Day Eleven

Day Eleven
06 August 2007
*YAWN* Oh man that felt like too much sleep. Holy crap, it’s 10:30! Well it’s so late already I guess I’ll just get up, get ready for the day, and grab some lunch before going next door. Today’s goal is to set up a VTC in the DOC conference room and try to finish up the desk wiring. *sigh* It’s hard to think of this as an exciting adventure even as I’m slinging an M4 rifle to my back and making sure I have a functioning 30 round magazine full of ammo. Would Rambo be setting up a VTC?
I went for a boring lunch to go with my current mood. Chicken nuggets and mixed veggies. The food, though seemingly bland and mundane, was unexpectedly good. I think they seasoned the nuggets with something and the veggies were crisp and fresh. Hmm… I wonder if this meal is foreshadowing my upcoming day. With a diet coke in my ankle pocket and a round in the chamber of my rifle, I head over to the DOC conference room.
The boxes are opened; the contents set up at one end of a huge, glossy wood conference table. The cables to connect each piece together are fulfilling their respective destinies and the power cables are set into a power strip. The only thing left to do is plug in that power strip and get to testing. Now where is that outlet? With a team of three relatively intelligent people, finding an outlet on the wall of a large room should not be a difficult task. A room such as this should have a number of outlets, after all, given it’s intended purpose.
Mountains of boxes were moved away from the walls after the first couple of circuits around the room were unsuccessful, but to no avail. Several more circuits were conducted before we started making plans run an extension from a connecting office. Just as we are about to send someone to find an extension cord, someone decides to move the chairs set up on the stage. And, lo and behold, an outlet is finally discovered raised a good foot from the base of the wall. With at least some of our professional dignity intact, we set up the VTC equipment as far as we could and now must wait for the secure network to be up and running for final tests.
Back in my room I decide that it would be great to have a VTC setup in my home. The Tandberg system is really nice but incredibly expensive and, of course, there must be a full system at both ends to make it work. It would be a very expensive Christmas! I did however find a 57” Mitsubishi TV for less than $2000! It would fill most of my living room back home and more than fill my little space where I currently live, but hey, a deal’s a deal. (I didn’t buy it, in case you were wondering.) To get my head out of the clouds I head back over to check the progress in the JOC.
The desks are coming along nicely. Those rat nests of wires have been cleaned up and now there is just some repairs to make on the outlets and connectors set into the desks. Well, I’m just getting in the way here so I guess it’s dinner time.
Being out of that boring mood from earlier, I had a wonderful dinner. I really couldn’t decide between the entrees so I went for both the deliciously fragrant curry chicken and the mouth wateringly juicy looking roast beef. The mashed potatoes were fluffy and hardly resembled the spackle from previous Iraq DFAC dinners. To top it all off I had a couple scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream that really hit the spot. With a happy but heavy stomach, I went to stretch out on the bunk to digest.
At 2200 I’m told the TacSat radio has to be set up and functional like right now right now, so my NCO and I grab the gear and head out to the latrine trailer. This is the only place the radio can be. The plan is to set it up right next to the satellite dish that supports all of our comms and run the cabling through the same way too. Now, the radio’s antenna is flimsy rod of metal with two webs of even flimsier metal attached to it. This antenna has to fire a signal out to geosynchronous orbit (Approximately 23,000 miles into space.) and receive a signal from the same place. This kind of distance requires pointing accuracy with less than one degree of “wiggle room” just to get a signal from a satellite, let alone a signal strong enough to communicate over. Due to this extreme requirement, a GPS device is usually used in combination with finely tuned antenna pointing aides (like electronically controlled servos to move and stabilize the antenna during movement) to get the optimal signal strength. “So,” you ask, “what kind of cool stuff did you use to point that antenna??” I had the best tools available: my hands and a compass. This should be fun.
I had to assume that this antenna should be pointed at the same satellite the big dish was pointing to, so I tried to get them pointed at the same azimuth. To do this, I climbed between the support arms of the dish and leaned back (thus exposing my entire body to the strongest concentration of RF energy possible; kid’s, don’t try this at home!). I measured the azimuth as quickly as possible and got the hell away from the feed horn. This was my solution. I’m not proud (okay maybe a little). After a half hour of being hunkered down behind the antenna looking down the sights of the compass, I finally declared that it was ready to be tested.
Another half an hour went by as NCO loaded comsec into the radio itself and turned it on. The moment of truth…. BOO YAH! Perfect signal strength! Oh yeah, one shot one kill, baby! Yeah, it’s what I do. After a radio test, we pack it up at 2330 and head off for bed.
The incredible events of the night have me up until 0200 but soon enough it’s…