The day had come, it was finally time to start hauling the optical fibre cable at Mawson. Over the next two days the makeshift ICT crew would exceed everyone’s expectations.
The starting crew: two carpenters, a storesperson and myself. The storesperson Ryan turned up late and only lasted half a day (not sure if we benched him or he benched himself). Mal (carpenter No.2), also only stayed for half a day, fire training in the afternoon a reasonable excuse to leave. Mal, to his credit did backup on the second day. Scooter the electrician replaced Ryan and Mal in the afternoon, a two for one deal I was quite happy with. The main stayer over the two days was Stu (carpenter No.1). Stu was keen to help and set the pace for the two days. We even had Ben assist with melting the snow and ice, and of course, Paul our plant operator who moved the fibre drums for us.
Together “the crew” hauled about 2,000 meters of fibre optical cable over the two days – nine individual external optical fibre cables – and installed the internal optical fibre cabling in the Operation, Green Store and Aeronomy buildings.
The two days were just meant to be hauling three optical fibre cables, about 380 meters in total, not 2000 meters. Not a bad effort for the makeshift ICT team at Mawson.
What we achieved in two days definitely surprised me. But the level of enthusiasm, hard work, and willingness to help from everyone involved didn’t. Everyone at Mawson is keen and willing to help no matter what the task.
Honourable mention to Shane and Con who helped for the last 10 minutes of day two!
Rob (Mawson SATCOM Technician and Fibre Optics Specialist)
