From: "Michael A. Terrell"
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: Quickie Thermal Probe
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 14:21:25 -0500
Organization: Have you seen my bench? No, really! Where is it?
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Mike Monett wrote:
>
> Michael A. Terrell wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > I know cold weather. I spent a year at the US Army's cold weather
> > test site at Ft. Greely in '73 & '74. It is at the bottom, between
> > mountain ranges with the cold air rolling down and a near 0% humidity.
> > The temperature was so low at times they wouldn't tell us at the radio
> > and TV station the exact temperature because they were afraid of causing
> > a panic. Those days all were were allowed to report was, "Be careful,
> > its cold out there today" Vehicles with battery blankets, lower
> > radiator heaters, dipstick heaters, and you still couldn't start some of
> > them. You were allocated 20A @120 VAC for the heaters, and you had to
> > put 10 weight oil in the transmission and rear end because the usually
> > 90 weight was so hard it didn't lubricate at all. It was like chucks of
> > hard plastic.
> > Michael A. Terrell
> > Central Florida
>
> Hah! You should have stayed there. It's better for your health - no
> mold:)
Not if you have respiratory problems. The cold dry air can kill you.
> My first post in the Air Force was Uplands, right here in Ottawa (closed
> down now.)
>
> The project planning was a little strange. All the inside work was in the
> summer. Try stringing intecom cables in hot dusty attics when it's 95 in
> the shade.
>
> To balance things, all the outdoor projects were in the winter. They
> wanted a microwave link in the middle of January. The tower was
> installed, and it was time to bring up the coax. I don't recall the
> designation, but it was big. Solid center conductor, maybe 1" dia.
>
> We formed a chain on the stairs with one guy up the mast, ready to plug
> the coax in. At the word Go, we all pushed coax as fast as we could. No
> luck. It froze solid on the way up, and the guy on top could not bend it
> to make the connection.
>
> Now, the problem is what do you do with 100 ft of stiff coax? It won't go
> back down the way it went up:)
>
> Mike
Did you ever have to drive a ground rod through permafrost? Heat it
wit an acetylene torch, and drive it a few inches, pull it back out, and
repeat, all day long till you finally pierce the permafrost. If you
tried to just drive it in, it would just bend.
--
Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida