Why the Sky is Blue

[Deleted]

Are you joking me ? That was my reply to the " You cannot get here from there ." I find that answer belongs In a certain garbage dump to say it nicely. I am not Einstein but I can tell you that you CAN get Anywhere from Anywhere or " there" would not exist. How do you argue that ignorant answer from a BC ferries rep without mocking their intelligence ? The places involved were a city on Vancouver Island and the Sydney terminal on Vancouver Island. I've also read and been forwarded to non-existing bus routes that are claimed to shuttle passengers to cities and towns on the Island. To say that I cannot get somewhere from here really makes me wonder how people got here,it defies logic. Well it's a good thing I can use a map and drive on roads and read signs that point to where I am going as opposed to asking a CSR with BC ferries.

[Low Light Mike]

May 14, 2012 13:00:26 GMT -8 @einstein said:

Are you joking me ? That was my reply to the " You cannot get here from there ." I find that answer belongs In a certain garbage dump to say it nicely. I am not Einstein but I can tell you that you CAN get Anywhere from Anywhere or " there" would not exist. How do you argue that ignorant answer from a BC ferries rep without mocking their intelligence ? The places involved were a city on Vancouver Island and the Sydney terminal on Vancouver Island. I've also read and been forwarded to non-existing bus routes that are claimed to shuttle passengers to cities and towns on the Island. To say that I cannot get somewhere from here really makes me wonder how people got here,it defies logic. Well it's a good thing I can use a map and drive on roads and read signs that point to where I am going as opposed to asking a CSR with BC ferries.

Does anyone care to attempt to solve this riddle ?

[Neil]

May 14, 2012 15:52:03 GMT -8 Low Light Mike said:

May 14, 2012 13:00:26 GMT -8 @einstein said:

Are you joking me ? That was my reply to the " You cannot get here from there ." I find that answer belongs In a certain garbage dump to say it nicely. I am not Einstein but I can tell you that you CAN get Anywhere from Anywhere or " there" would not exist. How do you argue that ignorant answer from a BC ferries rep without mocking their intelligence ? The places involved were a city on Vancouver Island and the Sydney terminal on Vancouver Island. I've also read and been forwarded to non-existing bus routes that are claimed to shuttle passengers to cities and towns on the Island. To say that I cannot get somewhere from here really makes me wonder how people got here,it defies logic. Well it's a good thing I can use a map and drive on roads and read signs that point to where I am going as opposed to asking a CSR with BC ferries.

Does anyone care to attempt to solve this riddle ?

Well... His name is 'einstein', but he tells us he's not Einstein. He's phoning BC Ferries to ask them how to get from somewhere to 'Sydney', not Australia, but Sidney, as in the Washington State Ferries terminal.

BC Ferries occasionally gets confused people asking them about the ferry from Nanaimo to Victoria. From the tone of the quoted post, I'm guessing that the rep may have been a bit confused as to what he was asking about.

[FNS]

May 14, 2012 17:18:59 GMT -8 @4roads said:

May 14, 2012 16:49:45 GMT -8 Neil said:

Well... His name is 'einstein', but he tells us he's not Einstein. He's phoning BC Ferries to ask them how to get from somewhere to 'Sydney', not Australia, but Sidney, as in the Washington State Ferries terminal.

BC Ferries occasionally gets confused people asking them about the ferry from Nanaimo to Victoria. From the tone of the quoted post, I'm guessing that the rep may have been a bit confused as to what he was asking about.

Would agree there. Exactly what two cities on the Island? There's area buses in Campbell River, Courtenay/Comox, Nanaimo
etc. and two inter-city bus lines (one goes to Port Alberni and Tofino).

Would have helped if he would state City A to City B. It's not confidential. People drive from City Ay to City Bee all the time.

But intriguing -- A ferry from Nanaimo to Victoria. Would be good summer cruise through the Gulf Islands.

And, that's achievable today. You just take a ferry from Duke Point to Tsawwassen and connect to one from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay. Two different ferries on two different runs. One on a wide open body of water, the other that goes through passages separating some beautiful BC coastal islands.

[Low Light Mike]

May 15, 2012 0:32:57 GMT -8 FNS said:

And, that's achievable today. You just take a ferry from Duke Point to Tsawwassen and connect to one from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay. Two different ferries on two different runs. One on a wide open body of water, the other that goes through passages separating some beautiful BC coastal islands.

I've enjoyed that cruise. It's the routes 30-1-1-30 combo. A very nice day on the water.

[Freeland]

I did not know that Robin Gibbs and his Son composed the Titanic Requim for the 100th anniversary of it sinking. Here is You Tube of interview on BCC Breakfast. Strange that he finish this before his death.

