My Earthlink email is working again for the time being. The yahoo address is good for backup if I don't respond.
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It has been a pretty exciting day. The photos speak for themselves. Well, almost. I was out in the dry valleys fixing a repeater and was along for the ride measuring the ice edge. We saw whales, seals, and penguins. I went up to the hamshack and I talked with Alex from the Russian Vostok Station. That is good DX for Antartica ham radio. Vostok Station holds the record for the coldest temerature ever recorded on earth. It was -129 degrees below zero F in 1983. That is cold. It does get colder than -100 at the pole but -129 is really something. It is exciting here, but I do miss home and Bonnie. I have having serious problems with my earthlink email again (The problems is entirely at Earthlink's end). If you need to get a hold of me use chazd13736@yahoo.com
Today was kind of slow. I fixed a bunch of stuff and got soem stuff done but overall it was pretty slow. There is an ice cream machine in the galley named "Frosty Boy". It is a self serve soft ice cream machine that dispenses vanilla ice cream. When Frosty Boy is broken or out of premix the Antarcticans become restless and irritable. It is important to ensure Frosty Boy is functioning. Here is a picture of me on the ham tower the other day. It is only 30 feet. The other picture is of the bowling alley machine. The lanes are really warped and the pins are set by hand. It truely is a museum piece. I heard Brunswick wanted to buy it back.
Isn't ice amazing. Today was a good day off. It even felt like a day off. My activities for today started with a fantastic breakfast as an encore from an awesome Thankgiving feast last night. I had my favorite food in the whole world as shown in the photo, smoked salmon with red onions and capers, two custom fried eggs, a salt bagel, a fresh biscuit, cranberry juice, coffee, a slice of melon and some assorted cheeses. I had Mike take this photo of my breakfast. Antarctica is very harsh, just not this morning. Note the two "green brains", one in my pocket and one on the table. After that we went up to the ham shack as a encore of my most-excellent contacts last night from Japan, Patriot Hills Antarctica and Pacific marine mobiles. I got my climbing harness on and climbed the tower to rotate the tri-band antenna more towards North America. The 20 meter amateur radio band is tricky down here. We have to follow the dark line. We are still experimenting with some very
Today is Saturday. This is the day the station celebrates Thanksgiving. Since I did not reserve a seating slot because I was out of town I asked what I was supposed to do. I was told to attend the 7:00 PM seating. I will meet up with a co-worker at the 7:00 PM seating since he just got back into town after 10 days at WAIS (West Antarctica Ice Sheet) deep field camp. The day after he got back to McMurdo he went up on top of a new repeater site mountain called Mt. Aztec. Everything keeps moving around here, especially the Comms guys. The experience out at Taylor Dome was something worthy of deep reflection. It was more harsh than I originally expected. I am surprised a little that I didn't expect it to be as harsh as it was, but it was. The camp was not totally organized as it might have been (definition of a camp I suppose). It reminded me a little of what someone tells you what a visit to Sub-Saharian Africa is like. It always seems deeper and worse than can be adequately describ
Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for the family and friends I have back home. I am thankful for the molecules that bring warmth through combustion. I am thankful for the molecules that make me warm through digestion. I am thankful for water that gives rejuvination. I am thankful for the person that lifted the other side of a load when they saw I was struggling. I am thankful for being there so I could help someone with a load when I saw they were struggling. It is that simple. I am back at McMurdo Station, (AKA, Mactown, The Rock, Mud Town and others.) My experience out at Taylor Dome was extreme. It was an experience I shall not easy discard as I make decisions and realize what is important. It was a focusing experience. It was a part of a peak experience. McMurdo is not Antarctica. Antarctica is out there in the deep field camps. I slept out in my tent on the polar plateau at -30 degrees. I worked on the roofs at -40 degrees. I got the radios installed, worked on some sol
The reality has finally hit. I will be away for the holidays. We will all get through it that's for sure, but reality has a way of resisting all other thought. Not only will I be away from home and NY, the United States, I will even be away from "Antarctica". I will be at the very small camp at Taylor dome almost for sure. In actuality is is probably better to be out in the field camp (tell ya the truth) than here. The culture and customs are very strong in Mactown. It is like having your holiday at a stranger's house (not by their invitation). I told my boss about what I had heard the temperatures were at Taylor dome and he assured me those were windchill temperature. That doesn't count. I go by real temperatures. It probably won't be colder than -25F. I feel a lot more confident. Work is going well. I get the chance to fix all sorts of electronic stuff. I was working on solar panels, transmit combiners and PRC-1099s today. My ankle really went around t
Weather hold again. This time we made it to the shuttle van to go to the ice runway. I heard that it is between -40 and -70 degrees F at Taylor Dome and the heater is not working in the living module. I am ready. Getting my ECW on and taking it off is a pain in the neck. A small price to pay. There is a possibility we will fly this afternoon. Here is a really nice picture of an adelie at Cape Evans.
