Hello? Hello Again?
Knowing that communicating from a remote field camp will be challenging, the fabulous people from PolarTREC arranged for a satellite phone to be sent to me to practice with before I go. Its a loaner phone, and then I'll get a similar one once I get to Antarctica.
Pelican case for a satellite phone.
At times, figuring out the phone has been a little adventure; a project or a fun puzzle to sort out. At other times, I've been so frustrated with it that I just need to walk away, and go pet my cat or something.
The phone works fine if I want to actually use it as a phone. For example, I was outside on my deck, and I called my husband, inside the house. I could use it to call my mom again. I could use it to call you! All good!
All of the parts do not a working satellite phone make.
The trouble occurs when I'm using it like a dial-up modem to connect it to the computer to send emails with photos attached. Well, I mean, I'm trying to use it that way. That's where the wheels on the bus fall off.
I've spent countless hours on the phone (a "real" phone) with a chap named Rob, who patiently walked me through steps that should have worked but didn't. I've taken it apart and reassembled it countless times. I had my engineer husband look at it. I even mailed it to the PolarTREC computer expert, Zeb, who studied it and sent me this email, which made me laugh quite alot:
Email explaining satellite phone malfunctions.
No bueno.
My New Plan
So, now my plan is to throw myself on the mercy of the USAP communications staff in McMurdo, in hopes that they will fix me up with a model of phone that can be used to send data, and not just to make emergency phone calls. I'm confident this plan is going to work!
However... if you don't hear from me for a while when I'm out in the field, you'll understand why!
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