Four Month Mark

Four months have come and gone. Sun is up constantly now. Always seems like it after noon, even at 11PM at night. I have been busy as hell till this week. Putting in over 70 hours a week, and actually working 6 out of seven days gets tiring. I am finally getting out though. Last Tuesday I went to the Dry Valley's on a site survey mission. Flew to three mountain tops to survey the location to possibly install radio repeaters next year there. The mountain tops were Hill 1750 (Some hill), Mount Mahoney and Mount Newell. We left at 7PM and got back at 11:30PM. Spent most of the time in the air in a small helicopter flying from place to place. I still took 389 pictures from the helicopter. The temperature on the mountain tops, with no wind was -8F. With the wind on Mt. Newell it dropped to -28F.

I took a lot of pictures of the actual glacier fields and geography of the Dry Valleys.

It was hard to judge distance from 2,000' in the air with no familiar size references (normal cars, buildings, even trees)you would normally see on the ground.

The sea ice was interesting too. So many different patterns the ice can assume from movement, drifting, melting and thickness.

Ice and snow are melting in McMurdo and the Dry Valleys. It still doesn't get above 32F degrees temperature wise. Sun must melt the ice and snow even at that temperature. With the wind it is commonly still -8F to -20F.

Went to Moor's Bay to help fix a internet connection problem. This research station out there has dropped sensors down into the ice (drilling holes) and then detects reflected neutrinos from space. The camp is about 50 miles south of McMurdo, and only has the one big tent and 4 small ones. They need network to pass data back to servers here and back to the US. We installed a 802.11 shot all the way out there with a repeater on Mount Discovery. Pretty ingenious archetecture for support. Anyways, here's a few picts of that area.

And the rest.......

Lots has happened, and I have a few more months left. Will try to enter more but time is minimal when working this many hours and trying to loose weight. Have done pretty good at that so far as I have lost 20 lbs.

Till Later

The Sun Appeared

I finally saw the sun in the afternoon two days ago. It was low on the horizon, as if it was early morning, just a few degrees up and it was only 4PM in the afternoon. Big, fiery, orange ball. I saw my shadow on the road. It is an amazing thing to not see the sun, and the only light from the sun is equivalent to dawn and twilight for the entire day.

We also got to watch the Concordiasi people from France launch the first of the17 to 23 of their research balloons for taking reading on the ozone hole, layer and what might be bombarding us from space through it.

Here is the location of their web sites describing the research they are doing:
http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr/concordiasi/

Concordiasi people filling up a high altitude research balloon for Ozone testing.

 

The primary field activity of CONCORDIASI will be a constellation of up to twenty long duration stratospheric balloons deployed from the McMurdo station by the French space agency (CNES)

Almost ready to launch balloon.

Such balloon systems have been extensively utilized for research, such as the constellation of 25 CNES stratospheric balloons deployed from McMurdo in 2005 for the VORCORE project. While the VORCORE ballooning observations were limited to relatively low-resolution meteorological measurements, the measurement capability will be upgraded extensively to meet the multidisciplinary goals of IPY with the payloads to include:

 i) flight level observations of ozone, meteorological parameters at 1 min intervals, and microphysical observations of stratospheric clouds.

 ii) GPS occultation providing vertical profiles of refractivity related to temperature, humidity and pressure.

iii) a micro pulse lidar to map clouds in the lower stratosphere and upper troposphere.

 iv) Driftsonde gondolas each capable of carrying up to 60 GPS dropsondes to be launched on demand producing a high-resolution vertical profile of temperature, humidity, winds and pressure from the flight level to the surface.

 

 The driftsonde has been successfully flown on CNES stratospheric balloons during the 2006 hurricane season for flights with durations over Africa and the tropical Atlantic.

The modeling component of CONCORDIASI is extensive and includes a version of the Meteo France global model ARPEGE, two high-resolution regional models (the NCAR−Ohio State Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) and the Meteo France high resolution mesoscale model MesoNH, and the NCAR Nested Regional Climate Model, which is currently under development. Through the THORPEX, we will also have access to the ensembles of the global models from the major operational centers.

