Saturday 17 January 2004
Hard at work
There's been lots going on lately - so much I've hardly had time to write about it. The summer season here is very short (only around six weeks) and there's lots of stuff that needs doing during that time. Consequently everyone works very hard - normal hours are 8am til 7pm, six days a week, although often people end up doing even more than that.
Most of my work so far has been learning my job from the previous Data Manager down here at Halley. He's been here for the last two years and he's been very helpful teaching me about the systems we run down here.
Aside from that my other big project is helping to build a new radio transmitter and receiver for a new experiment that's starting this year. It involves working outside, digging trenches and laying out over 3.5km of cable onto the ice. We've finished building the transmitter now, and by the end of tomorrow the receiver should be done so we can see if it all works. If not it's a bit late, the main components are buried under 2 metres of ice!
I've really enjoyed working outside and doing something practical and hands on. I guess it's partly because it's different from what I'm used to, but also there's something satisfying about seeing some physical result of your efforts (as long as it works!).
Posted by simon at 9:32 AM