Upper Peninsula Michigan and Auction Win Outcomes

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I was up in Wisconsin and the UP (upper peninsula) in Michigan. It was a lot of driving after launching/landing in Appleton WI. I got an item off the bucket list by driving across the "Mighty Mac". Altough it was built in the late '50s. It is still the longest suspension span in the Northern hemisphere. It is a crazy long bridge with a crazy long suspension span. It was good to see the bridge in context of the seemingly endless forests of Northern Wisconsin and Michigan. The culture in the two haves of Michigan are noticibly different as you might expect. Great time meeting with folks both in WI and MI. The tractor I won in auction, seems to have paid off. This time I beat the odds. It was a really good deal. I have the "no-key, non-running, may have hydraulic problems, unknown hours" -auction win, running well with minimal cost and time. I have some more tweaks, maintenance and minor fixes but the major risks are gone.

I am getting mentally prepared for re-integration when I return. I still have quite a bit to do before I head back, but it it won't be long now. The ships are in! I got aboard the Polar Sea last night and I was one of the fortunate few who was able to purchase a hat and a patch from the ship's store. If you look close at the picture you will see two UHF antennas I installed on the ships railing near the bridge a few days ago. The peir the ship is moored to is a huge block of ice covered with fine volcanic sand (fines). It is the ice pier of McMurdo. Town was really hopping last night with over 100 coast guard folks ashore to spoil and pillage.

I got approval for a couple of missions to recce some potential new radio sites to make our networks simpler. Simple is better. Complex is problematic. The skill is understanding why things are complicated without having to start over. There may be a reason for the complexity. There may not be a reason. When you learn why it was complicated (or not) you can then apply that to a new simpler model. This principle can be applied to organizations, radio systems, and anything else that is created by organizations of man.

I head to the pole in a few days. I will do a comprehensive experiment regarding the coreolis effect and report on it.

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