And there ya have it!........

 It had stormed for the last two days before this. Condition II is is listed here as:

 Severe Weather Condition II: which is defined by one or more of the following conditions: wind speeds of 48 to 55 knots sustained for one minute, wind chills of -75 to -100 F sustained for one minute, or visibility of less than 1/4 mile sustained for one minute. 

 

We had wind speeds over 48 and less than 200' visibility with blowing snow.

Rock-On!

First Day Off!

Down here on the Ice we work 10 hours a day, six days a week. They say only 9 hours but when I have to be at work at 7:30 AM and can't leave till 5:30PM, you eat in a company provided facility, have no other choices, that's all company related, comes out to be a 10 hour day required.

No Biggie though!! Just like the Marines, I'm a captive audience.

Looking for something to do today (Not like I don't have things I NEED to do) fun later. I have school work, some sewing (Yes, I can sew and darn, learned form my Granny Speelman WAY back in the 60's) to repair a set of Levi's and try to find something interesting to take pictures of (Hard, I know).

Not too happy with this blog software. Posting more than a couple pictures seems to screw up the layout. Could be "operator malfunction" and if it is, this software isn't too helpful to correct it. Might get better as I go along though.

Yea, back to the books today. Probably most the day on a Business Law course I'm WAY behind in.

Job is sooo not me in the "Schmoozing" department. Asked my boss why he hired me as I can get along with people, but I don't "Sugar Coat" things and I'm not partial to smiling when I want to rip their heads off. He says he has confidence in me LOL. We'll see.................

Went to my first Science Team In-Briefing yesterday. Met the French, Concordiasi people. Total of about 17 doing 4 different projects dealing with ballons measuring ozone and a bunch of other stuff I couldn't hear they describe. Talked too softly to be much of a teacher/Dr. Figured people who stood on podiums, in front of classes would have some wind and a "presence of bearing". NOT!

Will try to get some pictures of what they do later. All will help these short descriptions.

Warmer today, last night it was hitting -74 with wind chill. 32 Knot winds. It was COLD! Today is only -30 so far and not supposed to get much colder. Nice out (Sunny any ways) and still dark at 9AM with some light as if a false dawn is coming. Will be light by noon, one o-clock and last till 4PM or so.

Signing off!

Marching on (In the Cold)

Friday, Aug 13th, 2010


Arrived in an overcast, windy and drizzly Auckland New Zealand. Customs was a breeze. It wasn’t that they didn’t check us over, the dogs sniffed through for drugs, and then a few were pulled for random searches, but for the most part, they relied on the x-ray scans and metal detector scans. I didn’t have anything to declare over and above the $700 worth of personal valuables, $10,000 cash limit and two bottles of alcohol over 1.2L. Everything I had was under these limits and nothing was for resale. We had a 3 hour layover there and boarded a JetStar flight for Christchurch. That flight was only an hour and a half.

 Arrived in Christchurch at around 3PM, raining. Collected our baggage and loaded up on a supped shuttle (one of the shuttle companies contracted by Raytheon to haul us back and forth from the terminal, to hotel, to CDC, back to Hotel and back to terminal. Dropped me off at the Christchurch Novotel. Not too bad for $157 NZ a night. Wasn’t too happy when I discovered no bath tub. The whole bathroom is the floor of the shower with a curtain dividing it to keep the water from splattering all over. No raised part to keep the water in a general area. Nice concept, but I wanted a bath to soak the slime off. They also must be using the “on demand” hot water heaters as the hot water would pulse to hot, then cool off, the back to hot in about a 30 second cycle. Went out and had some really good Tai food for dinner. Cost $32 NZ for two Singha beers, a bowl of hot/sour vegetable soup and glass noodle seafood salad. After eating went back to the hotel and tried to sleep. Was beat with lack of sleep over the last 30 hours so fell asleep really quick at 11PM. But woke up promptly at 3:35 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep. 3:45 AM here in Christchurch is 9:45 AM there in Denver. So I was jet-laggin. Still am today. Figure it will be a week.


