From: Floyd Davidson <floyd@ptialaska.net>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Sharing Phone Line and Cold Temperatures ???
Date: 22 Jan 2000 18:16:05 -0900

"R Collins" <ab309@issc.debbs.ndhq.dnd.ca> wrote:
>"Floyd Davidson" <floyd@ptialaska.net> wrote:
>>
>> I don't know where you live, but if it rivals Barrow for what
>> most folks figure is obnoxious weather, it must be a *fine*
>> place indeed!
>
>Ottawa, Canada.  Outside of Ulan Bator, the coldest national capital
>in the world.
>
>But it's a _dry_ cold. :-)

That is what counts!  We freeze up in early October and there is
no liquid moisture around here again until the end of May.  None
of that slushy wet snow for us!  We get a total of less than the
equivalent of 5 inches of rain per year, and that includes 20
inches of very dry snow.  Actually, it only rains here at all in
September just before freeze up.  This is the dampest desert
any where though!

We are sitting on top of 2000 feet of permafrost, so what water
we get does not exactly go anywhere deep.  That means *winter*
is the construction season around here, and that is doubly true
for anyone who digs trenches for buried cable.  It is relatively
easy once everything freezes up, but would be impossible to do
in June through September for example, as the standing water
almost everywhere, not to mention the permafrost melting, would
make a river out of any trench at that time of year.

Incidentally, the coldest we ever get around here is about -50C
(we have an ocean out here to moderate the temperatures, so we
don't get really cold like they do down in the interior of
Alaska like around Fairbanks).  And there are any number of
various kinds of repeaters, remotes, and even some complete
earth stations that function with no heat whatever, but even
more that don't.

  Floyd

--
Floyd L. Davidson                          floyd@barrow.com
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)