2006 Winter Photos - Comms Demolition
 Comms after the second floor had been removed (BB). The technique for demoing comms was the same one used for the galley and biomed in 2005...gut the inside as much as possible with the heat and power still on, shut off the glycol heat and power to the second floor, remove it and stack up the pieces (as seen here), then slowly cut off the power and heat to the first floor starting from the south (new addition) end and demoing stuff, keeping the remaining power and heat going as long as possible. [After digging around, I discovered that I didn't have many photos of this evolution. Some I remember were on websites that disappeared before I grabbed them...so if there are more out there, I'd appreciate getting them.] Let's jump back to a few of the final interior shots, starting with two from December 2005. | |
 Christmas Day 2005, old comms is deserted, as the new comms (officially the SOC) is now in service (JM). |
 In the back room (first floor of the comms addition) a "borrowed" UPS is removed for use in B3 (JM). |
 The first part of the first floor to go dark, another corner of the comms addition added during the 1989 winter (RS). |
 The west side of the main room...those racks are where those teletype machines used to be in the old days. (RS). |
 And looking the other way, here's the comms desk, now devoid of equipment (RS). |
 Another exterior view of the underway demolition (BB). |
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The foundation of the comms building was not removed until the 2007 winter...during the 2006-07 summer it remained as a storage platform, as seen here in the foreground. The gutted science building is in the background (CC). |
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Amazingly...when the comms room was taken apart, a totally undocumented time capsule was discovered in the base of the comms console:  This had been put there by the 1992 winterovers who'd built the desk. The contents include some wine, cards, magazines, and other artifacts, with the note "Hope you have as much fun tearing it down as we had putting it up." Unfortunately the wine had frozen prior to its discovery. Other artifacts included the April 1958 National Geographic which had Paul Siple's article "We are living at the South Pole" and a Playboy magazine (LS). During the 2007 winter, these artifacts would be put into a new (and unmarked at present) time capsule in the gym. Credits: JM is Jerry Marty, RS is Robert Schwarz; CC is Cynthia Chiang; BB is Brien Barnett, and LS is Liesl Schernthanner. I only used a few of Robert's photos, he has an large and excellent collection of pictures from the dome demo including comms which would also happen later in this 2006 winter. Otherwise... | |