Aug 14th, 2010 CDC and Training


Next day we had a change of time to hit the CDC for flue shots, ECW issue (Extreme cold weather gear) and training on how to drive, fork lift operation, and driving on the runway with vehicles and the rules and procedures for that. Ended up with all my gear, and doing the classes. Headed back to the hotel to eat, do a bit of last minute gear shopping, and then go sample the local NZ brews. Picked up two more sock liners, Marino wool, two more marino wool heavy (cold weather) socks, and golden green (Had to, I liked the color) goose down vest, passport holder, fleece glove inserts, and some lighter wool socks. Found out the 1st Winflight flight hadn’t flown due to mechanical failure so we will get another day here in Christchurch.

In the CDC Terminal waiting to board the C-17

 Aug 15th, 2010


Raining again today. Weather here is just like it used to be in Northern CA. Foggy, rain, breezy, damp, cold. We heard the other flight was held back because of weather. Another day in Christchurch. Other flight took off. We will fly tomorrow probably. Went shopping for some hard candy, fruit and anything else I may have forgotten. Had Chinese food today at a restaurant the seemed to have Chinese locals eating at. Figured it must be good. It was mediocre, what was so attractive about it to the locals is the quantity. For $27 NZ I got enough to easily feed four people to the point they would be stuffed.

 Ate Tai again figuring it would be the last for 7 months. Same place but a seafood curry this time. Was REALLY good. Got back to the room later that night to find a letter at the door saying to report to the CDC for flight the next morning at 10AM. Here we go, off to the great white south!!


August 17th, 2010: Touchdown!!!


Well, I’m here. We arrived last night after a 5 hour trip on an air force reserve, C-17 cargo plane. It was actually the smoothest flight, including take-off and landing that I had had all the way down here. Flight took 5 hours (at an average of 350 knots, at 27,000’) and was uneventful. I got some pictures of the plane as we loaded, on board (me finally in some), in the cockpit, and an overhead picture through a viewport high on the bulkhead wall, over the cargo/seating area.

C-17 on the runway waiting for us to board. Roach-coach to the right where we got our Lunch/Dinner sandwitches.

Cockpit of the C-17 somewhere over the south (WAY South) Pacific.

Everyone sitting in the cargo bay. Cargo behind us against the back ramp.

We took off from the CDC, Air base in Christchurch at about 1PM after a couple of orientation classes on what to do while on the plane, how to load and how to exit in the dark after suiting up into required extreme cold weather gear. They didn’t want anyone getting too close to the engines and getting sucked through as they weren’t going to shut them off. They would leave shortly after we all got off and then left the area on the transports.
We arrived around 6:45PM, loaded these huge tired buses called “Ivan”. It was about -45 to -50 degrees Fahrenheit out when we arrived. With all the gear we had on you sure didn’t feel it. We were required to wear a the goose down parka, knit hat or individual hood, have a neck warmer, insulated coveralls over your clothes, most people also wore the fleece jacket or shirt (I did), heavy wool socks, the cold weather boots (Mickey Mouse, FDX or some extreme cold weather Cabela’s), insulated gloves. Could have added another layer for more warmth but didn’t need it. As it was, I got so hot on the half hour ride from the airfield, across the sea ice to McMurdo, that my t-shirt was soaked with sweat. It was as if I had taken a shower with it on. The fleece jacket sleeves were soaked too. The transport was warm, and with all that gear on, you felt as if you were in a sauna.

