Home Again

I arrived home last night after a long, long trip. A four hour car ride, twenty-two hours of flight time, and eight hours of waiting in airports over a 40-hour time period left me more than a little tired. It's just after 8 AM, and the family has gone to school and work. I'm headed that direction in a few minutes too, as I have a meeting this morning that I don't want to miss.

My trip went so smoothly, all flights on time, and no problems with my baggage or customs. Johannesburg's airport has a bad reputation for items being stolen out of luggage. In Los Angeles I had to claim my bags, all of which were quickly off the plane. I had an export form (which I had learned about from my trip on the USNS Comfort) and that helped expedite me through customs. I thought TSA might open the cases there in LA, but when I arrived in Boise, all the cases were still sealed. That surprised me, considering the amount of cables and electronics that are in the cases.

So, I'm back, working on getting in the groove of life again. The thing is, to a large degree, I want to keep that from happening. I didn't drink coffee on the trip, didn't stare at my computer screen eight hours a day, drank a lot of water, and generally was out of the rat race that I participate in here. I'm thankful for the chance to have been overseas again for a while. It's good to bring perspective, both for my personal life, and my work activities.

Posted by David at 08:11 PM

Backtracking

My shuttle ride picked me up just after noon, and we drove to the Maseru Bridge, where I would enter South Africa. While the drive fueled the vehicle, I walked through, going through immigration in Lesotho, then walking across the bridge and entering South Africa. I got back in the car, and by 5 PM I was at the airport in Johannesburg, and checking my bags for the flight home.

I'm in Frankfurt now, and everything is going smoothly. The nine and a half hour flight from Johannesburg to Frankfurt was long, but I was able to sleep, so that helped. I didn't suffer from jet lag much at all when I arrived in Lesotho, but I don't expect that to be the case when I return to Boise.

Posted by David at 07:34 AM

Heading Home

I'm all ready to head out of here, and am waiting for the shuttle van to pick me up for the drive to Johannesburg. It's been a good trip in many ways, and I've been pleased to get to know the MAF staff here in Lesotho, especially Traig and Laura Friedrich. The icing on the cake was to be able to get the GATR system to connect to the network on Thursday.

Posted by David at 10:02 AM

And Again

After the brief success of bringing the GATR inflatable antenna system online last Tuesday night, I've spend many hours trying to get it working again. I was quite discouraged about it over the weekend, but was determined not to give up. Finally, on Wednesday of this week I'd come to the end of what I could do, when Paul Gierow (inventor of the inflatable antenna) sent me a couple suggestions. I took the system to the MAF hangar today, did what he said I should try, and it's working now! You can tell I'm excited, because it's 1:30 AM, and I'm still up, using the GATR to write this. Here's a photo taken this afternoon.

Posted by David at 01:18 AM

Another Perspective

Traig Friedrich has come to Lesotho with his family. He'll be here for six months, working on installing VSAT systems at the Partners In Health clinics. He and his wife, Laura, are posting on their blog while here.

Posted by David at 10:36 PM

Flying In Lesotho

I was able to fly into the mountains today with MAF pilot, Christiaan Haak. We flew to three airstrips, then returned to Maseru. The second landing was at Bobete, a village where Partners In Health has a clinic. This is also one of the ten clinic locations at which MAF is installing VSAT systems for PIH.

The first landing was at a village called Semananyane (not sure I spelled that correctly), a difficult place to land. The strip is at 7800' elevation, only 1800 feet long, and has a 5% slope. Christiaan made it look easy. You can view the landing and takeoff, but it won't be as good as being there in person. The MAF program here does a not of medical flights, helping PIH and other groups in the fight against AIDS and tuberculosis. Many flights are also medical evacuations.

I spent the other parts of my day helping Traig with a wireless access point in the hangar, and also working on a project for one of the other guys. I was hoping to work with the GATR some this afternoon, but rain rolled in and so I decided to put that off.

I've got two more days at the hangar, and I'll work on the GATR one of those days. This has been a good trip, and I find myself thinking about living and working overseas again.

Posted by David at 10:21 PM

Lesotho

If you have the time, you might like to read about the country of Lesotho and MAF's work here.