Weather cancellation again. The weather is quite unpredictable here. We are going to try again Tuesday. Rumor has it that we will fly Thursday. Who knows. We celebrate Thanksgiving down here on Saturday so we can have two days off in a row. During the summer season we get three two-day weekends. One of these is for Thanksgiving. The other two are for Christmas and New Year's.
I spent the afternoon at the Crary Laboratory. These critters, yes living, are in the scientific aquarium. I was encouraged to pick them up and hold them. I jumped at the chance. I also spent time with the seabed cores just brought back by the Andrill project. They are currently at 200 meters into the seabed. They are trying to get down 1200+ meters this season. I went into the shop today to cut a dipole antenna special for 14.243 MHz. I will be transmitting with a solar recharged manpack transceiver from my tent. I will be using the callsign KC4/N2TYQ. I probably won't post tomorrow morning before my flight. Unless my flight is delayed or cancelled again I will be back in town Wednesday or Thursday.
Yesterday six emperor penguins decided to walk on through the airfield on their way to who knows where. I saw them. I did not get as close as this shuttle driver did who got this picture. These emperor penguins get big. They are 3 foot high, plus. Someone remarked that they are like small humans. My flight to Taylor Dome is set for 7:15 AM (McMurdo Local Time which is +18 hours Eastern Time) again in a Twin Otter skiplane. I expect to be back Wednesday or Thursday. It may be longer if weather gets bad. I plan on sleeping outside in a tent. I have to install a few radios and a special GPS unit. Other than that I will be messing with the ham radios and helping out with whatever needs to be done at the camp. Expect some good pictures on my return.
Today is the day I head out to Taylor Dome on a twin otter skiplane. I have been having fun at work fixing radios and troubleshooting system issues all week. There are a lot of radios down here thats for sure. And there is a great variety. I have been reflecting on the three things that I believe make this place hospitible: Communications, Mobility, and Shelter. I find these three items to be a key classification system to understand and optimize sucesss in operating in such a harsh environment. I expect to sleep outside tonight. It will be between -25 and -40. It will be the coldest I have camped out I think. -25 below has been my coldest experience in happy camper school a few weeks ago. Before that it was with Jeff in Alfred NY. We did not have a thermometer but it was definately well below zero that night. That was few years ago but you have a tendency to remember them. Since then I have learned a lot about cold weather. Most of the lessons have come in the last month. A real good
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
Another busy day. I am all set to go out to Taylor Dome on Saturday. Hopefully I will be getting back to McMurdo on Monday. I am scheduled to go out on a Twin Otter. I am pretty excited about being on the Twin Otter. I am not sure why. Hopefully I can get a ride back on a Basler which is a turbine powered DC-3. Last night's science lecture was about Antarctica past and future. A scientist who has been coming down since 1962 led the discussion with a lot of his personal photos. His photos included the first fossils found in Antarctica, petrified logs and all sorts of interesting geological content. My ankle is much better. I went up to T-site today to check on a connection for the NASA folks. The picture out the truck window is on the road up to T-site. It is hard to judge heights from photos. It is at least 1000 feet down to the Ross Ice shelf. The other picture shows some of the hellium tanks for the Long Distance Balloon (LDB) project. The LDBs are launched in Antarctica sort o
The guys got off the mountain last night. They had quite a time. They almost broke into the survival bags. They left the bags and some tools to come back and get them another time. I understand they had all their ECW on. That is extraordinarily unusual. One of my co-workers is out at WAIS divide (a deep-field camp). He called in on a satellite phone (we get thirty seconds of some poor reception because of the satellite being so low on the horizon. There was a pretty nasty storm going on so there was no work getting done outside. I shipped him a new HF antenna today and some climbing gear. My ankle is getting a lot better. It is turning black today. I guess that is a good sign. The paper work is worse than the injury. --more on that one-- I worked on the NASA system today. The NASA guys were really pleased that I managed to get the stuff going even without the correct components. There is often talk of McGyver down here. You have to fix what you have to fix with what you have to fix
