Sami - I am SO Sorry!

Oh Sami, I am so damn sorry! What brought that on you might ask? Simple. I found Radio Ridge the fist time today. (Well, Today being defined as about a week and a half ago when I first started writing this, but I digress...)

WTF Over?!?!

Ok. Here's the story. I was the commander of MDRS crew 33, the "Mighty C33" and Sami was my journalist. On one of the few surface excursions I went on. (I actually only remember one outside of the immediate campus.) I promised to take Sami to radio ridge. We spent four beautiful hours looking, but I never found it. This time I found not one, but two ways into it immediately. Damn. Sami, I am sorry I didn't find it the first time. I missed the first turn and the rest was never going to happen.

It was really beautiful. As soon as I can pull the pictures off of my camera I'll send them up. Does anyone have a Memory stick Duo to Memory stick adapter they can send me?

In case you are wondering, I went up there for two reasons. 1) I had to inspect some equipment at the Hab and do a little work on the power systems. 2) I met a family at the motel that was interested in MDRS, so I agreed to give them a tour. It was fun.

I am going to start doing this a little differently I think. See the next post.

A lazy Friday

Friday. It was cold last night, and half my bed was wet. We had some rain storms yesterday, and I thought I had my cabin vent closed on the fifth wheel.

Not quite.

My bed got wet. I ended up covering it as best as I could, and wrapped up in a spare sheet. It got me through the night, but it was not completely comfortable. I've slept in worse though.

Spent the morning detailing some of the bits of the plan and such. there is an amazing amount of work that goes into such a project. I also called two of the vendors to see about getting sample APs sent here to test their operation range and ease of software use. We'll see how that goes. I also got Xantrex to give me a bit of a deal on a SWplus 2548 for use in the Hanksville tower site. I left a message for the battery people, but no reply. After I ran out of business hours, I started working on the two Mars Society Generators. I will need to know how they work for the Hanksville site, but I also just want to bring them online, as much to salvage my reputation as anything. I did discover a minor piece of maintenance that we were neglecting. Did you know that there is three screens in the fuel pumps? Neither did I. I cleaned them on both gensets. I think I have a good line on "Casper" but I need a couple gaskets (Northwest Equipment is sending them.) and I am narrowing the power generation issues down. I checked the field coil, replaced the regulator board, and verified a diode the panel all to no avail, now, just because I can, I am starting to replace the control and side box. Don is convinced that is the Generator it's self. I hope he is wrong.

I'll tell you tomorrow.

Well, Here we go, the first one...

Well. Here we go. I, Finally have decided to join the millions and write a blog. Amazing, the guy who has done so much has just never got into it. I've always thought that if I was going to write one, it would be on my server with software that I installed, but this project is to important for it to wait.
You may ask, "What brought this on?"
Simple. I'm in Utah.
"What are you doing in Utah?"
Well, I'm glad you asked. I am here bringing a WiMax broadband link into Hanksville, (Yes, the same Hanksville that the Mars society has a Hab. Look it up, It's cool.) Something like a 70 mile link in from an old ATT tower to the town of Hanksville. From There we will distribute it all around Hanksville via a WiFi mesh network.

Bringing Broadband to the uninitiated...

Cool.

(Well, It's actually really hot here, (Something like 110 degrees!) but I'll get back to that. )

I've actually been here for something like two weeks, and I've seen and done some cool things. If I can I'll try to get back to them, in the very near future, but for now I'll just talk about the reasons for this trip, then in another posting (Because I'm still learning how to use the tool :( I'll talk about today.

I am here to get the Community broadband WiFi network up, I am here to help Don and his family wherever I can, I am here to do a documentary video of the project. I will also write a few magazine articles and maybe even a book. (Add it to the many I have to write.) If I have any free time left, I'll do some work for the Engineering Team and the Mars Society.

As far as my writing style? Fast, loose, I sometimes follow the rules, sometimes not, Sometimes I just rant, sometimes I will write with great description, sometimes I'll be angry, sometimes I'll just be lame. Usually I'll just be me. My pictures are often weird and plentiful, but occasionally are interesting. It's probably worth looking at.

If you hang around though, you will learn a lot about what is required to bring WiFi to your small town.

Oh, and if you live in a rural area without any broadband, and you want Broad band, WiFi or both, Contact me, I can probably get it to you, and perhaps with little or no cost to your town.

Have fun, buckle up, it's gonna be interesting.

:P