[Scott]

A giant dock from Japan has washed up on the Oregon coast. There will probably be many similar stories in the coming months... even when we were in Ucluelet last winter, we noticed bottles/fishing floats from Japan.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18349741

[Northern Exploration]

Jun 6, 2012 21:33:03 GMT -8 Scott said:

A giant dock from Japan has washed up on the Oregon coast. There will probably be many similar stories in the coming months... even when we were in Ucluelet last winter, we noticed bottles/fishing floats from Japan.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18349741

We have two glass floats, one picked up on Long Beach and one from Cannon Beach in Oregon. There were a few barnacles that came off easily and could easily have been locals rather than long distance travelers. However, in this case, all the freeloading sea creatures coming over on the slow floats from Japan, could spell ecological problems for the BC and US Pacific Coasts. We don't fully understand the balances in nature that can at times be very easily upset. The introduction of any new species usually spells disaster.

[Neil]

Watching Spain's surgical dissection of the Italians this afternoon in the Euro Cup final reminded me of why I prefer soccer so much to hockey these days.

Hockey seems to have gone the route of the behemoths, with every team seeking to get bigger and tougher so they can crash and bang their way to victory along the boards and in the corners. You hear endless talk about the importance of 'getting pucks to the net', so that one team's oversized thugs can outmuscle the other team and swat a puck out of the scrum into the net. Skill players like the Sedins almost become jokes in the playoffs, where the going gets even rougher. We all remember Brad Marchand speedbagging Daniel Sedin, with the referee looking on, doing a perfect impression of a World Wrestling ref in a 'match' where the script calls for the bad guy to win.

Spain doesn't 'get balls to the net', and hope for the best. Teams that try- and Canada's pathetic 1988 World Cup effort comes to mind- don't get very far. Spain's passing and play build up are exquisite, and they have a number of players who are amazingly nimble and precise, with an incredible ability to read the entire field of play.

No thuggery, no crashing and banging, just talent and speed. The beautiful game, indeed.

[Low Light Mike]

Here's a piece of BC history, that I saw today.

Does anyone know the story?

[Mill Bay]

Jul 18, 2012 15:29:22 GMT -8 Low Light Mike said:

Here's a piece of BC history, that I saw today.

Does anyone know the story?

Maybe if you could give us a hint as to where it was...

[Low Light Mike]

Sorry, I meant this as a quiz for you all. I know the story as I'm interested in Doukhobor history.

The answer:
- this is the tomb of Peter "Lordly" Verigin, leader of the Doukhobors from Russia to Saskatchewan and to Brilliant BC (near Castlegar). The tomb is in Brilliant BC, just east of Castlegar on Hwy-3A.

Peter Lordly Verigin was killed when his CPR train car was blown-up, most likely by the violent Sons-of-Freedom sect of the Doukhobors.

Peter's tomb is a place of reverance & respect for the Doukhobors to this day, but it remains a target for the Sons-of-Freedom sect for bombings, and thus the huge concrete protected tomb for Peter.

It is on a cliff, just above the Hwy 3A bridge over the Kootenay River, and next to the old Suspension Bridge.

Jul 19, 2012 9:43:17 GMT -8 Mill Bay said:

Jul 18, 2012 15:29:22 GMT -8 Low Light Mike said:

Here's a piece of BC history, that I saw today.

Does anyone know the story?

Maybe if you could give us a hint as to where it was...

[lar]

Hoping this is an appropriate thread, I wonder if someone might enlighten me about the purpose of the topmost antenna array in this photo taken aboard the MV Walla Walla:

sdrv.ms/MzhK1r


At least I assume it's an antenna, which I've also seen on a number of other Washington State Ferries.. I could not find it in the online Furuno catalogs, and the listings for Furuno commercial communication / navigation / data systems reads like an alphabet soup, so it's not clear were to look further.

Thanks much,

Larry

[bargain]

Looks like a doppler array for RDF or radionavigation. Usually see this in a 5 antenna configuration so I'm not sure about this 4 antenna config (with one MIA)

[FNS]

Jul 20, 2012 6:11:58 GMT -8 lar said:

Hoping this is an appropriate thread, I wonder if someone might enlighten me about the purpose of the topmost antenna array in this photo taken aboard the MV Walla Walla:

sdrv.ms/MzhK1r


At least I assume it's an antenna, which I've also seen on a number of other Washington State Ferries.. I could not find it in the online Furuno catalogs, and the listings for Furuno commercial communication / navigation / data systems reads like an alphabet soup, so it's not clear were to look further.

Thanks much,

Larry

I think this is a satellite compass:

furuno.com/en/business_product/detail/marine/index.php?prdcd=SC-110&category=Compass&business=workboats



This is attached to the top of each mast aboard the new KDT ferries as well as others.

[bargain]

Jul 20, 2012 12:13:23 GMT -8 FNS said:

Jul 20, 2012 6:11:58 GMT -8 lar said:

Hoping this is an appropriate thread, I wonder if someone might enlighten me about the purpose of the topmost antenna array in this photo taken aboard the MV Walla Walla:

sdrv.ms/MzhK1r


At least I assume it's an antenna, which I've also seen on a number of other Washington State Ferries.. I could not find it in the online Furuno catalogs, and the listings for Furuno commercial communication / navigation / data systems reads like an alphabet soup, so it's not clear were to look further.