 The food here is pretty good. Today for lunch we had garlic shrimp (prawns) over fettuccini, a chicken and lentil soup, homemade garlic/onion bread (the big loaves and you cut yourself) and a beef stew. Of course we can eat as much as we want, and anything on the juice/milk bar. It’s rumored that people try to make up the lack of pay ($$) but eating the rest of what they are entitled to. From how round some of the people are here, I believe it.
Tonight we had an Indian chicken curry, saffron rice, some type of lentil and sausage soup, more fresh French bread rolls, dome type of chickpea Indian pie (really good) and various steamed veggies. Going to be really hard to eat moderately here Hehe.


August 18, 2010

It was cold today, and windy. Wind chill hit -57 degrees F. Visibility dropped to about a mile, maybe a little more. Found I can wear Levi’s in this type of cold for about half an hour, maybe a little longer as long as I keep walking. I would hate to be out in this weather trying to work for hours. Had a balaclava on today inside the hood of the parka and my nose, forehead and lips would start to freeze if I got any wind on them at all after about 15 minutes. Boots I got at Gander Mountain, rated down to -25 have worked like a champ. Only problems I am having with them is my ankles aren’t used to wearing high supports and the tops of the boots are chafing to the point of blisters. Will have to go to either looser socks (been wearing heavy wool) or change to tennis shoes for a few days. Long as I’m not out in the weather I should be ok just walking the hundred yards or so up and back down the hill to building 159 (Comms Shop).

 Traveled to the supply building where you can get anything for admin, some materials (gloves, cord, gas cans, etc.) for some admin supplies. Needed a note pad and a “Green Brain”! Hehehe. It’s what they call the little green notebook we used to get back in the service for general note taking. Labeled “Memoranda” across the front, FSN: 7530-00-222-0078. There’s those out there that will recognize these things. I thought it amusing they call them “Green Brains” here. Mike, It was cold in Korea at times, but it’s as cold here ALL the time. How the hell did we make it with that crappy gear they gave us in the Marines? Dinner was steak, thick chicken noodle soup and veggies. Food is good!

 Also hit what they call the “Skua” building today. Skua are a type of Sea Gull here in Antarctica. Bigger, and a bit meaner, but still a scavenger. They have named bins and this building the “Skua” areas. Think free salvation army centers. Stuff people don’t want to take off the ice they donate and the rest of the people go pick through it to scrounge anything useful. You can actually find some pretty decent clothes in these places, including books, dishes, anything really.

 Tomorrow is supposed to be the first day of the season we see the sun come above the horizon. Remember, we won’t see much for than just a sliver, but still, it finally comes above the horizon, Aug 19 this year for the first time for the start of summer here.

 All for now, will post pictures when I finally get the card reader working. The older Sony card readers won’t work with anything but Windows XP and earlier. I have Windows 7 on my machine and am trying to get the card reader driver installed on my work computer. Maybe tomorrow!!!

Ob Hill behind Crary Lab in the late morning.

Ice road to the runway. Middle of the day Aug 18th, 2010.

OB-Hill, 9AM Aug 17th 2010

Looking towards open sea from Comms Shop. Tracked trailer there is on sea ice.

On IVAN, the Terra bus for transport from runway to McMurdo. 30 min. ride.

Antarctic Center (CDC) Christchurch, NZ

Main Bldg. Antarctic Center, Christchurch, NZ

First sight of New Zealand south island from the air.

Cathedral in City Center, Christchurch, NZ

City Center, Christchurch New Zealand.

Leaving, on a Jet Plane.......................... (60's Ditty)

Yup, Almost gone!

Gonna be a sad day for sure, but the actual start of this "Trek" to the most inhospitable place on earth. Finished packing last night at about 11PM. Started, pretty much at 5PM with an hour break to eat with Kim and the kids. Everything is in two sea-bags that are only 75% full each, weigh about 35 Lbs. Know I am forgetting something (kitchen sink maybe). Left a box of extras to be shipped down at the earliest time possible. Won't get anything until the 2nd - 3rd week in October though. Even if Kim shipped it tomorrow. Just no way anyone can start shipping stuff to us via. mail yet. Our supply ship will be in McMurdo in Jan. 2011 Once a year, after the Icebreakers can cut a channel. Then they will load up all the previous years trash and garbage to be shipped back to Port Hueneme CA. (Think GREEN Baby!). This will total about 200,000 tons from what I understand.

