Station communications and sick bay?

[julie]

Hi!

I’m hoping someone who is working at or has worked at the Amundsen-Scott south pole station can answer a couple of questions.

Does everyone carry a radio so they can call for assistance or help no matter where they are in or around the station?

What do you call your medical clinic? Just clinic? Or do you have some other name for it?

Thanks!

Cheers, Julie

[Sciencetech]

Hi Julie,

I only worked at the pole for a few weeks, so I’ll defer to Bill or some of the others there right now. But when I was there (during the summer), most people did not carry radios unless there was some need to do so. Perhaps the rules are different in the winter.

g

[skua77]

Julie,
Many people carry radios (including myself) but certainly not everyone. In all parts of the station there are many phones that you can use to call for help, and if you leave the established areas or routes between buildings you must check out with comms and carry a radio. Comms is manned 24/7 during the summer.

The medical facility is named, well, just that, the “medical facility,” most people just call it “medical.” The old facility in the dome (demo’d this past winter) was officially known as “biomed” since it had been originally built for medical/animal research as well as for a clinic. So you still hear folks refer to the new clinic as “biomed” sometimes. And occasionally “sickbay.”

Let’s see, we have a “dining facility” instead of a galley, a “vertical tower” instead of, well, something that looks like it might contain Coors Light; but out in summer camp we still have “head modules.”

[Anonymous]

The sign above the door to the clinic says “Club Med.”

I find most folks call the “Dining Facility” the Galley. Still… I tend to call it the Chow Hall.

And the big silver thing… no name brands please 😉 … but it’s just called the “Beer Can.”

It’ll be intereting to see when COMMS moves to SOC if the name will change or if COMMS will stick.

Ciao!

[julie]

Thanks Glenn, Bill and Offyonder!

That’s just what I needed to know. 🙂

I’m curious about the Beer Can. What on earth do you use it for?

Cheers, Julie

[skua77]

Julie,
That contains the stairs from the elevated portion of the station to the buried arches (power plant, fuel, garage, and for now, the Dome), there is also a cargo elevator.

It’s the round metal thing on the left in this picture:

http://www.southpolestation.com 🙂 🙂

[julie]

Ah! Thank you! 🙂

Cheers, Julie

[Anonymous]

Julie,
I was a member of the winter-over party for Deep Freeze 1965. So I can provide a perspective of what it “was like in the old days.” There was no intra-camp radio communications and all communications to McMurdo, other stations, and the outside world was by high frequency radio.

The medical clinic was called “sick bay.” A navy term for medical dispensary. The station officer in charge was a medical doctor who was assisted by a navy corpsman. Fortunately we had little need for their expertise. Unfortunately the crew that relieved us had a person crushed between a sled and the ramp of a C-130 cargo aircraft. I suspect there was little that could be done for him too, as he died as a result of the accident.

Hope the preceding provides some insight.
Cheers, 😀

[Author]

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