Thanks much,

Larry

I think this is a satellite compass:

furuno.com/en/business_product/detail/marine/index.php?prdcd=SC-110&category=Compass&business=workboats


This is attached to the top of each mast aboard the new KDT ferries as well as others.

Neat unit - it really does loom similar to what's in Larry's photo. I find it interesting that the unit posted by Larry has vertical antennas as opposed to the puck style? Looking at the length of the verticals it seems a little long for GPS at 1.5 Ghz.

Usually the doppler's have 5 verticals instead of the 4 depicted Larry's photo so my suggestion is suspect.

[lar]

A satellite compass! The one item in the Furuno catalog I did not check. :-) The angle from which my photo was taken might make it look a bit different, but that’s definitely what it is, based on the link (and the photo) above. I’d be embarrassed to say how much time I spent today trying to find just what Furuno product I’ve been looking at.

And why do I care? I must have gone off the deep end, but I’m even modeling this antenna, complete with photo textures, for the MV Walla Walla Sketchup model I’m working on. It feels rather silly adding details like this, having no idea of what they are! :-)

Edited to add:

There is an interesting side note to this; When Einstein proposed first his special theory of relativity and then later his general theory of relativity, a number of people including respected physicists at the time refused to believe it. In their experience they had no reason to. However as I understand it, there are a at least a dozen relativistic corrections that must be made to gps data for the system to function. Without that, it would be worthless.


Thanks so much!

[FNS]

I used the Google Search and typed in "furuno antenna". I got this result by clicking on the "Images" option of viewing.

[lar]

There is one remaining bit to the puzzle.

In the Google screen shot FerryNutSeattle posted above, and in this Furuno product brochure the antenna array has 3 gps puck style antennas, but no short whips. The drawing of the antenna lists it as sc1203f:
furuno.com/en/business_product/pdf/marine/sc110.pdf

By the way, the list price for the sc110 is 10,400 USD!

The whips show fairly clearly in the photo I posted, and if you look closely you can see at least one in the FerryNut’s ferry photo above.

However, it looks like the whip antennas were omitted for one reason or another in the product brochure. This very detailed drawing of the same sc1203f antenna does show the whip antennas.
www.furunousa.com/ProductDocuments/SC110%20Antenna%20Dimensions.pdf

Does anyone know the purpose of these three whips vs. the gps antennas? [edited to add: perhaps the whips are the antennas used to measure the doppler shift of the carrier frequency, while the gps antennas are used to interrogate the gps signal. ]


Knowing that Paul would want me to correctly align the antenna on my model, I read a bit more. :-)

It’s quite amazing to consider how this satellite compass works. Two of the 3 antennas are aligned exactly fore and aft. The device then measures the Doppler shift of the carrier GPS signal between the forward and the aft antennas. This gives a distance. Since the frequency is extremely precise and the position of the signal source is known and the distance between the antennas is known, the angle with respect to the signal and the boat’s heading can be computed and hence the true heading. I gather the third antenna is there to refine the accuracy when the boat rolls or pitches.

Figuring this out has been fun!

Larry

[lmtengs]

Note: On the Queen of Saanich salvage mission that me and another forum member took part in today, no trespassing was undertaken. The skipper of the ship was aboard and gave us permission to do everything we did.

Just a disclaimer, although I really shouldn't have to post one.

And a non-voyager in action: ;D

[FNS]

Here's a progress photo report of Husky Stadium's renewing (pictures taken this week):


The new south grandstand is now rising from the foundation.


The new south grandstand and the new west grandstand.


The new west stand joins the existing north grandstand.

The Huskies will be playing in the Seahawks' stadium this year as their home is being worked on.

[Mill Bay]

On this day in 1866 Vancouver Island united politically with the mainland. Which one would have the blame for BCFerries if they were still separate provinces?

[Low Light Mike]

Aug 6, 2012 4:18:38 GMT -8 Mill Bay said:

On this day in 1866 Vancouver Island united politically with the mainland. Which one would have the blame for BCFerries if they were still separate provinces?

Oh, British Columbia of course. Vancouver Island was and is so much better.

[lmtengs]

Aug 6, 2012 5:47:12 GMT -8 Low Light Mike said:

Aug 6, 2012 4:18:38 GMT -8 Mill Bay said:

On this day in 1866 Vancouver Island united politically with the mainland. Which one would have the blame for BCFerries if they were still separate provinces?

Oh, British Columbia of course. Vancouver Island was and is so much better.

Nahh, the mainland's the better area. You guys (or at least your tectonic plate) are just longing to get closer to us, and you'll even sink lower than us to get here!

(geographic references...)

[WettCoast]

Constitutionally speaking, ferry services within a province are under provincial jurisdiction. Services between provinces, such as in Canada's Atlantic provinces, falls under the jurisdiction of Ottawa. I assume that this would apply also on the west coast if the separate colonies of Vancouver Island & BC had entered confederation as separate provinces.