8 December, 2000

The Gods of Electronic Instrumentation have healed two of the FPH's! After going in to the Dome early to set up the SPT to calibrate and align the instrument we were told by the carpenters that they needed the shop unexpectedly and that we would need to move our instrument. This shot the evening as far as fixing the SPT was concerned. So given that we had a little unexpected free time we all walked back to the SPARCLE Trailer Park and found other little projects to occupy us. Penny worked on her software, Von worked on the FPH's and I spent a few hours hunting down most of the needed materials for the Blimp. I now have only 5 of the 11 items on my list to go. Most of those I can't complete until the snowdrift in the Blimp pit is dug out.

Since the FPH's seem to be in working order, Von planned for us to drag the boxes out to the 250 meter and 500 meter locations on the SPT array line. Ever one to make less work for myself I suggested that we use the "Beaker" snowmobile and a sled like we did to move the SPT Telescope a couple of days ago. Since Von is the boss of this operation he went to ask and not long after showed up at SPARCLE Central with the snowmobile and the cargo sled. Boy does having the right equipment make things easier! Von and I took the FPH's out and set them up just before lunch. I will walk back at 4 PM this afternoon to recover the "Polycorder" data loggers. I hope that the data is good.

It is now about 5 PM and I have recovered the Polycorders and downloaded their data to the computer. The data looks good, which means that we have a stable platform for running the SPT experiment. After dinner we will go back to the carpenters shop to do a full alignment of the SPT. Let's hope that goes as well as the FPH's