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I’m sure everyone brings their own music collcection on mp3 players etc…
You also don’t want to alienate your roomates, but what are your options if your ears feel neglected and you need something loud!!!!
Are there rotating PC speakers for your room , do the public areas have good systems?
Would someone need to spend their weight allowance on a nice Bose system, or is what is there OK?Unless you have a roommate that likes exactly the same music as you and at the same loudness, I’d be using a good set of headphones.
There really aren’t any place to plug in to a big stereo system to hear your own music other than most of the work centers have speakers on the computers.
The only real exception I know of is the coffee house. They have a nice stereo system to plug into. The catch–It’s only available to the bartenders. Sign up to bartend when you get there and you can force everyone to listen to your music.
Mostly though, prudence rules. The majority of people are not going to like your tastes. The people in the room next to you or across the hall won’t like it. And anybody who is on an off shift and trying to sleep at the same time you want to play music won’t like it.
That said, there will be times when you have the room to yourself. Get a nice set of speakers and send them down. If it’s not during quiet hours and you keep it to a reasonable level, you should enjoy it. A side benny is if you manage to score a TV, you can plug the speakers into it when watching DVDs for better sound there as well.
MHeadphones, especially the noise-canceling kind (for the flights) are almost a necessity.
If you have the gym to yourself you can crank up the tunes, otherwise it’s headphones. Some of the trade shops have big stereos. As Mike said, in the dorms there’s usually too many shift workers and day sleepers.
One season I knew I would have a lab area to myself two miles out of town. I shipped down an entire stereo, huge speakers, receiver, the works. It’s amazing what you can send through the mail. That year rocked.
Just a word of caution about mailing large amounts of stuff to the Ice. First, package mail is low priority and it takes longer than you would think to receive packages. Not unusual to experience four to six weeks for packages. Second, there has been some discussion of limiting the amount of package mail each individual can send. The program uses APO so the rates are very low for individuals sending packages but NSF has to cover the additional costs to the tune of over $500,000 per year. In this day of tight budgets NSF is looking for ways to reduce costs. Don’t know if this has actually happened yet but I understand it was being discussed. If others know the status I am sure they will post info.
BT
Indeed, there may be limits now. This was ‘back in the day’ when it didn’t matter so much, and I was going to be there for a year so I didn’t care when it arrived. The speakers were monsters, each just under the size and weight limits for USPS. The Radarsat guys bought the system from me at the end of the winter; it might still be up in the MGS building. I wouldn’t try sending that much gear today, it might not arrive at all. A compact PC speaker+subwoofer system should be enough.
BT, this brings up a question I’ve had for years… A lot of winter-overs may be willing to wait for personal packages to come on the vessel. If one of the incoming cargo containers (out of, what, 600?) was designated for personal gear perhaps the USAP could save some shipping costs. People could send items to, say, Pt. Hueneme, where they’d be loaded into a milvan for later delivery. Has there been any talk of doing this? (Maybe they’re already doing it?)
Oh, and a little side story…
I have a friend who wintered at Mactown a long time ago, and she travels light. Before she left home she was being courted by a pushy, somewhat obsessive guy. When WINFLY arrived the first flight had a pallet of personal mail and packages. She said almost half of it was addressed to her, from this guy. 50cuft! She was horrified.
PTH would be a great option for winterovers. I’d vote for that.
There was talk of doing away with package mail next year, but nothing came of it. When I left package mail was unchanged.
One thing that did change was no more shipping from the ice to Christchurch. A bit of a pain for some, but not a great impact.
So another silly question, I’m obviously not going to be getting any sort of 3G or other coverage in this winter wonderland, but has anyone looked into issues like an iphone or blackberry over wifi or voip options. I’m mostly just curious, or what about your own Hughes contract? Can you get satellite reception from them there? Wouldn’t be a bad if to get your own Internet connection, use it for your own voip, and have your own wifi network.
All things to think about.-Peter
Hi Peter,
You sound like me when I did my first contract — mondo enthusiasm. 😉
Gadgets like DTV or HughesNet antennas wouldn’t last long on the Ice, even if they worked. There’s also a lot of technical and political implications for DIY wireless, VoIP, and similar technologies. Perhaps it would be better to approach it as an adventure, sans toys, until you’ve seen how things work (or don’t work).
glenn
I’m sure your tact is the best. I did mean to preface it with mostly just curious.
Just have my brain on ff these days. I would guess consumer outdoor electronics would have a pretty short life span and Hughes likely does not have an orbit that covers down there well, but it would be neat.
Do mcmurdo staff see many penguins, or you would need to be at palmer or a remote camp?
Maybe some them work in food services.Glenn,
Years ago winter overs could ship things to McMurdo via the annual resupply vessel. Frankly, not sure if that is still the case but worth asking. In recent years the vessel is not full so there should be room for stuff and I would find it hard to imagine it would fill a container. Also need to come up with secure storage for stuff winter folks that plan to return can leave at McMurdo. Big problem is what happens to the stuff that gets left and the “returnees” don’t return.
Things to work on. Someone with a winter contract should ask about sending personal stuff on the vessel.
BT
@Been There wrote:
Big problem is what happens to the stuff that gets left and the “returnees” don’t return.
Skua!
There is a wifi network in MCM, but it is limited to science groups in the summer. Winter staff get access to it. Prior to the latest bandwidth upgrade, there was just no room for too many people to be online at once. It’s a little better now, but people still abuse the system. There is a rumor that one winter the internet ground to a halt. Somebody figured people were downloading big movie files by turning on their laptops in the morning and letting them run all day while they were at work. They shut off the wireless and the internet opened right back. Nothing like a couple of hundred people on at the same time.
A larger issue is with things that transmit in general. The science groups that do sensitive radio listening experiments have a hard time because of the RF noise ceiling in MCM. For the most part you sign a paper that says you will not operate anything that puts out a signal. That would include cordless phones, radio controlled planes, cars ect. , wireless, the new frs handheld radios. Licenced ham operators can use the station radios but outside that nothing is allowed. Even the ham bands are limited. There is or was a listening experiment operating in the ham 6 meter band and the MCM paging system works on one of the ham 2 meter frequencies.
Some departments have secure storage for winterovers, most don’t. As BT said, what happens to your expensive speaker system if you don’t pass the physical the next year. You had better hope you have a friend willing to fork over the cash to send it back home to you. If not it ends in Skua. One of our trash recycling categories. Basically freebies for anyone who wants it.
Mike
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