Friday, March 6, 2015

Bright, Sunny Barrow

There is a new take-out food place with wonderful Mexican food. These tamales were made there instead of just purchasing them ready made from Costco or Sam's club. I had heard that this place had real home-made food but I was skeptical. Not any more. These were wonderful.

I have gotten quite a few things that could not be done remotely crossed off the list. One of the Ubiquity radios had reset itself to factory defaults though I'm not sure why. I need to set something up that I can connect into to access them remotely. But it's up and running again and I have been exercising it for the last couple of days. Maybe it didn't like the -55°F (air temperature not wind chill) that they had a while back. There are now water and temperature alarms in the building. There was an incident a few months back resulting in some frozen sprinkler pipes. I guess it made quite the mess being in the middle of January. I still need to train a couple of folks on how to use the AV setup in the conference room.

And I tried out the new GoPro back that I had in my last post. In this case, I completely removed the battery and just ran it off of the 12v "PowerPort" in the truck. I sped up the video 8x to shorten it. It is just a trip from NARL to Barrow and back returning through Browerville. I also headed out towards the point (as in Point Barrow) past the duck camp. Once you get past NARL and the DEW line site, the land narrows down to about a 100m or so all the way out to the point.

I'm impressed by our Internet link as this video only took about 8 min to upload. I'm not going to complain about that. Don't be fooled by the bright sun as it looks as though it looks like Spring is right around the corner. It's still -13°F.




Update for Coop - There is a gps receiver on one of the Ubiquity sector antenna and at this point in time, it looks like it can see 12 satellites. 

19 comments:

  1. Even with the sun, I believe you - it looks cold! Looks like the experiment with the GoPro worked well.

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    1. It feels nice and warm now that the wind had died down. I was up on the roof yesterday moving an antenna and had to come inside every few minutes to warm up.

      I was surprised that the GoPro worked without a battery installed.

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  2. Fun video. We just wrestled away from minus teens and now 40s and 50s on the way lasting into the end of next week! I think we have turned the corner.

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    1. Up here, the corner isn't even in sight. The snow will be around until sometime in June.

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  3. Oh, and tamales...fresh homemade....the best. Enjoy! I can't wait to enjoy them again.

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    1. They were pretty good with lots of green chili and some potatoes mixed in with the meat. I've never made them with potatoes before. They were a nice addition.

      And, they make them the night before.

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  4. Nice but chilly looking. It must take a special breed of people to live there. I don't mind the white stuff (in its time) but could not do in a world without trees.

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    1. I think that the nearest tree is about 300 miles to the south. On the haul road, there is a sign by the last tree. This is well south of Atigun Pass.

      I think this is a good example of how flexible people are. Most can adapt to just about anything.

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    2. True words, Richard. Most can adapt to just about anything... if they have to.

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  5. How the hell do tamales make their way that far North? It's unnatural and irritating. I wish there were some down here.

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    1. The place started out as a bakery with homemade items. Last November, they started to sell Mexican food. I'm told that Barrow residents like their food spicy.

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  6. Thanks for the DEW line link, very interesting stuff.

    Just curious, have you ever checked your GPS to see how many satellites are providing signal to you so close to the 'top'?

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    1. I guess it's now part of the NWS according to Wikipedia. Everyone around here still calls it the DEW line. One of the differences, I'm told, is that since it is a military facility, they are allowed to have a bar in this otherwise "damp" town.

      I included a new screen capture showing 12 satellites.

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  7. cool video RichardM.....what speed do you think a vehicle would be moving at if that was realtime.....?

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    1. 25 to 45 mph. Pretty bumpy roads and in town, the speed limit varies from 20 to 25 mph.

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  8. I wrote a reply, but the deleted it. I hope this works. Enjoyed the video. I can't live without trees. I'm ready to go south. We had lots of heavy snow today here in Fairbanks. Kyle lost his car key somewhere here..........

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    1. Trees just shed leaves all over the place ;-)

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  9. Cool video. I didn't think there would be that many residential areas in Barrow.

    The tamales look tasty too.

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    1. Actually, most of Barrow is residential with very little commercial areas. The population is around 4,000 or so.

      The tamales were good though there wasn't any selection. On any day, they make one kind...

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