Baldface Blog - Monday March 3rd
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Back to the tower for me today. It snowed 15cm overnight and is still pounding as the day gets going. The visibility is marginal due to the storm and, while I'm sure it would be great riding, I'm determined to forgo shooting in order to get the network back up. To that end I spend a few hours getting my act together - organizing tools, climbing gear and practicing making plug ends for the cable. I've never had much luck making network cables in the past but Henry has hooked me up with his whizzy cable tester and plug end tool. After a couple of failed attempts I figure out what I'm doing wrong and succeed in creating a working cable. Now to duplicate this feat 300' up a tower in a snowstorm...
Off I go in good old Eyeball as I didn't relish the thought of getting stuck half way out there on a sled with my laptop lashed to the rail and no one to help me, and this was to be another solo mission. Slow and steady wins the race, not to mention considerably more comfortable and warm. An hour later I'm on site and gearing up for the ascent. Last time out to the tower I had noticed a large surplus of coiled cable at the bottom of the Southridge run in the com shack and I figured it would serve a more useful purpose at the top of the tower than down here. I spooled it out and found an extra twenty feet. As I climbed the tower I worked this loop up through the zap straps securing it to the ladder until I arrived at the radio, 300' off the deck. One more small task to perform before tackling the plug, changing a burnt out bulb on the big flashing navigational light on the tower top. Luckily, there was a spare in the com shack which I'd brought up with me. After a few minutes dealing with the frozen fixture the bulb was in and I descended back down to the radio. I took my time prepping the connection as it involved lining up eight small wires in a specific order then jamming them into a tiny plastic plug, all in a howling snowstorm. Thankfully, the mornings practice paid off and I got a working connection first try. Shortly thereafter I was back on terra firma confirming that everything worked, mission accomplished.
Back at the Lodge, no sooner had I stepped through the door, people started hounding me to get the Lodge wireless back online. Yeah, whatever... Mind if I get changed and have a bowl of soup first? I did finally get it working around dinner time, using my personal wireless router that I'd brought up for my room but by this time I was pretty well done playing the Cable Guy. Tomorrow, I ski... For now, I sleep...
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Posted by:
UnRed Dave
on
Friday 07 March 09:27:21AM
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 comments: 0
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