Kangaroo Valley

Driving through the mountain on our approach to our new location I could not help but be fearful of the accuracy of the reporting that came from our hosts who lived on the side of a mountain. It transpired that there was no need, but I will admit that driving a van like ours up the side of a mountain up a road that was as wide as the van in first gear was an experience.

We set the dish up next to the house, and at 45° we basically went over the top of the garden arch and the next mountain across the valley without any difficulty. Again we used the trusty Ethernet cable to link up and a connection was made within two hours of arriving.

The dish saw lots of action as a base for some travelling friends of ours who used the broadband connection to update their web-site and upload packet loads of photos of their travels around the country.

During our stay we also experimented some with the tarpaulin that covered the dish because there was some pretty hard rain and wind around. Because we stayed in the same spot for a while, the grass got pretty high underneath and we tried to find ways to drain water from below the dish. On one occasion I was underneath the tarpaulin when I thumped my head against the elevation bolt - the big long one you can see on many of the photos here - I stood up and thump. I saw stars and had a headache for several hours, but the dish was fine...

During loading of the dish, Frances and I were left to lift it on our own for the first time and we dropped it. Well, it sort of slid sideways and left a big crack in the side of the dish. Neither of us was hurt, but we were both pretty upset for a few days.

Seems the dish is pretty robust, because it never even seemed to notice the crack.

Bamera

Windy Barmera caused some stir when we installed our trusty connection, because we set it up in the court-yard of the old train station. We visited the home of the last station master and he took great interest in the goings on next to his old platform.

The technology worked just fine, we didn't use a wireless link, I cannot recall why, but ran the 80m Ethernet cable that we constructed in Crossing Falls for the first time in a non-troubleshooting role.

Setup was uneventful and our hosts took great delight in explaining to their friends that we carried the dish around to watch TV - seeing as they had one on their roof too and that's what they used theirs for. We decided that it was a little too complicated to explain that we didn't use it for TV.

Middle of Nowhere

The most memorable because of its location.

Initially the plan was to camp in Woomera, but the team changed their mind and decided to camp on the side of the road where the car stopped. Fortunately it was flat, as far as the eye could see.

By this stage the team was experienced and most of the work was completed with little effort on my part. Tuning was simple and we were on-line within an hour of arrival. The German Team also camped at the same location and shared our on-line experience.

Frances took a photo that made it to the Melbourne Herald Sun.

Coober Pedy

Living underground is interesting, but it makes for exciting conversations on your mobile phone.

Our worst race fears all happened together. First of all, we setup away from the road in a nice quiet corner of the motel. There were no obstacles, but there was a power line overhead. After trying to tune for an hour, we moved the dish and found a signal straight away. Turns out that power lines are not good for satellite signals.

So, then we were tuned and switching on the modem gave us similar symptoms to those seen in Crossing Falls and an urgent call was made to the BOC.

Seeing as I had received email every night without notification of any updates, I didn't expect that again Optus had made a change without a notification. (Not even to the BOC apparently.)

So, with me inside on the computer, an Ethernet cable running 50 meters to the dish and one of the Sungroper Team members standing outside on the mobile, relaying information, and remembering to disconnect the dish from the modem, we again re-programmed the modem to a new set of frequencies.

After 45 minutes we were up and running and all was forgiven.

The location was on the side of a hill, so I decided that some chains and pegs were in order. The next day I learnt that you do need to use a van to pull pegs from the ground and that if you do, some pins bend 90°'s before coming out of what I can only suspect was sand-stone. Suffice to say that the dish didn't move...

Stuart's Well

The home of the singing dingo.

Arriving in the late afternoon we were assisted in setting up by a skinny Spaniard who had cycled across the continent, taken a boat to Perth, where he cycled to Alice, he was on his way to New Zealand. We fed him.

Connecting wasn't anything spectacular and was basically limited to updating the Sungroper web site and sending out some email updates.

Aileron Roadhouse

In the middle of Australia we felt the need to do something special.

So we did.

Setup of the dish was again on the travel mount, which we used for the rest of the race. In addition to the dish, we also had some astronomers with us who pulled out their telescopes. I took the opportunity to setup an out-door cinema with a DVD player and a data-projector displaying onto a sheet hung from the back doors of the van.

In the middle of Australia we watched the stars, connected to the 'net and watched the only appropriate movie for the occasion, "The Dish".

Apart from the rather obnoxious behaviour from the proprietor, we had a great time.

Tennant Creek

We again used the travel mount setup and again it worked without any issues. We had the journalists from the Puerto Rican Team visit us and ask how they could connect using our stuff. I answered that all they needed to do was to plug in their lap tops.

Suffice to say that we made it to the front-page on their newspaper in Puerto Rico. They were completely blown away that this guy could rock up, unpack a dish and they could have broadband connectivity in the middle of the bush.

Their satellite phone apparently never did allow them to connect to the 'net.