I went to medical about my ankle. The flight surgeon was quite helpful and informative. I have a minor/moderate sprain. I don't think I have ever twisted my foot so bad before. It was a good warning for me. It means that although I have been very careful I have not been careful enough. I worked in the shop today hobbling around while everyone was out in the field. My ankle is already a lot better now that I have an ace bandage on it. The startling thing has been that I can't walk as fast. People are passing me, yikes! I should be headed out to the field later this week. It got kind of nasty out there today anyway. It is 7:15 right now and four of my co workers are still on the mountains. The weather has closed in and they can't get them off. They were supposed to be picked up about 4:00. One of them sounded kind of cold up there. Whenever we get dropped off by a helo we get survival bags which includes a tent, sleeping bag, shovel, camp stove and food. I am sure hoping the
I twisted my ankle Saturday. I am OK, but I will be taking it easy for a few days I am sure. The culture here is somewhat refreshing. People are polite and friendly and when you are driving around they wave to you. People who don't want to be here are not here. Living in close quarters with something and having much in common (being in Antarctica) allows people to connect better it seems. The bird is a Skua. http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/birds/skuas.shtml They can get very aggresive. They will see you carrying food and then attack you. They are a good sign of summer and they are very skilled at getting their way with humans. The other picture was taken at about midnight. That is about as low as the sun gets. It is so weird. We still call it nighttime. I understand what folks say about short term memory loss on the ice. It definately seems to have affected me. We carry small green memo books which we call green brains.
It is the weekend again. The day off tomorrow. I hurt my ankle today. I thought I may had to work on Sunday but I got the job done this evening. I had to get a new type of GPS out of a crawler that it was in for testing. I will be installing the same GPS when I get out to Taylor Dome next week for the lead traverse vehicle. I think it is a Pisten Bully with advanced crevasse radar. Today I also went up to Mt. Bird (yes, the correct spelling). We got the machine installed, but it was not good weather at its companion site so the system is only part up. It was pretty windy for the ride in the Bell 212. We got blown around quite a bit. But on the mountain at 6000 ft the weather was great. I had to shed a couple of layers after working a bit. The picture of the rock is Big Razorback Island in McMurdo Sound. The Bell 212 helo is the twin engine equivalent to the "Huey". I think the Huey is a Bell 205.
Tomorrow I am supposed to got up on top of Mt. Bird. The helo schedule comes out in the early evening. We are headed out to Mt. Bird because there are large penguin rookeries around this area. We are setting up a repeater system on Mt Terror, Mt. Erebus and Mt. Bird for scientists studying the birds. My co-workers are going up on the other two mountains that tie this system together. Just about everybody in my shop will be on a mountain tomorrow. I spent most of today trying to get some NASA equipment working, scrounging parts from other broken gear and looking and digging through specs to see if components will work. You have to work with what you have. Getting parts is too far off. Our deadline for getting material to Port Huneme CA is Dec. 1. Those materials will then come down by vessel (ship) in January. It is going to be so weird seeing ships at the ice pier. It is all ice now. Generally 3 meters thick. We land C-17s and LC-130s on the ice as well as have D8 dozers out there and
Things are going well. I am busy. Last night I watched the 2004-2005 McMurdo Film Festival Video. Even with all this activity there is time for video production for some folks. Some of the videos were a real hoot. Today I get my hair cut. Haircuts are free, but getting a appointment can be tough especially if you cannot predict where you are going to be all the time as with my job. I gave a department presentation on sun protection yesterday. It only takes a couple of minutes to get sunburned down here. It is a great paradox to get sunburn and frost nip at the same time. Did you know that the UVA band starts at 750,000 GHz and that UVC is a concern here since we have no ozone in the atmosphere. These pictures are of the A-Star helo and a nice shot of the Taylor Valley in the Dry Valley region of Antarctica. It really is quite breath taking.
