Wondering how race information gets back to Anchorage from Skwentna? We have a satellite phone with a computer connected. We put all the data we collect into emails. Then simply enough we send the emails. It’s fairly efficient when it works.  The picture to the right was taken in a good year when the Internet email system worked.

We arrived at the checkpoint this year and began the process of establishing communication. We assembled the paraphernalia for the fixed cell phone antennae, climbed as high up a pole as we could get using an extension ladder then used duct tape to secure it, making sure it was pointing northwest to the Shell Hills. Dial the phone and we’re talking to Anchorage Race Stats. Bravo, back-up communication established.

We had to wait for our computer and brand new sat phone to come in on a later plane. Once it arrived, we went to work establishing our tech-savvy primary lifeline with Anchorage. One problem led to another problem and then another and another with the sat phone. The final issue boiled down to the sat phone being rigged for use in a car. A connector that slides into the cigarette lighter powered the phone and antennae. I’m no electrical genius but unless we could locate a car with a lighter someplace at the checkpoint we were simply out of luck.

You’re saying what’s so hard about finding a car? Remember, there are NO roads. These folks don’t own cars; they use planes, boats, 4-wheelers, dog teams and snowmachines to travel. Once upon a time though, the Delias had a truck out there parked on the far side of the river to haul supplies between the airstrip and the river but not anymore.  ANC Comms told us they’d send an adaptor so the lighter changing device could insert into an AC outlet. Another plane came in and we had the adaptor but still no luck in getting the computer to talk with the sat phone and the sat phone to talk to the antennae and the antennae to link with the satellite.

Finally about three hours before teams were due, our folks doing the trouble shooting from Anchorage realized it wasn’t ever going to work except with an inverter. We’d already come up with our plan “B” when they advised us to “call” the data in. I was greatly relieved to hear that we could give up on the technology and go back to the ways of days gone by. The first year I worked at SKW, we “called” all our data in!

I’m sitting in Anchorage right now until the weather clears enough to go by bush plane through Rainy Pass and onto McGrath in the interior. Guess it’s snowing over Rainy Pass right now. I’m grounded.  There’s a lesson here, always have a plan “B.”