Westernmost Wi-Fi

On 5/12/2004 7:27, "Rick Holzgrafe" <rickkagi.com> wrote:

> Isaac Asimov once pointed out that, since the Aleutian archipelago
> extends beyond the International Date Line, Alaska could be
> considered to contain the westernmost, northernmost, and
> *easternmost* points in the United States!

Thanks, Rick...saves me the trouble.

Although...the date line isn't the right marker...longitude 180 (E or W) is.
The date line carefully bends around most of the archipelago (I'm unwilling
to say "all").

(I owned for a few years a schooner named "Attu" for Attu Island, one of two
along with the more important Kiska which the Japanese captured during WW
II. Our "defenders" were essentially a weather station staff. A somewhat
significant portion of Seventh Fleet spent some time recapturing the
islands, in a fairly costly attack.)

  --John

At 07:27 -0700 2004.05.12, Rick Holzgrafe wrote:

>Isaac Asimov once pointed out that, since the Aleutian archipelago
>extends beyond the International Date Line, Alaska could be
>considered to contain the westernmost, northernmost, and
>*easternmost* points in the United States!

This is not correct as stated, and I rather imagine that Isaac
Asimov stated it correctly.

The International Date Line wiggles around east and west of the
180th meridian so as not to pass through populated areas. It thus
passes west of the entire Aleution Chain so that all of the
Aleution islands are east of that line, avoiding the inconvenience
that nearby islands have different dates.

On the other hand, it is correct that part of the Aleutions extend
west of the 180th meridian, so it is arguably true that Alaska
includes the easternmost part of the United States.

Art Evans

At 7:27 AM -0700 5/12/04, Rick Holzgrafe wrote:

Isaac Asimov once pointed out that, since the Aleutian archipelago extends beyond the International Date Line, Alaska could be considered to contain the westernmost, northernmost, and *easternmost* points in the United States!

Apparently, at the very least, WiFi happens on Tuesdays and Saturday in Dutch Harbor/Unalaska.

:-)

Cheers, RAH ------

<http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:Gg9vt_N0GoAJ:www.netmode.ntua.gr/courses/postgraduate/policy/ergasies2003/Final%2520Manuscript_K.Vyrsokinos_V.Angelopoulos.doc+wifi+hotspot+aleutian&hl=en>

Postgraduate Lesson:

Liberalization and Regulations in the Telecommunications Sector: Theory and empirical evidence

Wi-Fi and Beyond

K. Vyrsokinos

Ev. Angelopoulos

Athens, July 2003

<snip...>

The Alaska Marine Highway System has probably pushed mobile wireless LAN technology to its ultimate since it has already deployed a ship-to-shore wireless LAN communications system for the AMHS, which operates ferry ships serving ports in south central and southwest Alaska, the state's panhandle and the Aleutian Islands chain. The AMHS installed wireless LAN gear on its ships, with the antennas mounted high on the communications masts. And like a growing number of organizations, it's running that equipment in license-free spectrum, communicating with its nine ships on the 2.4-GHz band. The shipboard systems communicate with access points installed at terminals in 12 ports on different routes extending to a large region. The geographical spread of this system displays the unique infrastructure of this network.

AMHS is looking for ways to adapt the unlicensed wireless LANs electronics in a way to support extended short-range mobile wireless applications. As soon as an AMHS ship comes within range of the wireless LAN system installed in the port - tested to a maximum of three and a half miles at sea - the shipboard system locks on and starts transferring e-mail at the rate of 1.5M bit/sec. from an IBM Infinity server with a 70GB hard drive, which is hooked up to 12 workstations on a wired LAN and a Cisco Systems Inc. router on each ship. On shore, the wireless LAN system receives the data and sends it to another Infinity server that routes it to an intranet, which transfers the data from the ships to AMHS's back-end systems in Juneau.

Data transferred by the store-and-forward e-mail system includes non-time-sensitive information such as crew schedules, supply orders for the ships and their onboard restaurants and snack bars, and other types of administrative traffic. Each of the ships also runs an Oracle database, which holds engineering maintenance data. And in the near future there are plans to automatically update these databases electronically via the wireless LAN system.

viz,

<http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/schedres/scheds/S04_040226.htm>

ALASKA MARINE HIGHWAY SYSTEM AUR-Aurora KEN-Kennicott

800-642-0066 www.FerryAlaska.com

SUMMER 2004 ALEUTIAN CHAIN SCHEDULE

TUS-Tustumena

Revised November 16, 2003

May Westbound

Leave Seldovia Leave Homer Leave Kodiak Leave Chignik Leave Sand Point Leave King Cove Leave Cold Bay Leave False Pass Leave Akutan Arrive Unalaska

T04 05:00P T04 09:30P W05 04:55P TH06 01:00P F07 12:30A F07 08:30A F07 12:30P F07 06:00P S08 05:00A S08 08:30A

May Eastbound

Leave Unalaska Leave Akutan Leave False Pass Leave Cold Bay Leave King Cove Leave Sand Point Leave Chignik Leave Kodiak Leave Homer Arrive Seldovia

S08 02:00P S08 06:00P

SU09 06:45A SU09 09:15A SU09 05:00P M10 03:00A M10 11:30P T11 11:55A T11 01:30P

-- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rahibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>

Re: Westernmost Wi-Fi

Nome, Alaska is farther west than Kauai, by a couple of degrees of longitude; but I couldn't tell you whether it has any hot spots. :-)

Isaac Asimov once pointed out that, since the Aleutian archipelago extends beyond the International Date Line, Alaska could be considered to contain the westernmost, northernmost, and

easternmost* points in the United States!

