar for minimum wage. The other picture is after the halloween party at about 11:30 PM. This is sea ice on the Ross Sea. This ice will break up and ships will come in this area in February. Right now they are landing C-17s LC-130s, Twin Otters and Baslers (turbine powered DC-3s) on the ice runway. The runway will move to Wiley field in a couple of months. Wiley is on the "Permanent" Ice Shelf. It is all pretty impressive especially when you realize we have a Microwave Landing System out there for ultra precision approaches. Better equipment than almost every airport in the US.

I got on the air (40 meters and 20 Meters) a couple of hours ago (0300 UTC). I did not make any contacts. However, 20 sounded like it might be opening up. I am going to go back up there in a little bit and try again. We have established a Ham Radio club. We had our first meeting this morning.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
MotoSat My friend Pete called yesterday from I 81 near Scranton. He was twisting up the differential on his pickup while trailering his camper. The differential was making a lot of noise and he had just got some work done to it. Luckily, the camper and truck made it to whitney point. I agreed to pull the trailer with my truck to Rochester for him to lighten the load on his truck. It was a large camper, about 28 feet and 8000 lbs. My truck felt it was pulling something that's for sure. It was a different experience. We got home after midnight.
Read more
-
Image
Llama - Llama glama Professor had his surgery today. We removed a hunk of grizzely tissue about the size of a large eyeball from the side of his left foot. He behaved great!. We now have him locked in the llama house with his buddy Aries. The vet used a local in his foot. They had pictures with them to help figure out the foot anatomy of the llama.
Read more
-
Image
It is Thursday night. It is American night over at Scott Base (the New Zealand base). It is a couple miles away. I didn't much feel like going so I didn't. My ankle is a lot better. Today a co-worker and installed a radio with a battery/solar charger in a fuel pump house. Of course that was just a small fraction of what was done today. I received a satellite call from the folks out at Taylor Dome. They said I can slept in a heated module or with some of others who are camping outside. They said it was cold. That means (it takes a while to figure what cold means with all the unspoken context) it is between 25 and 50 below. I told them I will decide when I get there. I have to help them decide whether to dig up an antenna they see 5 feet of. The rest is buried in the snow. I am pretty sure it is a minimum of 35 feet tall which means 30 feet is under snow since 1996 (when it was supposedly installed). It does not snow a lot here but it did today. The snow really gets moved aro
Read more

John McEuen Live in Duluth GA

-
Image
We went to see John McEuen live at our local music venue about a mile from the house. John was a founding member of the Nitty Grity Dirt Band. It was great to hear the music and stories and to be there and experience. Their biggest hit was Mr. Bojangles. But there was a interesting smattering of stringed instruments in strange places over the years in different genres and cultures.
Read more
-
Image
The Weird Site -A classy selection of weird, strange and bizarre web sites and news facts. Today was a strange day. Not that every day is strange, but today I decided to recognize today as strange. I woke up 5:00 am and got the fire going again, surfed the web, drank coffee, made the usual to-do list. Started on the mead process, burned garbage, fed llamas, fed chickens. Started on ebay process, sold three items on ebay, and listed the llama beans. Thought about work and scenarios Got fire going again... needed serious reconfig in firebox. Some of the fingers used to hold fire became disjointed. CAUGHT CAT ON FIRE!... The orange cat (Tioga) came up to me on my computer stinking, looking for affection. He was rubbing on me and me and the monitor, and the desk, meowing... I thought it was outside rolling in the garbage or something, but no he had somehow caught himself on fire... what a dip sh#t. Anyway, he is no worse for the wear. I found the large bit o
Read more