On Sunday my officemate (the Communications Technician, Ken) was out for a walk in the backyard, and noticed one of the HF antenna lines comprising the rhombic curtain had fallen off the west antenna, which rises 110 feet from the VHF shack behind Terra Lab.  This is a directional antenna pointing south, supporting our primary radio link to the South Pole and McMurdo Station if our satellite comms were down.  The riggers, who normally maintain the lines and do all the tower work, won’t be here for their semi-annual visit until early 2010.

West Tower, base looking up

Ken and I (like many folk here) have rock climbing experience, some technical rescue and rigging training, and general skills that could effect the repair — most importantly, we have current OSHA Fall Prevention training and are certified competent by the standards the industry (and our company) require.  That, plus his responsibility for communications systems here, and my training and role as the Glacier Search and Rescue team leader, meant we got to have the fun

Credit: Brian Nelson

There is an incredible (and excellent) focus on job and personal safety within the Program.  Before we even thought of approaching the job, we completed: A review of the Environmental Health and Safety policies governing work at heights; A thorough Job Hazard Analysis, reviewed and approved by our supervisor and the station manager; a full inspection of all climbing and fall prevention/safety gear and update of the gear inspection log; a complete pre-climb plan and checklist; lock-out/tag-out of all radios/antenna/sources of RF radiation on the tower; and more.

View over station from top of tower

After our final check of the weather and certification of the pre-climb checklist, I ascended the tower with a 250′ haul line, clipped a pulley above me with the line through it, and lowered the old insulator on it to Ken.  He ran one end of the haul through a bottom pulley and ascender (for progress capture), and attached the other end to the insulator (with the antenna line reconnected) and hauled it back up to me, and into position.  Then it was as simple as me reattaching the insulator to the tower.

Bonaparte Point on left, Station and Gamage Point on right

View toward east tower, frozen Hero Inlet, top of Mount William peeking over the glacier

After snapping some pictures of the repair, the antenna and gear on the tower for Comms documentation, a few more of the surroundings, and taking a moment to enjoy the view, I descended.  We broke down our haul setup, and brought the radio systems back on line.  Ken tested the repair with a loud and clear call over the pole and on to McMurdo Comms.  It was good to get things back up and running so quickly, and before the first grantee science teams arrived and station leapt into the full swing of summer science.

Credit: Ken Kloppenborg

Credit: Brian Nelson