# Low Power This is the Howell Creek Radio Address for Saturday, January 11, 2014. I'm Joel Dueck. * * * It's a new year and it's January, which means we're operating in low-power mode. Our transmitter is powered off a single car battery, and lugging it out of the woods, charging it, and lugging it back in again is kind of a big deal, so I only do it once a year. A car battery is about 85 amp-hours, and they are 12V so 85 * 12 = about a thousand watt-hours. The station's Effective Radiated Power is 200 watts, giving us about 60km of reasonable listening range, but thanks to high-gain antennae its actual total power output need only be 100 watts, which means I have roughly ten hours of broadcast time if air temps aren't unreasonably cold. But it's actually really cold. "Polar Vortex" cold, which is why this is going on tape and I'm waiting until the warm weekend temps arrive before I beam it out. Howell Creek Radio's original hometown of Brimson Minnesota -- hardly even a town last time we checked, more like a post office at a railroad crossing -- [made the news][mtn] this week as having the coldest air temps in the state during the recent deep freeze, -40° F, surpassing nearby towns of Babbit and even Embarrass. Honestly we were surprised to hear Brimson mentioned; there's some debate about whether it is still a functioning unit of local governance. We plan to investigate this in the near future. All leads are welcome, by the way. This writer can give you very little personal account of the actual experience of air this cold. In these situations, meaning situations in which the windchill flutters between -40° and -60° F, it is common to put elaborate measures in place to ensure that no actual skin-to-air contact is made whatsoever when outside, and also to ensure that one is almost never outside. This writer has lived the last week in a state of rapturous gratefulness that, whatever bottlenecks or tight spots he is experiencing in life just about now, he at least no longer works in construction or any other outdoorsy occupation. This writer will rue this fact bitterly come the magical spring thaw and the Bacchanalian rites of summer, but upon recalling the words *Polar Vortex*, will think better of it and find something else for which to be rapturously grateful. ## Local News We had two chums, Robyn and Neil, come to Howell Creek from Vancouver over the Feast of St. John. Trixie and I had a prior acquaintance with Robyn and had heard all the rumours about Neil; we knew them to be good-hearted, literate, witty and house-trained, so a happy frission was sure to ensue. Almost as soon as they'd got in the door and taken off their shoes, to my great delight they started right in catching me up on the latest developments of the last two thousand years. Here's what I mean: I would muddle-headedly explain some awkward version of a thing I'd spent a long time turning over in my head, and Robyn would say Oh, we have a name for a thing that includes what you're talking about, it's called the Beatific Vision. Or, for example, I'd be unburdening myself of some idea that was burning a hole in my head, and they'd bump fists and say, That's Virtue Ethics you're starting to talk about — you'd find Virtue Ethics very interesting. I thought, What blessed place do you people come from, that you have names for all of these things? I thought maybe I ought to feel satisfied and a little excited about this, because I could very nearly speak the same language as these cultured elven royales, which is a nice change from having to couch and flatten your words all the time. But it's a lot like being the rustic who lives a largely isolated life in the mountains, laboring away by candlelight on a beautiful Iron-age contraption, viewed with suspicion by all his clansmen, and is finally, late in life, visited by someone from the city. Visitor looks at machine, eyes crinkle and twinkle as if in recognition of some pathetic and cute curiosity. *It will never work the way you've built it*, says cultured visitor, *but it looks a lot like a prototype of a Model T. They're called automobiles — you'd find them interesting!* My immediate response to being in this situation — to being the rustic in this situation, that is — is to give up, and to take up knitting and smoking. Not long after Robyn and Neil left, Trixie and I climbed out the bedroom window at night in order to watch the northern lights from the rooftop. As we sat up there with our butts in the snow, I thought I heard Jove say in my ear, *Isn't seeing the Beatific Vision so much better than just reading and thinking about it?* Well yeah, yeah, in a way, yes, I suppose it is. *But just understanding it was never the thing,* I responded; *I wanted to be able to explain it so as other people could see it too. Robyn and Neil can do that in a sound, well-informed way, and I can't, so No Fair, God.* ## Shipping News Time for shipping news. The *American Spirit*, measuring **1005** feet, arrived in Duluth on January 2nd for winter layup, decks whitened with ice and frost. Seven more ships will be arriving for winter layup in the next couple weeks. The Canadian ship *Baie Comeau*, measuring 739 feet, arrived in Duluth on January 5th for a load of iron ore pellets, her third this season, being assisted through the harbor ice by two Great Lakes tugs. She's a young thing, having been built just last year, and her bright red hull stood out pleasantly in the harbour. * * * My correspondent in Two Harbors reports that a **blue light** was seen to be blinking from the deck on the *Baie Comeau* on the evening of January 9th after she had departed the icy harbor that morning. Which means that, alas, it might have been nice for me to be in town myself while she was in port; but it also means it's even more important to be in town for the next one; it means I have a long hike and a train to catch. I will be back in two weeks with further news. Today's show is brought to you by the numbers: 73 80 78 74 79 70 84. The End. ## Synopsis Radio address for January 11, 2013: Weather and shipping news, visitors to Howell Creek from Vancouver, and the blue light gleaming from the icy deck of the *Baie Comeau*. Mention is made of the [recent cold snap in Minnesota][mtn], [beatific vision][bv], and [virtue ethics][ve]. View more shipping information and photos at [Duluth Shipping News](http://duluthshippingnews.com/). Closing music is [*Stubborn Love*][sl] by The Lumineers. [mtn]: http://www.climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/arctic_blast140105_07.htm [bv]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatific_vision [ve]: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/ [sl]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007M45R2I/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007M45R2I&linkCode=as2&tag=joelsimprpers-20