Posted by David at 10:21 PM

Catching Up

I just realized that the time of some of these posts is off--I still have this blog set to Mountain Standard Time (I've adjusted all the times since this was originally posted). The time hit home last night when I quickly glanced at the Bogus Basin web site before I went to bed. Taylor was skiing there, and it was the middle of a cold day with fresh snow, and I was ending my day in Africa.

So it's been a couple days with nothing posted here. I spent all the Thursday and Friday still working to get the VSAT system working again. The GATR-com antenna was working great, but the electronic and RF components were giving me problems. Thinking that maybe the problem was the iDirect satellite modem, I borrowed a brand new one from Traig. This was one of the real advantages of coming here to do this testing with the GATR-com system on C-band--their is a container full of various VSAT components to which I have access.

So, I proceeded to take the modem, and hastily prepare if for my system so I could get one last call in to the NOC before they had a scheduled appointment. But, what happened is that haste made waste, and I made the modem unusable. I spent four hours on Thursday afternoon, trying to recover it, with no success. I was not happy, as it's a $3,000 piece of equipment, and I had visions of having to take it with me back to the US to have it repaired. I ended my day Thursday by posting my problem to a VSAT forum to see if anyone out there could help me. I also called the NOC (the Network Operation Center at Constellation Net Corp, the satellite provider I'm using for the testing) and Tim kindly sent me a PDF file containing recovery steps.

Friday morning I went with Traig to the hangar, so I could spend some time with the VSAT class. I'd spent Wednesday and Thursday working at Traig's house. The back yard had a good location for the GATR, and it was right next to the house so I could keep my laptop and the modem under the porch roof when it rained. By noon, I had the modem recovered, ready to use again, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I can't say I'm glad that I had that problem with it, but I learned a good lesson, and a lot of useful information about the modem.

With the second modem working again, I resumed my troubleshooting efforts. When my first effort with the new modem wasn't successful, I moved the GATR to a spot farther out in the yard where I had a better view to the satellite. I still was not successful in that spot, but I had to stop around 5:30 PM because I was invited to a bar-b-que for the MAF staff and the people in the VSAT class. By the time dinner was over, I was in touch with the NOC for a file I needed for them, but it was too late for any more work. And, they told me to call again on Monday. I really wanted to work on the weekend, but some forced time off would be a good thing, because I'd run myself a bit ragged.

Saturday I went with Traig and his family, and the Vennell family, over to Boemfontain, South Africa. It was a little over an hour to get there, once I had gone through immigration to leave Lesotho, and then again to enter South Africa. We visited an arts and craft fair, and went to a large Walmart-like store. It was interesting to see more of south Africa. I heard lots of Afrikans, ate some local sausage, and then slept almost all the way home. In the evening I went over to the Vennell's house, as they have a movie night each Saturday.

Today was church, lunch with the two VSAT class students from the Congo, and then I went with Traig and the family to the Maseru Sun Hotel for a swim at the pool. The water at the house was off again today, the third time this week. It was nice on a very hot afternoon to be able to spend some time in a cold pool. When we arrived home, the water was back on. This morning, because I have short hair, I was able to wash my hair with only two full glasses of water. I really do know better, but this trip is reminding me not to take so many things for granted in the States.

The weekend has been good to catch up on some rest, and I hope and pray that I'll have more success with the GATR-com system this week.

Posted by David at 09:25 PM

Still Trying

It's 9 PM and I've been outside in the backyard working with the GATR-Com system again. After the success of last night, I woke up this morning to some issues that I've not yet resolved. I'm not sure why, but I'm not able to get the system back on the network again. I worked on it off and on today as I could. I needed to work around the schedule of the Network Operations Center for the satellite service provider, as well as sneak a couple naps in because I had only slept two hours last night.

I was hoping to do some more work tonight, but I found out at 5 PM that I'd been invited to the MAF Program Manager's house for dinner. After a great meal and a game of Settlers of Cattan, I was home again doing some more troubleshooting. After doing some things on my own I called the NOC to work with them for a bit, but by 10 PM I was still nowhere. So I'm calling it a night and I'll start again tomorrow from the ground up to see if I can't duplicate the success we had Tuesday night.

Being in Africa is a new experience, and I'm enjoying this small corner of the continent. I was out for a run after work on Monday, and I realized there were so many things that reminded me of Papua New Guinea, the place where Ellyn and I grew up. Driving on the left side of the road, the red earth, grass, small ant hills, thistle plants, learner's permit plaques with large red 'L's on them (kind of like a student driver sign like you would see in the States), rain on the tin roof, seeing the Southern Cross, and some of the flowers.

