March 8th
Turns out it was very much yesterday today than it was the day before. The clouds that were present at dawn disappeared by 7am allowing for the full force of the south pacific sun to express itself. By 10:30am, it was 110 degrees at our base camp and hotter at the CW station. The heat has compounded our work load and Arnie, N6HC had his hands full dealing with sunburns and mandatory work and water breaks every 30 minutes to ensure each team member's safety. By 1pm the heat was so intense our work pace drew to a crawl. With safety being our main concern, we cut back our work loads until it was bearable later in the day to resume. By mid afternoon, some cloud appeared and we were able to continue erecting our antennas and complete our operating stations. Both the cw and ssb camp are very near completion. the few antennas remaining to be erected at daybreak. We are approximately 24 hours behind our intended schedule, but believe now that the majority of the work is behind us with the remaining antenna erection to be completed at daybreak while temperatures are bearable. We anticipate being on the air with both CW and SSB stations by midday.
At 1800z, we're very close to coming on the air.
