To Work, or to the beach? Hmmm…

April 23rd, 2007

Another ‘Off-Topic’ non-seo related post. To keep food on the table while I’m studying, I do some consultancy work for a few companies – I worked in the Sugar Industry for some years as a scientist / engineer, and enjoy my occassional trips North and catching up with some of my old colleagues – also, it’s a suit and tie free zone, which can be refreshing 🙂

Following on from my chat yesterday about my trip to North Queensland, I thought I’d show you a few photos..

Muscle-Man (NOT) celebrating – we had just fitted a flattened dipole antenna to the top of an old tobacco shed in an elevated section of the Herbert valley.

Interestingly, previously we had a standard dipole on the top of a 20 metre mast on the roof this picture was taken from, but we found we got better signal and better coverage by moving the antenna almost to roof level – di-pole antennas tend to radiate more energy horizontally than other areas, and we think the existing antenna may have been too high – essentially overshooting the valley below.

It was definitely a ‘shirt optional’ day – I think the photo was taken about 10am, and it was already about 90% humidity and 35 degrees celcius – plus their wasn’t anybody around to get blinded from the glare of my ‘office tan’. It can get uncomfortably hot this time of the year – it’s cyclone season.

About this time last year, one of the largest cyclone’s I can remember (Cyclone Larry) crossed the coast just North of where this photo was taken (At a place called Innisfail, between Townsville and Cairns). It was a category 5, and Innisfail is still cleaning up to this day. MIRACULOUSLY no one was killed – probably mostly because of the fact that whilst Larry was incredibly intense, it was also very fast moving – the winds were destructive, the cyclone was massive in size, but the cell itself moved rapidly – about 30km/hr. If it had moved more like a typical cyclone (about 5 km/hr) I think there would have been massive fatalities, and I don’t think the town of Innisfail would still be with us.

This is a photo of yours truly adjusting some sensors in the ‘elevator’ section of a Sugar Cane harvester. See the blue sky in the background?

The sky in North Queensland is some of the clearest, bluest sky I’ve seen in the world – it’s really noticeable. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend taking a trip to North Queensland – it has beaut places like Townsville, Dunk Island, Mission Beach, Port Douglas – if you like long romantic walks on the beach, warm tropical waters, coral reefs and great fishing, this is your paradise folks.

This was a sugar cane harvester owned by a fellow by the name of Eric Girgenti. We had just completed fitting an advanced prototype of a yield monitor I’ve been helping a company called AgGuide develop over the last 6 months or so. Kudos to Michael George and the other Engineers from AgGuide – you’ve done a great job.

Entry Filed under: 4. Off-topic