Restoring the Link

2009-01-29 23:41:44.000 – Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist

Working to restore our link to the valley

You may have noticed that for the better part of the day Wednesday and into the morning hours today, nothing was updating on the website. Well, if you have been following the observer comments for any extended period of time, you probably know that a lot of the “live” content on the website relies on a wireless, point to point microwave radio connection from the Observatory tower on the summit to our Weather Discovery Center in North Conway, NH. This link, although on the whole very reliable (especially considering the conditions it is asked to perform in), it does fail from time to time. This not only keeps all that content from updating on the website, but also leaves us without internet access and the ability to update these observer comments from the summit.

So today, our trusty IT observer Mike Finnegan, shown in the picture attached to this comment, rappelled off the side of the tower and cleaned a bunch of snow and rime out of the dish that is responsible for the aforementioned link to the valley. Mike has plenty of climbing experience, and rest assured, he was secured very well and all other safety precautions were taken before he lowered over the side of the tower. Thanks to long-time volunteer Al Lake for keeping an eye on Mike too!

When that did not fix the connection, a couple of our valley staff, Ken Rancourt and John Mitchell, started looking at the other end of the connection on the roof of the Weather Discovery Center. In the end, this is where the problem was. Snow and ice had piled up enough on the roof that it was affecting the connection.

So now everything has returned to normal and we can resume updating these comments on a regular basis. Look for one tomorrow about the production company that spent Wednesday night with us, shooting footage for a show for the Discovery Channel!

Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist