Best use of a snowcat?

[olympicorange]

cool pics.... snow slides,.. does that make you look up to see if theres a larger one in the midst. I guess hot springs are fairly common in the Rockies? when I lived in Denver, I had friends in Crested Butte,... and we would drive up the old jeep roads , and hop in to some , there were a few in the area, one was a cave , you could swim up into... beautiful country out there.... anyone whom lives out there is blessed for sure.....

 

[PJL]

I see the VHF antenna on the hood. What is your radio setup?

 

[1boringguy]

OO,

Lol, yes did look up. Quite a few slides in this area a couple weeks ago when the weather was up around 50 and raining for a few days. It's back to frozen up hard now. The groomer cat had pushed the ones on the main trail off to the side when the snow was soft. This was a side trail about 3 miles up to the hot springs we were shooting for. These were froze up ice and I couldn't really blade them. Crawled over the first couple but got iffy after that so we headed over to the other spot about 4 miles away. Didn't need to risk slipping into the creek when we're 9 miles in by ourselves. Yes lots of hot springs in our neck of the woods.

There are a lot of great places in the world, but we do feel pretty lucky to be here.

Cave hot springs sounds really cool.

PJL,

That antenna is left over from BC Tel. I put a cb in it as we use it between jeeps and cats. Have thought about going to vhf (ham) but other people also tend to have cb in their rigs so makes that handier. Thoughts, suggestions?

 

[PJL]

Just seemed like an odd place to mount an antenna. I guess it just depends who you roll with when you go out in the cat. We have a VHF with tons of stuff in it and an 800 trunking radio. The SAR stuff in this area is all VHF.

 

[1boringguy]

Yea, my first thought was, who drills a hole in the top of the hood to mount an antenna? But assume they mounted it there to avoid branches vs the top of the cab, and their purpose wasn't social conquest.

Yea one needs to be able to communicate with who you're with. I just never was around VHF but considered it. Not sure why though unless I and the cat/jeep become a volunteer with SAR around here. Again maybe would be useful for me, just lack of experience perhaps.

 

[Cidertom]

A lot of bc tel was low band vhf 30-50 mhz Idk about the antenna as to original... Also, many of the service rigs had either converters 12>120 or 12 volt taps (if that what their equipment used) to keep them at operating temp during the drive up. Some of our stuff had 90-120 minutes minimum warm up temp before it would calibrate. But, my hp spectrum analyzer ate 12 amps at 12 volts in standby. So you didn't want to operate it if engine not running, or you not get engine to operate...

 

[1boringguy]

A lot of bc tel was low band vhf 30-50 mhz Idk about the antenna as to original... Also, many of the service rigs had either converters 12>120 or 12 volt taps (if that what their equipment used) to keep them at operating temp during the drive up. Some of our stuff had 90-120 minutes minimum warm up temp before it would calibrate. But, my hp spectrum analyzer ate 12 amps at 12 volts in standby. So you didn't want to operate it if engine not running, or you not get engine to operate...

That certainly makes sense as to the dual battery isolation and third isolated terminal that was a factory ordered option (it's listed on the build sheet) for this cat.

An uneducated question. Low VHF because that gets around the mountainous terrain of BC better? And this type of antenna wouldn't be the right one for that equipment?

 

[Cidertom]

Yes, low band worked a bit better. I think they converted to high band with repeaters when the mobile phone service gave way to cell. The current antenna looks to be high band vhf by the base size. but the base was interchangeable for different frequencies. A low band would look longer as it had a loading coil in it.

 

[PJL]

When I started SAR as a teen we had 27 Mhz portables with tiny little tubes in them. Transitioned to 47 Mhz lunchboxes with a gob of D batteries in them.

 

[1boringguy]

When I started SAR as a teen we had 27 Mhz portables with tiny little tubes in them. Transitioned to 47 Mhz lunchboxes with a gob of D batteries in them.

Reminds me of my first 'cell phone' , Motorola Tuff Talker. The size of a lunch box too, with a full size headset. Plugged into your lighter though. If you hardly used it, it only cost about $600.00/mth.

 

[PJL]

Had an Alpine bag phone. Mag mounted antenna, cigarette lighter, full size handset. It was terrible.

Best phone ever for call quality was a Motorola shoe phone. It had a real antenna. I could make calls anywhere.

 

[Cidertom]

and for throwback thursday,mobile telephone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDy2tHCPdk8
No, this predates me. But the ones we had had a motorola motrac radio. and the ability to dial our own number. The dialing was painful, each digit took about 2 seconds to send. and you had to wait until it completed before you put in the next number.

 

[PJL]

2 way mobile radios with Dynamotors or vibrators to generate the high voltage for the tubes. If it didn't work a swift kick could often cure it.

 

[1boringguy]

Family day to Gold Fork hot springs, touring the mountain before the soak.

 

[J5 Bombardier]

I try to mix work with play when it comes to my cats .
J5 Bombardier .

 

[1boringguy]

Wow J5, that's an operation. Is that firewood or wood for some other use?

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

you guys and your snow. I don't have enough to run on yet this year. been too cold to snow. I have had to use a dozer top build ice roads for bering sea gold this year.

 

[J5 Bombardier]

Just doing firewood last weekend.Haven't been out much ,I'm trying to finish up my other Muskeg project. It's been a great winter , not cold and average snow, which will drop down this week with the warm temps.
J5 Bombardier

 

[1boringguy]

you guys and your snow. I don't have enough to run on yet this year. been too cold to snow. I have had to use a dozer top build ice roads for bering sea gold this year.

Alaska is pretty big, looks like you're not in the right spot
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4180210225338000&id=307611695931225

 

[DAVENET]

Exactly- even our news said the mushers were having a hard time with the race this year. They should be happy when they hit the lower snow of Nome. Are you carting people around for the race this year?

 

[JimVT]

first snowcat ride for a search dog

 

[1boringguy]

first snowcat ride for a search dog

And can already see the advantages over being a sled dog ?

 

[PJL]

Dog is thinking, " Jim just keep the engine running, I'm good here. I'll guard the Pisten Bully".

 

[1boringguy]

Tucker project laying on the shop floor, but I couldn't resist anyway.

 

[1boringguy]

So just to try a video on the new format.

 

[PJL]

We can directly upload videos now?

 

[1boringguy]

We can directly upload videos now?

I did. There is a size limit, not exactly sure what it is but had to shorten the original of this video. Also tried to reduce it by saving it at a lower resolution before downloading, but then the site didn't recognize it as a video. Also, anyone figure out why some people's photos post full size without showing details, and others don't?

 

[1boringguy]

West of Sun Valley didn't get as much snow last week, measured in inches rather than feet, so went there because the avalanche risk was considerably less. Still knee deep to walk in it, probably 6-8 feet total up high. This was up to Trinity Mtn from the west side, 31 miles round trip.

 

[1boringguy]

Made a trip into Smoky Bar Store, the hopeful destination of the SVS21 Fairfield day. And of course a little side jaunt over to Worswick hot springs. They haven't gotten the amount of snow here as they have 20-50 miles north of here, but still plenty on the trail. Suppose to get another 8-12 inches over the next 10 days and cold Temps at night so I think it will still be good by early March.

 

[iceberg210]

Helping communities ski