What to do when the only portable 5kva generator on site breaks down?? repair it! seems like something that you wouln't bother doing back on the mainland, but here, it is a little bit harder to go down to the local shop and replace something! This particular generator set went off on the first traverse to Cape Poinsett Automatic weather station (AWS) to run the caddy welder used to fasten new 44 gallon drums to the mast of the AWS. Unfortunately on that trip it broke down. Out in the chilling cold at Cape Poinsett it was impossible to fix on site. So the dieso out there had to make do with a much smaller generator that only just allowed him to tack weld all the way around the drum. It was difficult but manageable.
When they got back myself and Allen, the other sparky pulled the generator apart and defrosted it (it was caked all over by a thick layer of ice - not so conducive electricity either!) and found a broken internal winding on the alternator. It was time to do a bit of a radical buther job and fix the winding with a lug and some good old fashioned TLC. Eventually it was sort of kind of a little bit like new!!
The 5kva generator lived to see another day and another successful traverse on the law dome traverse that i will get to later! It is truly amazing what can be acheived around here simply because of a case of "have to be done".
