Macquarie Island communications: a trip to the VHF repeater station at Mt Waite plus fresh tech brings the news to expeditioners. There is also a field trip to Eagle Cave.

Macquarie Island communications: a trip to the VHF repeater station at Mt Waite

Our main form of field communications on the island is a very high frequency (VHF) radio system. VHF transmission is “line of sight” and requires repeaters to gain good coverage across undulating terrain. There are four repeater sites allowing us to have radio coverage over most of the island, located at different high points of the topography. Unfortunately when one of these sites requires work done it becomes a mini expedition as everything needs to be backpacked to the site in question. A recent trip to Mt Waite, situated on the western side and about halfway down the island, afforded supervising communications technician Scotty, ably assisted by our multi-talented chef Benny, a few days working away from the station environs.

Day one consisted of a 16 kilometre hike to Green Gorge hut as the base of operations. We enjoyed a nice day with a mere 20 knots or so of tailwind to assist us on our way. We arrived mid afternoon and settled in for the night.

Day two: We were up nice and early for a brisk hike up to Mt Waite on the far side of the island. An access permit had been previously arranged with TASPWS to allow us to travel off track in this world heritage national park. Without the permit the work does not go ahead. A bit of rain and a nice 30 knot breeze to walk into made for a lovely time. We stopped at the Gratitude Lake ‘apple hut’ for a quick bite to eat and then went to conquer the Mt Waite peak. The peak was covered in cloud when looking from the hut, but as we got closer it materialised out of the murk.

The first sign that all was not well was the bent antenna on the repeater. Luckily we had bought a replacement along with us (smiles). When we reached the summit ,the 30–40 knot winds kept us on our toes with trying to stop any equipment blowing away and the hail from entering the repeater enclosure being some of the challenges. Fingers getting cold quickly also added some spice to the endeavour. We managed to change all the cables and seal them up again to stop water ingress as well as swapped out some other items. Some quick radio tests from distant places confirmed that the repeater was operational again. The cloud cover briefly cleared at about this point and some photo taking ensued. Then it was down the hill, around the lakes, over the tundra, past the tarns and back to Green Gorge hut for the night.

Day three: after two days of hiking, day three found us having a sleep in and doing some checks of the radio equipment at Green Gorge.

Day four: We made an eight kilometre walk to Brothers Point hut. We were heading there to replace an HF antenna that had been snapped by the wind previously. This walk was the winter wonderland walk as we had wet snow for most of the way. The snow was moving in a horizontal manner for about half of the time but it did firm up the ground and make the walking easier. As we arrived at the hut, TASPWS ranger Chris was seen to be departing about 30m away from us — we yelled and shouted but he was having none of it and just kept walking! He was off to Bauer Bay and obviously did not hear or see us. We replaced the antenna during the course of the afternoon in blissful conditions as the wind had died to just about nothing. This could also be known as the calm before the wind! Around 1600 the wind picked up and had the hut ‘rockin’ ‘n’ rollin'' for the better part of the night but once again the wind pressed on.

Day five: We hiked the nine kilometres or so back to station, testing the Mt Waite repeater along the way and then had that beautiful thing called a hot shower.

Sometimes the actual work is not so difficult compared to actually getting to the job — that’s Macca. 

Mysterious Eagle Cave and techological advances on station

BOM weather observers Evelyn and Sean recently visited Eagle Cave on the north western corner of the island, which involves a day return walk to and from station around the coastal featherbed track. This passes through a specially managed area (SMA) to protect the breeding habitat of southern giant petrels and occasionally wandering albatross, which closed for general access on 31 July. Sean and Ev took advantage of the last opportunity to visit this area before closure.

Eagle Cave was used by shipwrecked sailors and sealers during the 19th century. Along the way, Evelyn got an interesting photo of the mummified carcass of a young elephant seal, with a quite impressive set of teeth. This lead to some conjecture as to whether the animal in question may have been a young leopard seal. Leopard seals have been uncommon visitors to Macca in recent years, and rarely spotted, although they were much more numerous a few decades ago. Wildlife ranger Chris was able to quickly settle the question by comparing his photo of the skull of a leopard seal taken last year. Chris’s comment: “Now this is a set of teeth!” (see photos below). 

Expeditioners on Antarctic stations have traditionally been able to keep up with news and current affairs thanks to our communications technicians, who have downloaded and then printed out on a daily basis subscription copies of one or more daily papers and an internet news service paper which specialises in servicing the maritime industry. This is laborious, time consuming and uses a lot of paper. This year we have taken a technological leap forward by using a station iPad with Pressreader app to view the subscribed news services, which now includes five Australian and a New Zealand newspapers, and provides the full version. This has been very well received. The people who put out Pressreader were keen to write a blog post about the use of the app in Antarctica, and we provided a few photos (below). Thanks Sean and Ryan! 

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