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I was searching the net to get a better idea of what it’s like to maintain computers in Antarctica, and from what I’ve seen this board has a lot of techs who are currently down there and can give me a good idea of what it’s like. I’m currently employed in a good job as a system administrator for a large high school in Minnesota, but the thought of giving up my 1.5 hours of commuting each day and constant worrying over bills to live in the middle of nowhere is tempting. I’ve got a couple of questions that would help me figure out whether my skills would be applicable.
1. What’s the OS makeup over there? Is it useful to know both OS X and Windows?
2. What’s the network structure like? Is there a lot of specialized gear for things like the satellite connection, or is it mostly the same type of gear you use in the US?
3. How are the tech teams structured? I read an article in Computerworld interviewing the IT manager for the South Pole Station, and he said there were 7 people working under him but didn’t specify who did what. I’m assuming McMurdo is a larger team.
4. Can someone describe for me a typical day in the life of a sysadmin in Antarctica?
Thanks in advance!
I’m not an IT person, so best to let them fill you in on the detail.
This message board is a hold over from the MSN groups website. Antarctic Memories. MSN is dropping the groups as of Feb of this year. I think not everyone has made the transition to this site.
As for here. We are at the end of the season and a bit busy now. Next week comes ship offload, the busiest time of year and right after that the flights home. Try asking again in another month, you might get more responses.
Mike
Atlas can answer all your McMurdo IT questions. BoulderGeek knows South Pole and n0nhj is the Palmer Station guru, but I don’t know if they’ve made the jump to this new board. I can answer questions about IT on the vessels and speculate wildly about everything else.
😉@Mradyfist wrote:
1. What’s the OS makeup over there? Is it useful to know both OS X and Windows?
Mostly Windows and some Unix servers. There may be a few Macs to satisfy persnickety grantees, but they’re largely unsupported (the Macs, not the grantees, although it’s tempting).
2. What’s the network structure like? Is there a lot of specialized gear for things like the satellite connection, or is it mostly the same type of gear you use in the US?
Yes and yes. You wouldn’t have to worry too much about the exotic satellite stuff, the Comms Techs usually take care of that. In fact, if you tried to touch their machines they’d probably flog you with a long piece of UTP. Ditto for grantee machines that collect real-time data, at least until they break.
3. How are the tech teams structured? I read an article in Computerworld interviewing the IT manager for the South Pole Station, and he said there were 7 people working under him but didn’t specify who did what.
Ah, that would be Henry. I worked there for the past two years and I still don’t know what they did. (I’m joking, of course. Ha ha. I may want to work for SPIT someday.) Uh, let’s see… Three sysadmins who also did help-desk, a network dude (BoulderGeek), one or two Comms Techs, and I think the two station ETs were lumped into there as well. IT on the Ice isn’t just about computers…
4. Can someone describe for me a typical day in the life of a sysadmin in Antarctica?
That’s probably the best straight-line I’ve heard in years and I’m not going to touch it. I’ll let Atlas dig that hole.
glenn
That’s some good info Glenn, I’m glad to know that as long as I don’t apply as a comm tech, I won’t risk breaking the satellite dish or anything; I understand that those things are sort of concave, but that’s the extent of my knowledge. What exactly is an ET? Do you just bring lots of Reese’s Pieces for everybody and call home a lot?
@Mradyfist wrote:
Do you just bring lots of Reese’s Pieces for everybody and call home a lot?
Yup, that about sums-up the Ice experience for everybody: bring chocolate to share, and call home a lot.
An ET is an Electronics Technician.
Hey, are you sure you want to give up a good job right now? With the economy in the dumper this seems like a poor time to quit a good gig. Perhaps you can make arrangements to reclaim your old job when you get back? I suppose you could work full-time in the RPSC home office, with occasional deployments; that sort of commitment is anathema to most of us free-spirits, so I doubt you’ll find anyone here who’d recommend it. I’d be remiss if I didn’t warn you, this kind of lifestyle can mess you up bad — just look at me. I’m trying to transition back to the ‘real world’ and it’s been hell.
@Sciencetech wrote:
Hey, are you sure you want to give up a good job right now? With the economy in the dumper this seems like a poor time to quit a good gig. Perhaps you can make arrangements to reclaim your old job when you get back?
That’s definitely my hope. I’m good friends with my current boss, and I know for a fact that he’d like for me to keep working with him. I’m not planning on burning any bridges here, if I get an interview I’ll talk to him and let him know what’s up, and hopefully we’d be able to work something out so when I come back I have a position either with the school or possibly with the district.
I feel like if I don’t try this now, I probably won’t get another chance. Having a good job is cool, but it’s only going to get more comfortable; 5 years from now, I’m not sure I could even consider this.
