 |
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
I didn't realise how much effort is required to raise funds for such an expedition until I was involved in it - and even then, my role there was marginal. In fact, the amount of work needed for fund raising was far greater than the work needed to climb the mountain !!!
However ..........
I had a great time developing, and testing the solar power generating equipment. Building the "black boxes" that converted 12V DC to 15V-25V DC variable at 5amps and greater was an achievement - because nobody in Singapore sells such an equipment and everybody I asked said - it couldn't be done. It was the best piece of hardware I carried up there - because it enabled me to charge at least 2 pieces of equipment simultaneously. It was also very hardy (after all, it was "over-engineered" for reliability) in the extreme weather up at base camp.
Testing and integrating the two diverse satellite communications equipment (Ericsson R190 and Nera Mini-M) was the next biggest challenge. However, I now realised that no amount of testing in Singapore can simulate the weather conditions up at Everest base camp. Some of the problems I saw up there was unique to that environment only. Anyway, getting the Apple Powerbook to talk to both satcoms equipment was a big challenge for me at that time - because I was not confident in getting them to talk initially. But, after an initial round of testing and connections, I began to gain confidence that I could make the whole thing work. While problems due to atmospheric conditions at base camp did crop up again and again, over all, I did manage to maintain satellite links satisfactorily.
However, my biggest challenge was to connect the Nera World Communicator (an ISDN device) to the Apple Powerbook in the field - something that even Nera has washed their hands off. I wanted to make the Apple Powerbook talk to the World Communicator because it is a much faster device (64K bits/sec versus 2400 bits/sec for the Ericsson R190 and Nera Mini-M), and also because the airtime was sponsored by Temasek Polytechnic, success would mean some cost savings for the expedition as well. We could send emails and large files from the Powerbook instead of transferring the files from Powerbook to the IBM PC. Well, I did make the Apple talk to the World Communicator after about 4 hours of work at base camp - and that achievement brings me great satisfaction.
Then, I had to learn a new OS and a new platform - the Apple's OS and hardware. Not just the user level interface, but the deeper OS internals and learn to service the Apple Powerbook in the field. It was a big challenge because of the extreme shortage of time here.
If I am offered another chance to do this again, I would jump on it. But, then the learning curve will not be that steep anymore and maybe, "less fun" than this first timer.
Ting Sern
 |
||
|
|
||