I received a call yesterday morning reporting that we were off the air in Sundance and had been for a couple of days.  This was the first I had heard of the issue…The transmitter had not called me to report any issues.

UW Motor Pool rented a Suburban to me since Big Red is down for the count.  I loaded up a variety of equipment and hit the road.  I left Laramie around noon yesterday.  It took me about 5 hours to get to Sundance.

UW128–A 2001 Suburban stands in for Big Red

Once I arrived in Sundance, I started up the hill to the transmitter but discovered that the road was closed and snowed in about 4 miles from the tower.  The road is paved all the way to the top and usually clear but apparently it is not plowed during the winter.  I would need a snowmobile to access the site.  It was late so I went back to the hotel for the night and decided to locate a snowmobile in the morning.

Road closed…

This morning I looked for a snowmobile.  There were none to be had for rent in Sundance but there were several companies just over the border in South Dakota.  The fine folks at Mad Mountain Adventures in Deadwood were very helpful.  They delivered a snowmobile to me here in Sundance so I could get up the hill.

One snowmobile…Fresh off the trailer and muddy from the road trip.

On my way up the hill!

The ride was a bit windy but for the most part the weather was nice and I was able to make it up without a problem.

At the top!

Drifted snow at the entrance to the shack…

When I entered the shack the problem was immediately apparent.  The satellite receiver had faulted and was not locked to the signal.

Red status light, no other lights…Not good…

Red lights mean no audio…

The receiver was stuck at the Linux boot screen…Rebooting didn’t help.

Once I knew what the problem was, I ran back down the hill on the snowmobile and hauled up a replacement satellite receiver.  After installing and configuring the replacement receiver all was well.

Green lights…That’s MUCH better!

Booted up and ready to go!

Downloading an audio file…

Once I verified that everything was working properly I headed back down the hill.  By this point it was getting dark, windy and starting to snow.  I’m spending the night in Sundance again and will head back to Laramie in the morning.