For starters, whereabouts in MN are you working? Just curious, as I bounce around MN when I’m not on the ice…
I can offer you up some information about the Pole (I just finished up a stint as the winterover Sys Admin along with Bouldergeek as the Network Engineer) but I would hazard two things first:
1. I’m with Glenn – are you sure now is when you want to jump ship for Antarctica? It’s not a bad jump by any means (obviously many of us made it) but you sacrifice a great deal of stability (emotional, in relationships, in friendships). Also, there aren’t any benefits (retirement, medical, etc.) worth talking about inside the contract time frame and none outside of it.
2. Dig around the forum here and over at the Ice Board (http://iceboard.60south.com/) for information about the different seasons (summer/winter/both) and the different stations. See what, if any of them, seem a good fit for you.
After that, if you’re still interested in going, we can get you more specific answers to your questions. After those, if we haven’t scared you off, jump all the way in and don’t look back. It’s addicting to head south.
—-
As for IT, each station has a distinct set of hardware and a fairly distinct layout of personnel that breaks down differently over summer and winter. As a general rule, systems are slowly being migrated into a consistent, Windows-based OS platform on HP hardware with primary control and management working full-time in Denver. In USAP management’s ideal world, everything would take place at RPSC headquarters in Denver. In reality, a failing Windows 2000 server from 1998 may be running a custom mission-critical app that supports the control functions for a satellite receiving array and you could spend months locally nursing it along with Denver unable to help in the middle of a failure. Not only does that keep us on our toes while on the ice, but it keeps us from getting obsolete. IT on the continent tends to be the front line soldier in that long-term migration effort. You end up striking a balance between doing what is necessary to keep the station-specific hardware up and running and working with Denver to make changes that ease local control (and your workload) their way.
McMurdo has several Network Engineers, several System Admins, a host of PC Techs, more Comms Techs and Sat Techs than I could name or understand, and a few folks at Help Desk over the summer and usually a couple of each over the winter. Palmer has a Sys Admin, a Network Engineer, and a Comms/Sat Tech over the summer and a Network Engineer (doubling as Sys Admin and Help Desk) and Sat Tech over the winter. South Pole has a Comms Tech, Sat Tech, Network Engineer, and Sys Admin over the winter and additional Help Desk and PC Tech positions over the summer. During the summer months each station can also have full-time management and full-time IT floating through for varying periods. We’re a crowded, busy department within the USAP/RPSC hierarchy.
I can offer you some more specifics on how things work, but would rather do so through a PM. Also, I’ll try to steer you away from South Pole as I’m planning on returning for the upcoming 2009-10 season.
Finally (though this is dramatized a touch for an article I wrote for the Mankato Free Press) here’s a description of a day that occurred for me about once every two weeks due to power issues at an external building that we housed critical servers in:
Outside, the wind has picked up again. I’ve a trip to make to the RF building where we store our radio and satellite communications equipment – I need to reset a computer system. Back stateside, to do this would likely mean getting up from my desk and walking down a hallway. Here, I bundle up in multiple layers, throw chemical warming packets into my mittens and boots, and crank down my hood in preparation for a mile-long hike. I’m glad for the new daylight (it beats crawling over the drifts in the dark as I have for the last few months) but the springtime dawn has not warmed the temperatures in the least.
At seventy below, you can hear your breath crackle in the cold. The frigid air fights its way down into the deepest parts of your lungs. Cotton, wool and canvas are king as most synthetic fibers freeze solid. We’ve stopped operating our vehicles as the temperatures are more likely to cause failures and breaks than not. Each step elicits sounds from the snow that you can hear only on the most severe of winter nights in Minnesota – squeaks and wails as the ice crystals slide over each other. All of this before I walk into the wind.
At twenty-two knots the wind arcs like a laser into my shoulders. I don’t feel the cold yet, but it’s a constant pressure at my back and the cold is not long off. The windchill floats at -120 F. I do everything I can to keep the half-inch opening in my hood that I look through clear of the Antarctic bite. Turning into the wind briefly leaves your eyes feeling as if they are freezing (a few minutes, and they would). Goggles are useless at these temps, fogging and joining in the ice build-up around your hood and face. The computer system I need to restart is vital, however, so off to walking I go.
Best of luck,
-doc
Thanks Doc, that’s a lot of good info! I work at Jefferson High School in Bloomington, and I live in St. Paul.