Today I wrote in an e-mail to a friend that Lesotho is the 'highest elevation country' in the world, with the low spot being at 3000'. No other country can claim that distinction. The highest mountains are almost 10,000 feet. It's very windy in the mountains, all the time, and this country has the hardest flying that MAF pilots experience. I've been told it's not uncommon to have wind going in opposite directions at each end of the runway. So, combine short sloping strips of 600-700 meters, high wind, and altitude, and you've got some difficult flying.

Posted by David at 09:25 PM

Success

I spent the day working at the MAF hangar, attempting to get the GATR commissioned and on the network. I kept having to stop. First to help load a truck with VSAT equipment that is going to a mountain village. The VSAT will provide Internet connection for a Partners In Health clinic. Then I was stopped at least two more times because of rain, then again to build a shelter so I could cover the electronic equipment, then again to get inside when a lightning storm rolled through, and then in the end ran into technical difficulties.

I went to dinner with the students and instructor of the VSAT installer class, and that was at an MAF pilot's house. After dinner I went back to work in the back yard of the house I'm staying out, and set up the GATR. That's not snow in the photo, it's rain. By 12:30 AM I was online with the GATR. I was excited, because this is the first time the GATR has been used on C-band, and important next-step in MAF's desire to use this cool technology for disaster response and humanitarian relief work.

Posted by David at 02:47 AM

Slow Start

It's very late tonight, so I'll write for just a few minutes here. Things went well today at the MAF hangar, but I didn't make as much progress as I had hoped for. But I needed to work around the flying, and the VSAT class, so I had to do what I could. I got to the point where I had the GATR set up, and was ready to lock it on the satellite signal and call the service provider to finish the set up, when it started pouring. I had to quickly cover up the computer and satellite modem I had outside. By the time the rain passed, it was time to pack it up for the day. I'll try again on Tuesday, and hopefully get farther this time.

Posted by David at 10:03 PM

Movie Night In Maseru

I arrived in Lesotho about 5 PM this afternoon. I'm happy to report that all my bags made it with me. I'm going to crash in a few minutes, but I'm trying to drag it out as long as I can so I sleep all night. I'm at one of the MAF pilot's house, where there are quite a few people from the NGO community gathered for popcorn and a movie. More later.

Posted by David at 08:56 PM

On My Way To Africa

I left Boise a couple hours ago, heading to Lesotho for two weeks. If you're like a lot of folks, you probably haven't heard of The Kingdom of Lesotho, a small, mountainous country completely surrounded by South Africa. I've been planning this trip for a couple months, but now that I'm on my way, I'll start posting to this blog.

I'm toting along quite a bit of baggage, but when you consider what I've got, it's amazing. A C-band VSAT system with a 20-watt transmitter that can be used for broadband Internet connectivity just about anywhere in the world.

There are several goals for this trip, all of them revolving around VSAT communications. You might remember that in late November I was planning a trip to Bangladesh with the GATR deployable satcom system, and that in the end I didn't go. This trip to Lesotho is to do some real-world testing with the GATR on C-band, a frequency that is not commonly used in North America for VSAT, but is the ticket for using VSAT in the tropics. The C-band frequency is not affected by heavy rainfall, so is very suitable for many of the locations MAF would use this technology for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response. I'm proud to be working with GATR Technologies and their unique deployable satellite communications system.

Second, I'm going to assist with a VSAT installer course that is being put on by DRASTIC, and will be held at the MAF hanger in the capitol city, Maseru. The MAF Lesotho program will be installing ten VSAT systems for Internet communications at Partners In Health clinics in the mountains. PIH provides much needed health care for the needy people of Lesotho, a country with a very high rate of HIV infection and drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Next, I'm going to assist Traig, the MAF IT guy in Lesotho, as he installs the first VSAT system at a clinic in Nohana. That will be the second week, as the installer class will take place the first week. I'm really looking forward to working with Traig, and am excited to be able to help with the install.

Last, I'm looking forward to getting to know the MAF staff who work in Lesotho. Having worked in Ecuador, and now the HQ in Nampa, I've never met most of them. As the Field Communication Services guy at HQ, I'm the person who the field IT staff contact when they need support from HQ.

Posted by David at 04:02 PM