One of the places I want to go tour down in McMurdo is the sewage treatment plant and the waste facility. From what I hear they are pretty interesting. People have to sort the trash they throw out in to 20+ seperate bins that go to the waste disposal location. They used to have landfills in Antarctica. With the Antarctic treaty of 1978 they started cleaning all that up and shipped all of what they could gather up off the continent. Took over 20 years from my understanding too. Still not all gone though. I guess there are scars on the terrain where the landfills were.
The sewage treatment plant is supposed to be cutting edge. Think about it..... It's COLD down there, DAMNED COLD! Up here in the states we have outside sewage treatment plants where bacteria helps break down the raw sewage (pretty quickly) and then is either used for irrigation, or returned to locations in a pretty safe medium so you don't have disease, much smell (unless the plant is out of whak), and little impact on the enviornment (least here in most locations in the US).
Down there everything is frozen 95% of the time. It's so cold the ocean freezes to 50' - 200' in spots. To keep any of the product of the process unfrozen and able to be discharged into the sea, would take a bit of engineering and extra work. They can support up to 2,500 people there at McMurdo with no impact to the environment (yea, all the Greenpeace groups would assault the beaches and probably burn the place to the ground) except a monitored (heavily) sludge. Like I said, I want to see this marvel of engineering.

4 hours left here at home until I head out. Kids getting ready for school, oblivious of course. Right now they don't understand that "Dad" is leaving for a long time. I think it will sink in after a couple of weeks as they are pretty independent. Kissed them bith good-night last night for the last time in 7 months. They actually asked for it.

About all for now, will try to get on in Christchurch to complain about the layovers, the long, boring flights, and lack of sleep. I heard 150 of us are on the same plane down there. Should be interesting......

Hasta luego!!!

One Step Closer

The title is misleading on this post. True, I'm one step closer today but I am actually talking about getting things checked off to get ready to leave. Finally finished Kim's Scrapbook shelves I told her I'd make her for a Christmas present. Couldn't start them until almost may because of the cold. All my saws (table and radial arm) are outside and it didn't climb above 30 until late may this year. Finished them though, and have them in the kitchen where she wanted them.

So now she has them to display all her scrapbooks that were hidden under the TV. The shelves were made to hold a 14" x 14" scrapbook upright.

Now she can have them right next to where she usually works on them AND keep an eye on the brats!

Now I have to go play plumber. Had a valve in a shower fail yesterday. Hopefully I can fix/repair it without having to replace it. To replace we'd have to get an actual plumber in here to tear out the bathroom shower wall (UGH!!). More $$ then that we don't have in this cruddy economy.

Tonight though, will be ours. Kids are gone to a friends. We'll go enjoy a night of peace over some good middle eastern (falafels, babaganou, humus, flat bread, schwarmas, etc.) food. We actually got pretty fond of it being over in Saudi for a couple of years.

Will see what today finishes out with, hopefully the plumbing won't be a total pain.

Last Thursday in the USA for the rest of the year!

What a concept, I won't see another Friday in the US for the rest of the calendar year. Sobering thought.

I actually got most of what I wanted done yesterday. Started transferring files to a thumb drive to take with me since I didn't get a company laptop to carry with me. I have to transfer needed files to a server and then pull them off down in McMurdo. Will do that Tuesday, the 10th. Just copied to a thumb drive just in case though. Better to have more than one way to skin a cat in your pocket.

Also found out that the bus leaves the office for the Airport at noon on Wed. So I will be there about 11AM. That's going to be a long-assed two days. Leaving here (Denver) at 4:30PM and finally getting to Christchurch New Zealand two days later and 18 hours on a plane. Not looking forward to the trip. Looking forward at the end result though.