I definitely understand why everybody’s asking me why I’d give up a good steady job in the current economic climate, but to be honest I went into my current job thinking that it was unlikely that I’d stick with it for as long as I have. It’s not that I dislike this job, I do like it; I’m just ready for a change. Add that I’ve never been off this continent, and I’ve always thought that Antarctica would be a really interesting place to see, and it makes a lot more sense. I think what’s most attractive is a chance to forget about money and budgets and bills for a while, which are probably my least favorite part of being an adult. Also, my parents’ house has a nice big attic that goes unused, and my dad is very sad that he currently has only two people to cook for. If I came back from Antarctica and didn’t have a job or a place, I have a perfectly good backup solution.
What kind of solidified this in my brain was talking with my girlfriend about it. I read a thread on a forum from someone talking about working in Antarctica, and it jumped out at me as being something I might consider doing in the ever-nebulous “future”, when I didn’t have all sorts of responsibilities to worry about. I mentioned it to my girlfriend in passing, and was going to set it aside, but over the next couple of days I just kept thinking about it. When I finally decided to bring it up to her as something I really wanted to do, I was absolutely sure she would think it was a terrible idea and would try to talk me out of it, but instead she said she had been thinking about it the whole time too! We ended up staying up way later than we should have talking about it, and I determined it was a sign.
We’ve already made peace with all of our current lifestyle; we can give up our apartment, neither of us really wants to stay in our current jobs forever, I even bought my new cell phone off Craigslist instead of getting a contract renewal deal so I can cancel the plan in October. The one thing I would really miss is the recording studio I co-own with a friend of mine, but he’s planning on buying a house and doing a home studio instead, so it will probably end around that time anyway. Plus, it sounds like having extensive audio engineering experience might be a useful hobby on the ice, as I understand there are lots of musicians there.
We’d definitely want to do a summer season first to see what it’s like, and also because it sounds like we’d have a better chance of getting hired. I’ve read up on all the stations, and I think I’d be happy at any of them; they each seem to have their positives.
If that’s the case, go for it. Especially if you are both planning on going – splitting a relationship over that distance is not easy (both by personal experience and observation). If you’re looking for a summer only contract to start, focus on McMurdo. The Sys Admin position at Pole is a year-long contract – McMurdo has a number of summer only ones. You could consider Palmer as well but (not knowing your girlfriends background) getting both of you hired there could be difficult. Their IT contracts tend to run closer to six-month increments.
On the other hand, if you’re financially stable, you may want to consider other jobs as well – IT will leave you indoors for the extent of your stay. If you’re willing to take a grunt job for a summer stint (General Assistant, construction trades, etc) you will get a much higher chance of boondoggles to unique areas of the continent.
The jobs for the upcoming summer/winter have not yet been posted, but expect to see them on the Rayjobs site in early March. I’m headed out to Denver next week for the next couple of months (otherwise I’d offer to meet for coffee) but if you’ve got any specific questions, shoot me a PM and I’ll give you my email address. Also, Atlas can answer questions about McMurdo IT far, far better than I can.
Last note – if you’re both set on the continent and aren’t able to make it down this time around (whether by your situation or by a lack of available jobs) don’t get discouraged. The contracts will be there the next year as well – it worked for me that way (i.e. didn’t get hired the first time I applied). It’s all in what your priorities are – the job you are applying for or getting to the continent in any capacity.
Best of luck,
-doc
I really want to do this for the experience and don’t care what kind of job it is – I’d do several things there at once if they would allow me. I retire in 10 months & 24 days (but who’s counting?). I plan to put everything I own into storage and my cat and I are hitting the road for about 4 years in an old Microbus or small RV. I’d like to do the Polie thing during that time, too. Any chance I can bring my cat?!
Uh…no!
The current provisions of the Antarctic Treaty prohibit the importation of nonnatural things…hence all of the remaining sled dogs had to be removed in 1994.That is a nice idea though, thinking of wandering around the corridors of Pole and having a cat rub up against my leg. But not to be.
sadly no pets allowed.
Cats would be nice. Little to clean up.Even better would be dorm dogs. Big newfoundlands. Spoiled rotten. Maybe you could go to gear issue and check them out for the walk around the castle rock loop. They would love it.
Too bad. He’s basically a whore and he’ll love on anyone who will love him back.
Anyway, I still really want to do the Polie thing.
I was thinking of bringing my two cats. My plan was to claim they were actually fuzzy bedroom slippers if I got questioned about them. They really should allow one Pole Cat for psych reasons.
So I was just looking and this thread was started by mrbradyfist who is now part of the IT team in Antarctica. So it would be nice when he gets a few spare minutes for him to answer his own question. I think his answer would be the perfect blend of what are things like, and while that mindset is still fresh, the omg, this is what it is like.
😀 🙂 😉 :ugeek:
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