The days are running together. I have to regroup somehow. People all seem to agree that the days are difficult to distinguish one day from another. Perhaps because there is no darkness to demarcate. Also people often talk about the vivid dreams you experience on the ice. I had some very vivid dreams before I had heard about the prevelance of significant dreams here. Someone suggested that since we are so close to the magnetic pole that interferes with your physiology. I don't know what it is, but I dream a vivid dream almost everynight (actually every sleeping period). Being here is still kind of surreal. Which is also a common comment. I can already imagine what Christchurch will be like. What a blast of aromas and organics it will be. Last night I went to a small open discussion regarding global warming with a whole bunch of scientists. It was interesting to say the least. I have not yet formed many opinions on the subject other than it is clear that we are warming rather than
Yesterday and today we are having some significant comms (Antarctica speak for radio) issues to deal with. The diversity of equipment I have to work on is great. Everyday I get to learn about a new radio of some sort. Today I worked on complex NASA equipment for monitoring spacecraft telemetry. Last night at dinner I was laughed at by a janitor (with a degree) by saying that we are doing all this for science. He thought I was joking. I was not. There is a purpose to all of what is done down here, the dishes, the toilets, the radios, the aircraft are elements of a grand mission of discovery. It is to push human understanding forward. I suppose if you didn't see or appreciate that fact this might be a tough place to work. If you do see it... it is a calling. I spent some time trying to figure out his purpose. Sure the program can not all be perfectly focused on science (no human endevor of science could ever be), but the overall thrust is clearly and sincerely focused on science o
The Sunday night science lecture was about the Andrill project. The "Andrillians" have a drill rig on the ice shelf afew miles from staion. They are drilling thru the ice shelf, than after 1200 feet of water they are going to go thru 1500 feet of sea floor. It is a real engineering challenge to get these geological samples. The ice shelf moves (both with tides and laterally), sea currents and all the unknowns oof what the strata is below. I am planning on attending a "briefing" tonight that has a more informal meeting of interested people. One of the things that makes this project a little different is there is grant money for outreach and education. So they have a wbsite and a means to find out a lot more about the project. www.andrill.org I had my Matttrack and Pisten Bully training. I have been somewhat fascinated by tracked machines. I don't know why. They are just cool. They aren't very smooth or fast. They can go just about anywhere though. The Piste
Today is Sunday. The day off for most people. I am working between 65 and 70 hrs a week. I don't have to worry about what is for dinner. I don't have to commute to work except out to the field. It is a managable lifestyle. You give up freedoms and privacy to be in the program. You gain insight, expererience and a whole lot more. Everyone here is a character. It is not uncommon to be having a dinner conversation with someone who is working as a General Assistant (GA) who has advanced degrees or has sailed around the world or both and more. Tales of ship wrecks, travel in Mongolia and life in remote Montana or Romania is all pretty much normal. Today I donated my Grandfather's book to the McMurdo Library. It is a translation of Immanual Kant's "Anthopology from a Pragmatic Point of View" from the 1700's. As far as I know it is the only translation. It is a mix of personality profile, pyschology and philosophy from the author who brought you "Critique
I went up to Mt Coates yesterday. The system is all tested and back up and running. I asked for close support with the helo since I knew it wasn't going to take me too long to get system going again. The pilot agreed. So we landed, turned off the machine and he enjoyed a bit of a break. Saturday is dress down day for the pilots. I had him pose with his jacket open so you can see his Hawaiian shirt. The weather was closing in on us. The ceiling was coming down fast so it was pretty good that we got in and out. Our flight plan was for 2 hours on the deck. I think we finished in about 20 minutes. The Eurocopter AS 350 is a 3-bladed machine that is pretty sporty. I sat in the front seat and the visibility is great. I am a lot less intimidated by the prospect of flying a helicopter now after technical discussions with the pilots. You do have to "fly" a helo all the time for the most part compared to a fixed wing. I spent the rest of the day working on a cross-band UHF-VHF repe