Saturday 7th December 2013

Today we have lots of blowing snow and it’s blowing about sixty knots. I quickly got my Saturday’s duties out of the way mopping the cold porches and I also put on a load of washing. I then spent several hours reformatting an iPhone and setting it up again.

After a bite for lunch I went down to the transmitter building and made many contacts back to Australia. I spent a few hours down loading updates for my laptop that I haven’t turned on for a few months, the antivirus software was just about to expire also. After dinner I watched a couple of movies and then went to bed.

Nice almost sunset about 2am

Friday 6th December 2013

Today we woke to a sixty knot blizzard in stark contrast to the beautiful day yesterday. Everything is white once again and it’s back to battling your way along the bliz lines with full winter gear on. I managed to down load all the old tide gauge data files which will make the guys in Kingston very happy and I also prepared the transit box ready to place it into the RTA container. I spent the rest of the day faultfinding the radio link to Bechervaise Island which uses our paging system to turn things on and off while Richard completed the throughput testing of the BGAN backup satellite link. For dinner we had a lamb on the spit. It must have been fun watching the guys carry it over to the red shed from the EVS in sixty knot winds!!

Thursday 5th December 2013

This morning was perfect, no wind and sunny. I organised a few volunteers to move the rest of my heavy RTA gear. First was a 160 kg UPS that I had to move from the operations building over to the green store to be weighed and then moved into a half sea container. Then we moved three heavy large crates containing the old large printers from the green store into the sea container. That was the easy bit done.

Next I had to remove two 160 kg UPS from the ANARESAT building that is snowed in to the roof. First we dug the door out and then I dug a sloping ramp up to the top of the snow. We man handled the two UPS out of the building on a trolley and placed them one at a time on a Polk. (Like a sled) I then backed up the Hag and towed it up the steep slope onto a level area where we could all lift it up into the back of the Hag. Then we repeated the manoeuvre for the other UPS. It was hard work made easier by many hands. I then drove them back to the sea container where we unloaded them.

Next task in the fine weather was to head out to Bechervaise Island to install the back door TIRIS Gate controller and take a look at the microwave link that has been faulty for a couple of weeks now. I took Luc to hold my hand as I’m not allowed to travel alone and while I worked he went wandering around taking photos of all the penguins and beautiful scenery. Once I got the TIRIS Gate controller working (This is used to count and weigh the penguins) I wandered up to the microwave transceiver. Firstly I discovered the bypass switch was left in the wrong position and then I found both solar panels were not working. On closer inspection I found three corroded breaks in the cables. I made some temporary repairs and got it all working. 

As it is forecasted to bliz tomorrow, I went back to the station to get some materials and a new hand holder (Thanks Paul), and then headed straight back out again to complete the job. I replaced both the solar panel cables and glanded them into the junction box. I also removed a corroded connector on the battery connection and glanded the battery cables directly into the junction box. This should keep things operating reliably until the junction box gets replaced by the new crew next year. We spent a bit of time observing the penguins watching their amusing antics. Most of them have two eggs and they are so dirty nesting in the squaller. There were skuas everywhere and two pair had nested right amongst the penguins and they also had eggs. A bit like camping out in a super market. We headed off and I took the long way home enjoying the scenery as we went as it could be my last trip out on the sea ice before it’s closed for good. I still have to return to Bechervaise Island to fix the faulty telephone but that is going to have to wait for another day. 

By the time I got back and unloaded everything and returned the Hag I was knackered so I went up to lie in the spa for a while and I discovered some clown had turned it up to 40c. I jumped in any way and it was so bloody hot you could have cooked crabs in there, needless to say I didn't last long. After dinner I watched another episode of a brilliant documentary I have been watching on the Pacific Ocean.

As I write this our A319 has lifted off from Casey carrying all three casualties from the helicopter accident back to Hobart hospital.

Wednesday 4th December 2013

Today I was slushy once again

Trying to pull a rabbit out of my hat.....darn, that trick never works

Tuesday 3rd December 2013

Today was blowing like the clappers. We had a problem with ARPANSA, one of the X-coolers which cool the gamma ray spectrometer down to minus one hundred and seventy degrees has failed. I reinitialized it yesterday and it started up again but failed again today, so I am going to have to replace it with the spare unit and in the mean time use the spare detector.

I spent a fair bit of time putting away all the project equipment that never got used and then went back to work on the tide gauge equipment. I replaced the coil cable and made a new mount for the camera and it looks terrific and is communicating well. Even the spare interface box that was reported faulty last year is working well.

I removed the old tide gauge back out of the RTA container and tested it with the repaired communications equipment and it was working fine, so all this messing about with the tide gauge for the past two years has been due to the communications equipment being faulty. Anyway, I will retrieve the data from the old tide gauge and send it back to Kingston, and continue to RTA the old tide gauge to be refurbished including new battery's and I'll activate the new one and deploy it next time we get some good weather. I prepared all the kit and packed it all away.
After work I had a chat with Paul in Broome and also with a guy in Thai Land. Tonight I worked on my blog till 1 am.

A Mawson esky

Monday 2nd December 2013

First thing this morning we had an emergency meeting at 0800. John our field training officer and Malcom our Doc may have to fly to Davis to help retrieve and treat the three injured people in the chopper still out on the Amery Ice shelf. I was crook with severe gastro. The wind got up to over 50 knots so there will be no flights to Mawson. The injured people were flown down to the sea ice in the second chopper in the late afternoon where a Twin Otter was able to land and pick them up for the trip back to Davis where these two aircraft were followed by the Basler. The three injured people (including the pilot who flew me around Mawson) are reported to have back and neck injuries.

I spent the day working on the tide gauge communications coil. I managed to dig out the potting compound and clean out all the corrosion and insert some new components and wiring and managed to get it working again, and then I re-potted the whole lot sealing it from the corrosive salt water. I was pretty happy with myself and I’m sure the scientists back in Kingston will be very happy also; otherwise it would have to wait until after V4 to be deployed again. Later I had an EME sked with Lance W7GJ at seven thirty. I received eleven decodes from him but he got nothing from me.

Sunday 1st December 2013

My trip to climb Fang peak today was cancelled as the Basler was due in today to fly all the project people back to Davis. I was a beautiful day with no wind and quite a bit of blue sky. The Basler did a fly by to check out the situation and the smell of avgas caught me by surprise. The aircraft was only on the ground for about an hour as it didn't need fuel, only long enough to load all the equipment and personal gear and then it was handshakes and photos and then off it went leaving a quiet peaceful station once again.

Once again I was the fire officer and most of the station turned out to see everyone off. After the flight I did my weekend duties and then went for a long walk taking some photos. I spent a couple of hours carefully re-tuning my 6m antenna as I had done a quick rough job nine months ago when it was a lot colder. Conditions on HF were quite bad so about seven o’clock I had a spa and then made myself some dinner. 

Around eight o’clock one of our choppers went down on the Amery ice shelf with a few people I know stationed at Davis that were seriously injured. They were comforted by two people in a second chopper while they waited for a rescue party.

Crash site