The wind had finally died down this afternoon so I went out and hung another antenna on the outside of the buildings at the BEO. It was occupied so I wasn't able to complete wiring for the antenna but I also didn't bring enough cable. As you can see, it's overcast and the light is very flat. What isn't evident in the picture is how bright it is outdoors. In a very short time, I had an incredible headache due to the brightness.
The portable lab is referred to as the SledShed as it is built on sled runners so it could be moved. The Rolm tower on the left is a research project currently occupying the much of the interior of the portable lab. I'm not sure what the project is but I had worked on a similar tower back in the late 1970s to study micro-meteorology. The power poles are heading out to another building called the Control Shed in the middle of the BEO. The radio I'm installing now is part of a redundant link for the control shed. I needed a longer cable to connect the new radio and will probably head out there again on Sunday. Hopefully it'll warm up a bit.
Sunday Morning - This doesn't have anything to do with the radio mentioned above. I had offered to one of the staff here in Barrow to show him how to make miso soup. The only odd ingredients being the miso and firm tofu. I brought these ingredients up with me from Fairbanks and picked up some green onions. One of the other ingredients that they used to have in the local grocery store was kombu but they didn't have it this time. Kombu is an edible kelp that is used as a seasoning for dashi along with shaved, dried bonito. Having neither of these ingredients, I just picked up some broth and the nori that they did have in the store. Not the same flavor but better than nothing...
The cooking expanded to also making up some sushi rolls with the leftover nori not used to season the miso soup. Not having many ingredients available in the local grocery store, I settled for eggs and cucumber. Someone mentioned that they had some avocado. Hopefully, someone has some vinegar and sugar to season the rice. We were originally going to meet on Saturday evening but one of the participants wasn't feeling well so we postponed a day.
Sunday Evening Update - Here is a shot of the construction of the sushi rolls. I only needed to make the first one and the others jumped in and made the rest. They came out okay but I didn't put in enough vinegar/sugar into the rice. But otherwise, not bad.
And the new radio is installed. One of the researchers, who will be working out at the BEO Control Shed tomorrow, offered to install the other end of the link.
So you just wander out into a blizzard in Barrow and pick an avocado when you need one? amazing place.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing isn't it. Remember, climate change will make Alaska the new Florida...
DeleteGood job making do with the ingredients at hand! Your working conditions are a bit extreme.
ReplyDeleteI learned today that there is another local grocery store that has a lot of asian ingredients. I need to check that place out.
DeleteKind of odd putting in 300 Mbps wireless link when the connection out of the facility is still a 5 Mbps satellite connection.
I like that you are giving cooking lessons when you are up there. Good job.
ReplyDeleteThe challenge up there is finding interesting ingredients. But, thank you.
DeleteThe purpose of the cable looped through the other electrical lines?
ReplyDeleteIt's not actually looped through the power lines. It is the data cable and is fastened to one of the guy wires for the tower. It isn't near the power lines at all, it just looks like it is.
DeleteBottlenecks are interesting. Most people don't think of information that way. Satellite data uplinks make 300 baud modems look appealing.
ReplyDeleteWe supposedly have fibre to the home. But the bit that connects our modem is clearly good old DSL over old Bell copper.
Sounds like you need some welder's goggles for the outdoor work.
Most of rural Alaska is still on satellite uplinks. There is a company installing undersea fiber along the northern coast which will address some of the need and another that installed terrestrial fiber and microwave along the south western coast plus some digital microwave but Alaska will be on the information dirt road for a while.
DeleteThe new snow makes it especially bright.