Earth Hour

We even decided to join in on earth hour in Antarctica, And thus had a night with candle light. I took the opportunity to try and take some more artistic pictures.

Field Travel Training

You are possibly thinking, field travel training, hasn’t Nichol already done that? If you were thinking that you would be correct. However I have been appointed as the Search and Rescue leader down here which means that I am in charge of looking after the search and rescue team and training, along with managing any SAR activities that go on.

One part of this role was having to train the new winterers that just arrived on V4. So off we headed. The plan was to go to deep lake for a night in Bivvies, the spend the second night in watts hut after walking there.

Staying in a bivvy at –17 is not the most pleasant experience. In fact the actual staying in the bivvy, and sleep was not to bad. It is just cold before you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning.

Needles to say everybody was happy to spend the next night in a hut.

 

so Hello, Goodnight and Goodbye

Well, after much anticipation the final voyage for the season has shown up, brining with it new faces for the winter but also taking away most of the station population, dropping the numbers from around 100 to only 25.

We all went out in the cold to wave good bye to ship as the last helicopters flew out to it. Now the winter begins, hopefully the sea ice will form soon as walking is the only form of transport we have until this happens and we can use quads.

It is just us until next November when the ship comes back bringing with it people, helicopters and supplies.

Of Snow, Snowmen and Dogs

This week saw us have our first decent snow fall. With snow everywhere and temperatures dropping it is starting to feel more like the Antarctica I expected. Of course with snow comes snowmen.

This week also saw Clint in a fit of inspiration decide the station  needed a pet, so in has most Frankenstinesque impersonation he headed off to the workshop.

More Sar

This week we did some more Search and rescue Training, but this time looked at rocks rather than snow and ice.

My first Aurora and the LIDAR

Today was an exciting day (ok it was actually night but who is being picky).

It was dark enough and the conditions were right to see an Aurora Australis or the Sothern Lights.

Jeff also had the LIDAR running which is a big laser that shoots into the sky to measure atmospheric conditions.

I have not yet perfected my camera skills on taking photos of the Aurora so I do not have many good shots, but hopefully there will be more opportunities.

 

The receiver Hut

Ok, well, I know i said I would slowly document all the buildings around the station. This is one of the more boring stations however it is a little distance away from the main station and I had to visit it for work today so I took my camera along.

With the long range HF radio systems we use, we have a transmitter hut and a receiver hut. These are connected to aerials that transmit and receive the radio signals. Each hut is located at different ends of the station and a bit away from the station, to limit interference. We mainly use these radios to talk to aircraft and field parties out or normal radio range, but we can also pick up radio Australia with them.

In the past these radios were the only way to talk back to Australia, however with satellite links phones and internet are all available now.

I am not sure if I will ever show the transmitter hut as it is nearly identical to the receiver hut.