North Slope radio

[radioman148]

That Midnight Baseball game was fun. Fairbanks has a lot of events held that day, as does Anchorage. Fairbanks is south of the Arctic Circle so the sun does still officially set, but being so far north it never gets totally dark that time of year. If I remember right, the sun is officially up for about two hours on June 21st, but less than four hours of sunlight six months later. Still, with 22 hours of official summer sunlight, there is essentially 24 hours of useable light. Even here in Anchorage it doesn't get totally pitch black in the weeks leading up to and after Summer Solstice. Even now, end of August, sunrise today in Anchorage was at 6:45 am and sunset is at 9:15 tonight. Above the Circle, like the village I just visited, they do have 24 hour periods of actual daylight in summer and, likewise, darkness in winter.

We didn't plan on going to the baseball game back in June 2006. When we entered Alaska at the much less traveled northern border crossing where the Taylor Hwy begins (on the way in from Dawson City and the Arctic in the Yukon) the customs agent, clearly very bored and in need of someone to talk to, spent a half hour discussing things to do in Fairbanks. He mentioned the game and we did our best to get there in time to see it. (We also ate at the most northern Denny's in the world in Fairbanks, at 1am, the sun still shining, then, after covering the truck's windows to block out the light, slept in the parking lot of Pioneer Park.) That trip was my first experience with extended daylight hours, very strange for someone new to the far northern latitudes. I'm more used to it now, though it's still a bit odd having bright sunshine at 11:30 pm in summer or darkness at 4pm in winter.

Does so much darkness in the winter bother you at all?

 

[PAJake]

Eh not really. I'd much rather more light than darkness, but you kinda get used to it. Besides, the darkest days are also the coldest and snowiest, so other than skiing and snowmachining most wintertime activities are indoors. I moved here in June of 2007, so i was used to lots of daylight from the start. My first winter's long dark days were weird to get accustomed to, but for me, the hardest part is in the morning: You wake up, shower, eat breakfast, walk the dog, and go to work, and it's still gonna be dark for two more hours. Makes me feel like I'm working third shift again!

 

[radioman148]

Eh not really. I'd much rather more light than darkness, but you kinda get used to it. Besides, the darkest days are also the coldest and snowiest, so other than skiing and snowmachining most wintertime activities are indoors. I moved here in June of 2007, so i was used to lots of daylight from the start. My first winter's long dark days were weird to get accustomed to, but for me, the hardest part is in the morning: You wake up, shower, eat breakfast, walk the dog, and go to work, and it's still gonna be dark for two more hours. Makes me feel like I'm working third shift again!

And then it's probably dark when you come home too.

 

[PAJake]

haha Yeah, but I'm a night person, not a morning person, so I don't mind the sun setting at 3:45 PM.

 

[PAJake]

By the way, thought I'd mention that my trip last week proved successful, and it looks like I'll be moving to the Arctic permanently for work. Though the work will be outside the radio/TV business, there will be some communications aspects to this job. Should be quite interesting, and I'm very excited to start. I'll definitely post radio-related updates from the Slope as events warrant. One of my first personal side trips, once time and work permit it, will be to go to Barrow to learn more about their radio and TV systems. I know that their radio station KBRW is pretty impressive considering it's location and environment.

 

[radioman148]

By the way, thought I'd mention that my trip last week proved successful, and it looks like I'll be moving to the Arctic permanently for work. Though the work will be outside the radio/TV business, there will be some communications aspects to this job. Should be quite interesting, and I'm very excited to start. I'll definitely post radio-related updates from the Slope as events warrant. One of my first personal side trips, once time and work permit it, will be to go to Barrow to learn more about their radio and TV systems. I know that their radio station KBRW is pretty impressive considering it's location and environment.

Good luck up there & look forward to hearing from you.