Located on the second floor of Building #165 at McMurdo Station, &Quot;Mac Relay" ,(McMurdo Relay) serves as the primary HF interface between the McMurdo community, other Antarctic stations and field camps, as well as the outside world. Mac Relay shares the facility with "Mac Ops", (Operations), "Mac Center", (Air Traffic Control), "Mac Weather", (Meteorology Department), as well as with the administrative branches of the military units on station. From the arrival of the United States Navy at McMurdo in 1955-56 until the 1997-98 season, Mac Relay was under the total control of Naval Support Forces Antarctica. The 1997-98 season was the first in which the department would be under total civilian control One of my many tasks as Communications Coordinator was to see to it that this transition went smoothly and successfully. The department was made up of five Communications Operators and myself. Mac Relay functions as a 24x7 operation duing the Austral Summer season and a 5x9 facility during the winter months.
Mac Relay is responsible for a number of communications related tasking at McMurdo. One of the major duties of the department is to provide transmitter/receiver and antenna control and routing for all relevant facilities on station, (i.e. Mac Ops, Mac Weather, Mac Center etc.). Mac Relay also provided data transmit and receive capability between McMurdo and South Pole Station for the transmission and reception of weather observation message, aircraft departure notices and other data traffic via TDM modem link. All voice and data communications with the USCG Icebreaker POLAR STAR below 60 ° were assigned to the department. All data to and from the vessel was routed via Dovetron RTTY units. Mac Relay communications personnel provided support for the Message Dissemination System (MDS) in place at McMurdo for the routing of military related messages on and off the island.
Two separate antenna receiving points were utilized for signal reception. The main antenna/receiver site is located 20 miles away on Black Island. Received signals were first sent via microwave link between Black Island and McMurdo and then onto Mac Relay via telephone lines. Another antenna farm is located at nearby Arrival Heights on Ross Island. Received signals travel via coaxial cable between the antennas at Arrival Heights and Mac Relay. Received audio from Black Island is routed via a Receive Matrix to the desired destination, (Mac Ops, Mac Weather, Mac Center etc.). The input from the antenna farm at Arrival Heights is routed directly to an antenna matrix for chosing the optimum array and then sent to any one of 10 RF Harris Tunable receivers. Receiver output is sent to it's desired destination via the Receive Matrix panel.
On the transmit side audio from Mac Ops, Mac Center, Mac Weather and Mac Relay is fed directly to the transmit side of the Transmit/Receive Matrix panel. The Matrix Panel allows the audio to be either sent over telephone lines directly to the &Quot;T-Site" where the transmitters and transmitting antennas are located, or first routed to such devices as the TDM Modems, Dovetron RTTY terminals etc. before being sent to T-Site for actual transmission. Finally, a RF Harris RT-100 transceiver with an output of 100 watts carried out the lion's share of Mac Relay voice communications to South Pole, Field Camps and so on.
Life on the Ice
During my six month stay at McMurdo, I lived in a dormintory style building in a tiny room with my assigned room mate Jim Dobbs. Through judicious scavaging, wheeler-dealing and outright chicanery, we managed to outfit our room with a televsion set, VCR and other comforts of home.
Working a nine hours a day, six days a week schedule, I was never actually in my room except to sleep at night, or in cases of bad weather. McMurdo offers the resident plenty of ways both productive and unproductive to spend our free time.
There is plenty of hiking and cross country skiing to be had, along with sports such as basketball, bowling and volleyball. Since the McMurdo population is about 1/3 female, there is plenty of chance for social interaction at either the coffee house or the two bars located on station. Most evenings I could be found at the coffee house playing endless table tennis matches with my friends from Mac Weather and Mac Center.
All meals on station were served cafeteria style in the large Galley. During the season, fresh vegetables and fruits were delivered by air on a somewhat regular basis. Other foodstuffs are brought in in bulk near the end of the season by the supply vessel M/V GREEN WAVE
After making the 8 hour flight from McMurdo to Christchurch, New Zealand on the 28th of February 1998, I spent four happy R&R days soaking up the sun of Christchurch. The main city of the Canterbury region of the South Island, "Cheech" offers many attractions for the formerly snowbound Antarctic employee. Leafy avenues, grassy parks, friendly people and interesting historical sites make a few days in this antipode city well worth one's time.
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