Took the kids to "Back to School" night last night to turn in their "required materials (reams of copy paper, pencils, pens, colored markers, colored pencils, folders, Kleenex, that crap) as the school systems here in CO seem to be quite short of money. The parents have to augment the schools with materials. Not used to this as coming from CA this was never seen. Schools supplied everything back then. No idea now as I haven't lived or been to a school in CA for over 30 years.

Today (this morning) working out with Kim. P-90X time :P Later have to go shopping for little stuff. Then start making the instructions for Kim for turning off the water to outside so it doesn't burst the pipes, changing heater filters, all that "Guy" stuff I took care of.

Hasta luego!

Uneventful Day

Today at work was just a lot of paperwork. Getting files and documents I will need to continue doing my job down on the ice.
I did learn a lot about "Solar Power" generation though today. What the different major parts are for putting together a system that will support it self. Solar Power cells, inverters to generate AC from the 12VDC, Charge controller for supplying a steady DC voltage for battery power and battery charging, low voltage disconnect for when the sun doesn't shine enough to generate what you need so automatically disconnects the load from the source. Pretty cool stuff. Figured out I can have a system for the house that will store 2k Amp/Hours AND the excess that I don't use from 3KWH will turn my meter backwards essentially causing the power company to pay me at their rate. Whole system would cost about $17,000 and I would install it. I checked on line and to have it installed would cost me in excess of $35,000.

My Columbia, cold weather boots showed up today from Gander Mountain. Rated down to -25F. And waterproof on the lower half, breathes on the upper half. Nice "Hikers" and fit good. Also dug out my two sea-bags from the military with the shoulder straps (worn as a backpack) to pack my gear in. Can't go wrong with "Sea-Bags"!! Found tags on them from a trip to Disney World back in 1994. Other tags were from Waukesha Wisconsin, 1990, probably mine and Kim's Honeymoon. Tags from the tip to Saudi Arabia in 1996-1998 and Dominican republic in 1990-1993.

Found out a couple days ago on Facebook my high school class is having a general "All Call" reunion in New Mexico. Wanted to go but can't this time around. Hopefully I will be around for the next one. Hard to believe it's been 33 years :P

My last weekend is coming up fast. We have even arranged to get rid of the kids for a couple days to go on a bike trip, go out for some good Indian cuisine and of course, more last minute shopping. Still need misc. crap. Sewing kit, tooth brush and soap containers, floss, tooth paste, extra laces for all my shoes (McMurdo sits on the side of an active volcano, Mt. Erebus) as the whole area is nothing but volcanic rock and dust. Eats up clothes and shoe laces at a high rate from what I'm told. Need a couple web belts so I don't have to worry about adjusting them if I eat too much and don't exercise enough! Heh.

Worked a bit on Kim's shelves again, stained the dowels I am using to affix the molding. Will finish it tomorrow. Everything is progressing at a decent rate, not a rush yet and shouldn't be if I keep doing things that need to get done every day.

Supposedly we have a "Winfly" (Winter Fly in) orientation on Saturday. Not sure if I'm going to make that one. Don't feel I should be heading in to work on a Sat during vacation. Will find out if I haven't already dione it as I've done about 8 hours of classes and orientation for heading south already.

Signing off!

Itinerary for Christchurch, New Zealand

Got it today, my Itinerary for Christchurch New Zealand. It's kind of amazing that where I'm going on the Antarctic Continent is 16 hours AHEAD of me here in Denver. Formula for figuring the time there (McMurdo) from here is to add 6 hours to the current time and subtract a day. Pretty weird since I will be loosing a day traveling to New Zealand.
I leave here on the 11th at 4:30PM, arrive in LA, CA at about 5:30PM on the 11th (Wed). 2 hours 25 mins.
Leave LA, CA at 11:30PM on the 11th and arrive in Auckland, NZ at 8:10AM on the 13th (Lost a day). Flight time is 13.5 hours. Those of you that have done these trips on aircraft for that long know, "THESE TRIPS SUK!!"
I leave Auckland at 12:30PM on the 13th (Fri) and arrive at Christchurch, New Zealand at 1:55 PM. 1 hour and 25 mins.

