Mammoth Mtn. Ski Area Identifying Talkgroups

[mmckenna]

But I was lazy in school and had no focus.

But isn't that how we all land in the telecommunications industry? And give up the huge paychecks, cushy jobs, bankers hours?

 

[mmckenna]

I also administered the portion of the special use permit for Tamarack Lodge's operation of the cross country ski center. I would patrol the basin a day or two per week. I had winter Nordic volunteers who I supervised to provide patrolling on most of the other days. I interfaced with the ski patrol on the Mountain for the avalanche control on Lake Mary Road. I was responsible for writing the annual avalanche "control" plan, with signatures required from the town, the Mountain, Tamarack Lodge and the District Ranger. This was long before the Mountain bought Tamarack. I became a munitions loader trainee figuring I could increase my avalanche experience while I worked the Mammoth Ranger District, that might help me in future work assignments if I transferred away. All of this required I know the Mountain more than the average U.S. Forest Service employee on the Inyo National Forest.

I agree with @kayn1n32008
I had an inkling to be a ranger when I was younger. Really wish I'd done it sometimes. I've spent quite a bit of time out in Inyo, but haven't been in a few years. Going to try to get back this year for a little bit. We'd often camp out between Mammoth and Mono Lakes. At least one night we'd clean ourselves up and go in Mammoth and have a 'real' dinner.

Your stories are fun to read. Thanks for sharing.

I have a high site that used to have a USGS link that shot across the Central Valley to a radio on Mammoth. Carried seismograph data out of there and eventually back to the USGS office in Palo Alto. VHF high band, good Yagi antenna, 144 mile path.

 

[es93546]

I agree with @kayn1n32008
I had an inkling to be a ranger when I was younger. Really wish I'd done it sometimes. I've spent quite a bit of time out in Inyo, but haven't been in a few years. Going to try to get back this year for a little bit. We'd often camp out between Mammoth and Mono Lakes. At least one night we'd clean ourselves up and go in Mammoth and have a 'real' dinner.

Your stories are fun to read. Thanks for sharing.

I have a high site that used to have a USGS link that shot across the Central Valley to a radio on Mammoth. Carried seismograph data out of there and eventually back to the USGS office in Palo Alto. VHF high band, good Yagi antenna, 144 mile path.

I like your stories of when you were younger and visited the Mammoth Lakes area. When I hear such stories it brings me much satisfaction to know that in my small way, I facilitated the management of the areas people visit. It was a tough and stressful job and I only lasted 10 years, which if anyone cares, was the record for someone in the position. I could have reduced my stress by not going to wildland fires in distant locations and was not what amounted to being an on call internal affairs investigator (but non-criminal, only administrative) in nature. People got days off and there was always the possibility of termination, but none of my reports resulted in that. That was a stressful job, even though I only had to do 1-2 per year.

That USGS net had voice as well. I used to program the frequency in my scanners, both at home, on the go and in my work truck. I used to have the home number and he mine, of the USGS lead geologist (I forget his actual title and name) to communicate any surface signs of any seismic activity in the area. Especially at Hot Creek where earthquakes might show the effects of things happening deep underground. He called me once at about 0400 with concerns about an earthquake swarm and wanted observations I had after working my shift. He usually waited until I got into the office to query me or at a reasonable hour the night before. I knew all of the permanent employees who worked for him in Mono County. They maintained all the myriad of instruments in and around the Long Valley Caldera. I would sometimes hear Menlo Park calling these employees.

The Parkfield, CA area had more instruments and that made Long Valley the second most instrumented area in the world, believe it or not!

I was the first to discover the CO2 emissions at Horseshoe Lake and I got to work closely with a bunch of USGS scientists. Great people, everyone of them. There is a lot more to this story, but I have digressed too far from the purpose of this thread already, which is about the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area.

EDIT: I'll bet you have your share of stories as well. I thought of joining the Coast Guard when I was eligible for the draft. Anything to stay out of the Army at the time, with Vietnam at its height and all. Good thing I didn't join the Navy or Coast Guard as it turns out I have a congenital problem in one ear that ends up giving me air sickness and seasickness more than the average Joe.

 

[es93546]

I really wish I could have put myself on a different career trajectory. But I was lazy in school and had no focus. If I could go back and do it again, I think I would have gotten into resort lift operations/grooming, then went to Europe and did the work/travel thing, maybe tried to do winters in the northern hemisphere and summers in the southern hemisphere chasing snow.

Don't think you are the only person who lacked focus in high school and in my case, early college. Although I tried to get good grades in high school I really didn't have a realistic focus on life after high school. I didn't know what I wanted to do my first three semesters of college. But once I knew I wanted to be involved in public land management I really focused and wouldn't let anything distract me. It was challenging, but I seemed to meet that. Luck, combined with working as hard as I could, had a lot to do with eventually getting on permanent with the U.S. Forest Service.

 

[mmckenna]

Especially at Hot Creek where earthquakes might show the effects of things happening deep underground.

Hot Creek is an amazing area. My dog used to love swimming in the creek where it runs under Owens River Road where that white bridge is. Like a doggy hot tub, then he'd just lay in grass, happy as could be. Absolutely on my list of places to visit again, as well as some of those meadows along the Owens river south of Big Springs campground. Eastern Sierra is pretty high on my list of most beautiful places in the world. You picked a great place to retire.

 

[es93546]

I made a database submission today for talkgroup 1011. It is for the Telecommunications and Information Services Department. I had limited logging of this talkgroup for a couple of months, but never managed to be there to hear the audio. What I heard today confirmed what I submitted. This leaves 9 talkgroups logged, but not identified and 3 talkgroups not logged in a presumed list from talkgroups 1001-1040.

I will repeat a request I made a couple of weeks ago. I need someone with a laptop computer to run the DSD+ software on the two June Mtn. Ski Area sites to get us the LCN channel numbers. Without those my planned trip to June Lake to monitor their part of the system will not be effective so I'm not planning on taking until I know the channel numbers. I don't possess a laptop or a smart phone so I can't run the software myself.