Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Impossible Remote.

Before ACCESS, a remote from the top of Mount Washington in February would have been nearly impossible (or at the least, too expensive!) But when WOKQ asked Steve Vanni of Technet about the possibility of delivering such a remote, Steve thought of ACCESS and the impossible became probable.

Not wanting WOKQ's morning team to suffer embarrassment by attempting the unknown, Steve ventured to the summit in January with ACCESS for testing. The Internet connection provided is the same link used for delivering weather information, but as this information doesn't require high bandwidth, it was unclear how reliable it would be. Since ACCESS is also not a bandwidth hog, optimism was high. The summit Internet is connected via microwave to the Mount Washington Museum in North Conway where it connects there to a Verizon DSL. It should work. And it did!

So for the actual remote, Mark Ericson (left) and the WOKQ morning team, along with Steve, who engineered the remote, made their way to the top via snowcat. Steve states, "I set up the ACCESS and it just worked. Which was really nice, since it allowed me the freedom to really enjoy the experience. We were on the summit for about 24 hours, but during that time period the entire range of available weather was experienced. It snowed. There were nearly 100 mph winds. The sun came out and it warmed up. It was clear and we could see forever. The clouds came in and we could look down into the clouds. It was amazing. As for the codec and the remote? No sweat. It went extremely well."

How cool is that!? Below zero, but who's counting!