In Christchurch I gather my baggage, follow the "Blue" footprints (they have so many peopel heading to Antarctica from Christchurch they have painted blue footprints on the ground for us to follow) to customs and then to the shuttle for transport to our hotels. I'm booked at a the Christchurch Novatel. Should be interesting as it was recommended cause of some decent pub in the square.

Next day (Sat the 14th) I head back to the airport to the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) for Extreme Cold Weather clothing issue and training. Already scheduled for "Vehicle Operators training" (Yea, they are going to let me drive down on the ice :) LOL), "General Forklift Operator Training" (no forklifts, so no idea what I am taking this for, maybe the Caterpillars? Hehe, D8's and D6's) , and finally "Airfield Driver Safety Training/NVG, Pegasus". I guess "Pegasus" is the main ice runway after the sun finally comes up.
Will post some pictures of the vehicles. Snowmobiles too.
Then on Sunday we fly to Antarctica (another 8 hours) on an Air Force C-17 weather permitting.

 We could end up doing what is known as a "Boomerang" and get half way there, have the weather turn bad and have to turn around and return to Christchurch for another night. I guess the record for bad weather and enduring boomerangs is 32 days. That would have driven me nuts for sure.

A C-17 Globemaster III aircrew from McChord Air Force Base, Washington, performed the first known after-dark landing in Antarctica using night vision goggles on September 11, 2008. I have heard this is what we will be doing at Winfly. Couse, they may have been saying this to put "newbs" on edge. Little did they realize some of us actually did this in the military. "Been-there, Done-that" with Helicopters and C-130's.

I guess this is what the inside of a C-17 transport looks like loaded for the trip. Looks actually pretty comfey!

Working on asset allocation for communications gear for the science teams. Doubt if it will ever be done. But I can continue to work at it down in McMurdo next week. Changes too often to keep up with the lists and I have 108 projects at the moment, just for McMurdo area. I Have to test a dialing sequence for an Iridium Satellite Phone to a Inmarsat satellite phone system. I guess it didn't work for a science team last year and we need to get it operational this year for them. Nothing too technical, just getting the correct dialing sequence of prefix codes.

Have been collecting tid-bits of info from people who have been there. Was told it's cold to start, but by mid-summer (November-December) the temp at McMurdo gets up to 30. Warm enough to not worry too much about cold feet if you go hiking in normal hiking boots.

Also was told ANY time you fly, you have to wear what they provide in Christchurch as the ECW boots. You have three to choose from. One type is the "Mickey Mouse" boots we were issued to go to Korea back in 81. These are solid rubber, usually white and have air for insulation. Cumbersome and large. The other types I'm not too sure about, heard "Felt Liners, no rubber on top (so feet can actually get wet) and another was a "Sorel" type of boot that reach pretty high up the calf. Will see when I get there which I choose.

Plenty to do, the station was described as a College Campus and a Wild West Town. Wonder if that person ever went to Amsterdam in the Red Light district, or BC Street on Okinawa Japan before they closed it in the 90's. Or even modern day Phuket, Bangkok, Santo Domingo :) Hehehe!

Guess I might also get to go do some actual technical work. I was hired as an Admin Specialist (Secretary) but I bet when they saw my resume and talked with me during the interview, they realized they hit a gold-mine for experience. Over Qualified is an understatement. Oh well, least I have a job and get to do a bit of travel :) It's been hinted at that I may be assisting the techs in setting up repeater sites up to 100 miles away from McMurdo. Helping install radio telephones at the camps, and general technical stuff. I sure hope so! I do better outside working, instead of cooped up in an office watching a computer screen.

All for now, signing off till something else worthwhile comes up!