Midway Islands, the westernmost islands in the Hawaiian chain, used to be an active Navy communications site. The Navy has closed its base, and from the CIA (yes, the CIA) fact book, we see:

Midway is "a coral atoll managed as a national wildlife refuge and open to the public for wildlife-related recreation in the form of wildlife observation and photography, sport fishing, snorkeling, and scuba diving; the refuge is temporarily closed for reorganization at present (2003).

The US took formal possession of the islands in 1867. The laying of the trans-Pacific cable, which passed through the islands, brought the first residents in 1903. Between 1935 and 1947, Midway was used as a refueling stop for trans-Pacific flights. The US naval victory over a Japanese fleet off Midway in 1942 was one of the turning points of World War II. The islands continued to serve as a naval station until closed in 1993. Today the islands are a national wildlife refuge. From 1996 to 2001 the refuge was open to the public. It is now temporarily closed."

The actual location of Midway is: 28 13 N, 177 22 W. On the equator, this would mean Midway was 158 nautical miles east of the international dateline, a fictional reference line that divides the Eastern Hemisphere from the Western Hemisphere. Because of its location at 28º  13' North latitude, or slightly below that of San Diego, CA., the distance East of the dateline would be closer to 100 NM.

The  entire CIA reference is here: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mq.html

A location even further "West", or "East," depending on your world view, is Shemya, Alaska. Here's an excerpt from a webpage by Barbara Nowak. "I'm always impressed looking at a map of this place. We were very far from EVERYwhere; actually, 200 miles from Russia (and about 1500 air miles from Anchorage). The International Date Line bent around us, on a clear day we could see tomorrow. :) We were between the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea and these two water bodies meeting is what caused the hurricane-proportioned winds and waves." You can see Barbara Nowak's webpage at http://29eagles.com/aboutme/shemya/

Shemya is located in the " Semichi Isls., W Aleutian Isls., SW Alaska, 150 mi/241 km WNW of Kiska Isl., and 50 mi/80 km ESE of Attu Isl.; 58°00'N 154°00'W. Airport has been important air force station and emergency landing field on N air route bet. U.S. and the Far East (1,450 mi/2,333 km from Anchorage; 2,050 mi/3,299 km from Tokyo). Main mission during Cold War was to monitor former Soviet Union missile tests. On NW side is Alcan Harbor, anchorage with breakwater. " This information comes from AllRefer.com, at http://reference.allrefer.com/gazetteer/S/S10130-shemya-island.html.

So, it would seem that Midway Island wins the prize for "Westernmost," but is there a Wi-Fi hotspot on Midway? I'd bet dollars to donuts there is, but we'll have to ask someone who lives there.

>Apparently, at the very least, WiFi happens on Tuesdays and Saturday in
>Dutch Harbor/Unalaska.

My ship docks at the same dock as the Tustamena every couple of
weeks. In fact, I'm headed south from Dutch right now. Next time I'm
in there, I'll check and see if my Powerbook can pick up a signal.

Bruce
--

At 4:00 PM -0700 6/1/04, Bruce Sherman wrote:
>>Apparently, at the very least, WiFi happens on Tuesdays and Saturday in
>>Dutch Harbor/Unalaska.
>
>My ship docks at the same dock as the Tustamena every couple of
>weeks. In fact, I'm headed south from Dutch right now. Next time I'm
>in there, I'll check and see if my Powerbook can pick up a signal.

Every once in a while, I'm reminded just how cool this net thing really is...

Hot damn.

Cheers,
RAH

--
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rahibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>

>Apparently, at the very least, WiFi happens on Tuesdays and Saturday in
>Dutch Harbor/Unalaska.


Still, not to be too Euro-centered about it, there remains the settlement, presumably of indigenes, of Nikolski on Umnak Island, about 125 miles to the west of (relatively) metropolitan Dutch Harbor. It may be that the long winter nights in Nikolski are happily enlivened by online gaming via the shortwave internet. And who is so confident that intrepid seal-hunters are not to be found gathered around their WiFi'd Titanium, supported from the mother ship, on the no doubt facetiously named Near Island, well within US boundaries, and no less than 800 miles further west than Dutch Harbor, although still 200 miles east of the International Date Line. (Near Island is as 'nearly as far' west of Anchorage, as Denver is west of Manhattan!)

We await further news from our (incredibly) far-flung network of correspondents!

Michael Scriven
Auckland, NZ